Hh 



A 

HANDBOOK FOR TRAVELLERS 



EGYPT. 



LONDON : 

PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET, 
AND CHARING CROSS. 



HANDBOOK FOR TRAVELLERS 

IN 

EGYPT; 



INCLUDING DESCRIPTIONS OF 



THE COUESE OF THE NILE THKOUGH EGYPT AND NUBIA, 



ALEXANDRIA, CAIRO, THE PYRAMIDS, AND THEBES, 
THE SUEZ CANAL, 



THE PENINSULA OF MOUNT SINAI, THE OASES, 
THE FYOOM, &c. 



LONDON: 

JOHN MUEKAY, ALBEMAELE STREET. 

PARIS: GALIGNANI; BOYVEAU. MALTA: MUIR. 
CAIRO AND ALEXANDRIA : ROBERTSON. 

1873. 




FOURTH EDITION, REVISED ON THE SPOT. 




The right of Translation is reserved. 



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FOLLOWING AGENTS : — 



G 



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/ 



PEEF ACE. 



IS? 



The original Handbook for Egypt was a reprint of Sir Gardner 
Wilkinson's learned and exhaustive work, 'Modern Egypt 
and Thebes,' corrected and revised by the erudite author 
himself, so as to meet as far as possible the requirements of 
a guide book. A few additions and corrections were sub- 
sequently made from time to time, but substantially the 
Handbook remained the same as when it was first published. 
G-reat changes, however, have taken place in Egypt since 
then, especially during the last ten years, and it was felt 
that a thorough revision, and even recasting, were necessary 
in order to bring the Handbook up to the standard required 
by travellers at the present day. 

Since the accession of the Khedive, Ismail Pasha, the 
work of change and progress has been carried on in Egypt at 
an almost feverish rate of speed. Several hundreds of miles 
of railway have been completed, and are in full operation. 
The telegraph wires intersect every part of the country. 
Many parts of Alexandria and Cairo are so changed that 
those who saw them only a few years ago would hardly 
recognise them ; and while some towns in the Delta have 
declined, many more have risen and are rising into con- 
siderable importance. The Suez Canal from being a " chi- 
merical " project has become an accomplished fact ; and the 
towns of Port Said, Ismailia, and it may almost be said Suez, 
have sprung into existence with it. 

The changes of which these are a few instances have, in 
a great measure, arisen from, and in their turn caused, an 
increased communication between Egypt and the West. Resi- 
dent foreigners in Egypt may now be counted b} T thousands, 
instead of, as was the ca^e twenty years ago, by tens : and 



vi 



PEEFACE. 



the increased facilities for travel, combined with the increased 
thirst for "doing" all possible countries, send every winter 
a greater number of travellers to the Nile. 

Even in the matter of its old remains, Egypt has not been 
standing still, and the discoveries of M. Mariette at San, 
Sakkarah, Abydus, Denderah, and other places, have not only 
provided fresh objects of interest in the country for the 
intelligent traveller to visit, but have helped to throw new 
light on some of the many obscure portions of old Egyptian 
history. 

The endeavour in this new edition of the Handbook has 
been to supply the traveller with all the latest information 
on every point of interest, including many subjects which 
were not touched upon in the former work : and while keep- 
ing, especially in the accounts of antiquities aud rains, the 
substance of the original description, to arrange it in a more 
handy form, and to add whatever was new and likely to 
interest. 

Five visits to Egypt between the years 1862 and 1871, 
extending over periods varying from four to eight months, 
have enabled the Editor to make himself thoroughly acquainted 
with the changes that have occurred during that time ; and 
three voyages to the Second Cataract have, he hopes, given 
him some knowledge of the wants and requirements of 
travellers on that trip. He has, however, endeavoured to 
supplement his own knowledge by consulting all the best 
books recently written on Egypt, and by culling from many 
kind friends the results of their personal experience. 

The name of M. Mariette, the learned and indefatigable 
Conservator of the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities at Cairo, 
and the director of all discoveries and excavations in Egypt, 
will be found constantly occurring in the pages of the Hand- 
book. Most of the information respecting the new and in- 
teresting discoveries which have thrown so much fresh light 
on Egyptian history, and upset, in the opinion of many 
learned Egyptologists, numerous apparently well founded 
theories, has been derived either directly from him, or 
through the medium of an excellent little work lately pub- 
lished by him, and of which he kindly allowed the Editor 



PEEFACE. 



Vll 



to make full use, entitled Itineraire de la Haute Egypte, and 
containing a description of the principal ruins between Cairo 
and Philse, with some useful hints preparatory to making a 
study of them. The plans of an Egyptian tomb and of the 
Temple of Denderah are taken from M. Mariette's work. 
The able remarks of Dr. Grant of Cairo, on the temperature, 
seasons, &c, of Egypt, will be read with great interest by 
all, and especially by invalids. To Mr. Greville Chester the 
readers of the Handbook are indebted for a most interesting 
paper on the Coptic Churches of Old Cairo — a subject which 
has never before received the attention it merited. The 
notes for Eoute 22, Wady Halfah to Khartoom, were kindly 
fnrnished by Mr. George Goldie-Taubman, late of the Eoyal 
Engineers. Nearly all the valuable information contained in 
Eoute 14, Cairo to Mt. Sinai, is taken from the Ordnance 
Survey of the Peninsula of Sinai, for the loan of which the 
Editor is indebted to Captain C. W. Wilson, E.E., of the 
Topographical Department of the War Office. Acknowledg- 
ment for kind assistance in various ways is also due to 
H.E. Nubar Pasha, Minister of Foreign Affairs in Egypt ; 
Colonel Stanton, C.B., H.B.M.'s Agent and Consul-General for 
Egypt; Lieutenant- Colonel G. Clerk, late Deputy Assistant 
Quartermaster-General at Suez ; the Hon. Charles Hale, late 
United States Agent and Consul General for Egypt ; the Eev. 
Dr. Barned, American Missionary at Cairo ; Major-General 
Lord Henry Percy, V.C. ; E. T. Eogers, Esq., H.B.M.'s 
Consul at Cairo ; F. Ayrton, Esq. ; the Eev. E. F. Wayne ; 
A. Baird; Esq. ; C. L. Arkwright, Esq. ; and many others. 

The principal additions to the Book are : nearly all the 
Preliminary and General Information prefixed to the descrip- 
tions of the various chief towns and routes ; Excursions iv and 
vn from Cairo ; Eoutes 6, 7, 9, 14, and 22 ; and the greater 
part of Eoutes 10 and 15. A great deal of fresh matter has 
been introduced into the Descriptions of Alexandria, Cairo, 
and Thebes ; Excursions I, n, in, v, and vi from Cairo ; and 
Eoutes 8, 18, 20, and 21. Little or no alteration has been 
made in Eoutes 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, and 19, the Editor not 
having had the opportunity of personally visiting them, 
nor having been able to find any authentic information later 



viii 



PREFACE. 



than that given by Sir Gardner Wilkinson. This, however, 
may be considered of less importance, as these routes are very 
seldom travelled, and the places mentioned in them are not 
likely to have nmch changed since they were described by 
the original author of the Handbook. The table of Egyptian 
dynasties has been altered, so as to afford the opportunity of 
judging of more than one system of chronology ; and a few 
cartouches of the earlier monarchs have been added to the 
list of kings. The list of Caliphs, and the Arabic Vocabulary 
remain as they were, though the Editor hopes in a future 
edition to make some changes which appear to be needed in 
the latter. It was intended to insert new maps of Alexandria 
and Cairo, but unfortunately no trustworthy ones have yet 
been published, showing the numerous changes which have 
taken place in those two cities, and it seemed better to await 
their appearance, and be in the mean time content with the 
old ones, rather than give imperfect new ones. 

In conclusion, the Editor hopes that travellers will kindly 
send to him, at the office of the Publisher, 50 A, Albemarle 
Street, W., any information obtained on the spot, which may 
serve both to correct the errors into which he may have fallen, 
and to furnish fresh material for insertion. 



December, 1872. 



HANDBOOK OF EGYPT. 



LATEST INFORMATION, ADDENDA, AND CORRIGENDA. 



Introduction, p. xv. 

A very good plan for those who j 
intend going to Egypt by sea from 
Southampton, is to choose one of the i 
steamers which are now sent by the I 
P. & O. through the Suez Canal, and 
go in it as far as Suez. They then 
have the opportunity of seeing the 
Canal very well and comfortably, and 
can reach Cairo or Alexandria by 
train from Suez. 

Alexandria, Sect. I., p. 72, col. 1. 

The Peninsular and Oriental Hotel, 
or Hotel d' Orient, no longer exists, 
nor the Hotel d'Angleterre. 

P. 72, col. 2, 1. 52. 

For Colonel, read General. 
P. 72, col. 2. 

The Italian steamers no longer 
cany mails. American letters may 
also be found at the Austrian post- 
office. By the new convention with 
the Egyptian Government letters can 
now be sent direct from England to 
any part of Egypt. 

P. 73, col. 1. 

Mr. Barthow is dead. Mr. Beards- 
ley is Consul-General, and Col. Bab- 
bit Consul. 

P. 73, col. 1. 
Dr. Grosjean no longer practises. 
Dr. Davidson assists Dr. Mackie. 
Mr. Waller, dentist, 

P. 73, col. 2. 
The American Mission hold an 
Arabic service in the Scotch Church 
at 8-30 a.m. 

P. 73, col. 2. 
A donkey for the whole day, 5s. 

P. 74, col. 1. 
The Nile steamers are now man- 
aged by Messrs. Thos. Cook and Sons. 
P. 96, col. 1. 
For Kaisersworth, read Kaisers- 
werth. The new hospital of these 
deaconesses is situated outside the 
Moharram Bey Gate. 



Cairo, Sect, n., p. 115, col. 2. 
The Hotel des Ambassadeurs no 
longer exists. The Hotel Abbat, 
opposite Rudouans store in the Station 
Road, is well spoken of. 

P. 117, col. 1. 
The English Post-Ofjice has been 
i abolished, and letters and papers are 
sent through the EgyptianPost, which 
charges an additional 2d. for the 
transit between Cairo and Alexandria, 
making the rate of postage between 
Cairo and England lOd. via Brindisi, 
and 8<2. via Southampton. Letters, 
however, can still be sent to England 
by the French post for 6d., but not 
vice versa. 

P. 117, col. 2. 
General Stanton now resides, when 
at Cairo, in a part of the block of 
buildings erected by the Duke of 
Sutherland facing the Esbekeeyah 
Gardens. Mr. Rogers occupies the 
house to which the Consulate is 
attached. 

P. 118. col. 1. 
Messrs. Robertson and Co. have 
no longer the superintendence of the 
Nile steamers. There is a large 
bookseller's shop opposite the Bourse. 
Joanovich, in the Mooskee, is a good 
chemist. The Magazin Universel, 
behind the Bourse, is a good general 
shop. H. Ralph and Co., in the 
Station Road, are good provision and 
wine merchants; they also keep a 
general shop and an agency for for- 
warding goods. 

P. 118, col. 2. 
The English Church will, it is 
hoped, be soon completed, and divine 
service regularly performed there by 
a permanent chaplain. The American 
Mission now hold their Services in 
the German Lutheran Church. 



) 



P. 119, col. 1. 
The nearest station to Cairo on the 
Upper Egypt line is a new one close 
to a village called Boolak Dakroor, 
and in a direct line with the two new 
iron bridges over the Nile. The ter- 
minus of the Upper Egypt line will 
be in the Delta, at Tel-el-Barood. 

P. 120, col. 2. 
The management of the Nile 
Steamees is now in the hands of 
Messrs. Thos. Cook and Sons, the well- 
known travelling agents, who have 
an office in the garden of Shepheard's 
Hotel, next door to Kobertson's shop. 
The fare for the voyage up the Nile 
to Assooan has been raised to £46 ; 
but the steamers now start regularly, 
and the accommodation and food are 
said to be very much improved. 

P. 125, col. 2, 1. 35. 
For 37,000, read 370,000. 

P. 143, col. 1. 
The river now flows again through 
the W. branch. 

P. 143, col. 1, 1. 33. 
For Kasr-el-Ain, read Kasr-el- 
Aali. 

P. 160, col. 1. 
The word " Matareeah" is probably 
of Coptic origin, Ma-ta-re signifying 
" town " or " place belonging to the 
sun " — an exact equivalent of Helio- 
polis. 

P. 170, col. 2. 
Later investigations have proved 
that there are 17 cubits in the Nilo- 
meter, and that they are not all of the 
same length. 

P. 174, col. 1. 
The Nile has been again allowed 
to flow through the channel to the 
W. of Gezeereb, converting once more 
that place into what its name implies, 
an " island ;" and the road to the Pyra- 
mids crosses this branch by another 
iron bridge, and continues in a more 
direct line than before. 

P. 187, col. 2. 
Dr. Grant and Mr. Dixon disco- 



I vered two channels in the N. and 
walls of the Queen's chamber, but 
not communicating with it ; the ends 
of the channels being separated from 
it by 5 inches of stone, up to which 
point the channels had been grooved 
out. They are about 9 in. square, and 
after going horizontally for about 7 ft. 
ascend at an angle of 33°. In one 
was found a double-hooked bronze 
handle with two clamps, to which 
fragments of wood still adhered, a 
piece of wood 5 in. in length, and 
a large black basalt vase, probably a 
weight. The end and object of these 
channels are at present conjectural. 

P. 199. 

About 10 miles due W. of the Py- 
ramids is a conical hill of reddish 
miocene formation which looks from 
a distance like a pyramid. At the 
base, and for some distance round, 
are great quantities of petrified wood, 
some of the trees being of large size. 
It can be reached on donkeys in 
about 2| hrs. from the Great Pyramid. 

P. 220, col. 2. 
The Hotel Pagnon at Ismailia is 
good. 

P. 233, col. 2, 1. 52. 

For cent, read share. 

P. 234, col. 2, 1. 24. 
For 223,598, read 223,398. 

P. 234, col. 2, 1. 24. 
For 4,471,960, read 4,467,960. 

The Nile, Sect. III., p. 318. 
The railway now goes as far as 
Khoda. 

P. 319. 

Tickets for the Nile Steamers 
may be taken in England at Messrs. 
T. Cook and Sons', Ludgate Circus, 
or at their Offices at Alexandria and 
Cairo ; at all of which places infor- 
mation can be obtained as to the 
dates of starting, &c. The fare is 
now £46. 

P. 323, 1. 17. 
For Preliminary Information, read 
Introduction. 

P. 340, col. 1. 1. 50. 
For 1837, read 1787. 



CONTEXTS. 



PREFACE 

INTRODUCTION 

a. Season for visiting Egypt, page xiv. — b. Journey from England to 
Egypt, xv.-c, Malta, xv. — d. Things that should be bought in Eng- 
land for the Nile Journey, xix. 

Sect. I.— EGYPT. 

Preliminary Information 

a. General remarks on Sanitary State of Country, 1. — b. Temperature, 2. — 
c. The Seasons, 3. — d. Diseases for which Climate is Beneficial, 4. — 
e. Clothing and Mode of Life. 6. — /. Medicines, and Treatment of 
Slight Ailments incident to the Country, 7. — g. Presents, 8. — h. Pass- 
port, 8. — i. Coinage, 8,—k. Weights and Measures, 10.— /. Population 
and Revenue, 11. — m. Reigning Family and Mode of Government, 11. 
— n. Chronological Table of Egyptian Dynasties and Kings, 12. — 
o. List of Caliphs and Sultans of Egypt, 27. — p. Certain Points re- 
quiring Examination, 43. —q. English and Arabic Vocabulary, 45. 



ALEXANDRIA. 

General Information 

1. Landing at Alexandria, 69. — 2. Hotels, 72. — 3. Lodgings. Houses, 72. 
— 4. Cafe's. Restaurants, 72. — 5. Post Office, 72. — 6. Bankers, 72.— - 
7. Consulates, 72.-8. Physicians, 73. — 9. Shops. Tradespeople, 73. 
10. Agents for forwarding goods, 73. — 11. Churches, 73. — 12. Con- 
veyances, 73. — 13. Railways. 73. — 14. Steamers. 74.— 15. Telegraph, 
74. — 16. Servants, 74. — 17. Boats for Nile Voyage, 74. 

Description of Alexandria 

1. History and Topography, Ancient and Modern, 75. — 2. Principal 
Ancient Buildings, 82. — 3 Present Remains of Ancient Alexan- 
dria. 87. — 4. Population, 89. — 5. Climate, 91. — 6. Government, 91. — 
7. Commerce and Industry, 92. — 8. Ports. Gates. Walls, 92. — 9. 
Streets. Public Places, 93 —10. Canals, 94.— 11. Mosks. Churches, 
95—12. Hospitals. Charitable Societies, 96.— 13. Schools, 96.— 14. 
Theatres, Amusements, &c, 96. — 15. Drives. Excursions, 97. — 16. 
Plan for seeing Alexandria, 100. 

a 3 



X 



CONTENTS. 



EOU 

ROUTE PAGE 

1. Alexandria to Bosetia, by land. 

— Canopus — Abookir Bay . . 101 

2. Rosetta to Atfeh and Cairo, 

by the Nile 104 

3. Alexandria to Cairo, by land, 

through the Delta . . . . 104 

4. Alexandria to Cairo, by the 

Western Bank. — Embabeh .. 104 



Exc. 

I. Shoobra, 156. 

II. Heliopolis — a. Drive to Abbassee- 

yah and Koobah, 157. — b. Vir- 
gin's Tree, 158. — c Obelisk and 
Remains of Heliopolis, 158.— d, 
Matareeah, 160. — e. Birket-el- 
Hag and Ruined Towns, 161. 

III. The "Petrified Forest," 161. 

IV. The Barrage, 162. 

V. Old Cairo — a. Drive to and De- 
scription of Old Cairo, 163. — 6. 
Mosk of Amer, 164. — c. Roman 
Fortress of Babylon, 165. — d. 
Coptic Convents and Churches, 
166. — e. Island of Roda and 
Nilometer, 170. 
VI. The Pyramids — a. Preliminary 
Observations, 172. — b. Drive to 
the Pyramids, Boolak, Gezeereh, 
Geezeh, 173.— c. The History and 
Object of pyramidal buildings in 



T E S. 

ROUTE PAGE 

5. Alexandria to Atfeh and Cairo, 

by the Canal and the Nile. — ■ 
Sa-el-ffagar (/Sen's) — Boolak 105 

6. Alexandria to Cairo, by the 

Railway. — Damanhoor — 
Kafr-ez-Zyat — Tantah — 
Benha (Athribis) Ill 



115 



121 



Exc. 

Egypt, 176. — d. The pyramid 
platform of Geezeh, 177.— e. The 
Great Pyramid, 179.—/. The 
Second Pyramid, 189. — g. The 
Third Pyramid, 191. — h. Other 
small Pyramids, 193. — L The 
Sphinx, 193. — *. The Tombs, 
196. — I. The Causeways, 198. — 
m. Pyramid of Abooroash, 199. 
— n. Pyramids of Abooseer, 200. 
VII. Sakkarah — a. Preliminary Obser- 
vations, 201. — b. Bedreshayn, 
Mitrahenny, 202.— c. History of 
Memphis, 202. — d. Remains of 
Memphis, 205. — ,e. Village of 
Sakkacah — Site of Necropolis, 
206.—/. Pyramids, 206 —g. Sera- 
peum, or Apis Mausoleum, 207. 
— h. Tombs, 209. —i. Pyramids 
of Dashoor, 214. 



Sect. II. — CAIRO. 

General Information . . 

1. Hotels, 115. — 2. Lodgings. Houses, 115. — 3. Cafes. Restaurants, 117. 
—4. Post Office. 117.— 5. Bankers, 117— 6. Consulates, 117.— 7. 
Physicians, 117. — 8. Shops. Tradespeople, 118. — 9. Agents for for- 
warding Goods, 118. — 10. Churches, 118. — 11. Conveyances, 118. — 
12. Railways, 119.— 13. Telegraphs, 119.— 14. Servants, 119.— 15. 
Boats for Nile Voyage, 120. 

Description of Cairo . , 

1. History and Topography, 121. — 2. Oriental Character of the Town, 
123. — 3. Climate, 125. — 4. Population, 125. — 5. Local Government, 
126.— 6. Manufactures and Industry. 127.— 7. Gates. Walls, 127. — 
8. Canals. Lakes, 128.— 9. Citadel, 128.— 10. Mosks. Churches, 130. 
— 11. Tombs. Cemeteries, 138. — 12. Sebeels, or Public Fountains, 
139.— 13. Streets. Public Places, 140.— 14. Baths, 141.— 15. Bazaars, 
141.— 16. Palaces, 143. — 17. Schools. Libraries. Museum, 143. — 
18. Hospitals. Benevolent Societies, 151. — 19. Theatres. Amuse- 
ments, 152. — 20. Festivals and Religious Ceremonies, 152. — 21. Modes 
of seeing Cairo and Neighbourhood, 1 55. — 22. Drives. Excursions : — 



CONTENTS. 



xi 



ROUTES. 



ROUTE PAGE 

7. Cairo to the Suez Canal. — ■ 

Zagazig — Suez— Coast of Red 
Sea — Bitter Lakes — Ismailia 
— Lake Tims ah — Port Said 215 

a. Hints for the Excursion, 
215.— 6. Cairo to Suez, 216. 
— c. Town of Suez, 223.-d. 
Egyptian coast of Red Sea, 
227. — e. Ancient canals of 
communication between the 
Mediterranean andRed Seas, 
229. — /.Various modern pro- 
jects for connecting the two 
Seas, 231. — g. Financial and 
Political History of the pre- 
sent Maritime Suez Canal, 
232. — h. Suez to Port Said 
by the Canal, 235. 

8. Cairo, by water, to Damietta. — 

Semenood — Behayt-el-Hagar 
(Iseum) — Mansoorah (Ex- 
cursion by Canal of Men- 
zaleh to Menzaleh and the 
Lake— Tel-et-Tmei (Thmuis) 247 

9. Cairo to Damietta by rail — (a) 

Via Zagazig and Mansoorah 
(|3) Via Tantah 253 

10. Cairo to San, the ancient 

Tanis, and Lake Menzaleh, by 
rail and water, via Zagazig. 
— Matareeah' : 254 

11. Cairo to the Natron Lakes and 

Monasteries. — The Bohr el 
Fargh, or Bahr-bela-ma . . 259 

12. Cairo to the Seewah, or Oasis 

of Ammon 265 

13. Cairo to Syria by the "Short 

Desert." — Pelusiurn — El 
Areesh — Gaza 268 

14. Cairo to Mount Sinai and Con- 

vent of St. Catherine. — Suez — 
Magharah — Sardbit el Khd- 
dim — Wddy Mokatteb — Wddy 
Feirdn — Jebel Serbdl — Tor. 
Continuation of " Long De- 
sert " Route via Akabah and 

Petra to Syria 271 

a. Preliminary Hints, 271. 
—b. Cairo to Suez, 274. — c. 
Inhabitants of the Peninsula 
of Sinai, 275. — d. Geography 
and natural features, 276. — 



ROUTE PAGE 

e. Natural History and Cli- 
mate, 278.— /. Ruins, 279. 
g. Route of the Israelites 
from Egypt to Mt. Sinai, 
279. — h. Route from Ain 
Moosa to Jebel Moosa (Mt. 
Sinai) and the Convent of St. 
Catharine : (a) via Wady 
Mukatteb and Feiran, 281 ; 
()8) via Sarabit el Khadim, 
290. — i. Description of Con- 
vent, 291. — k. Ascent of 
Jebel Moosa and Ras Sufsa- 
feh, 294.— Ascent of Jebel 
Katareena, 295. — m. Other 
excursions, 296. — n. Con- 
tinuation of the journey by 
the Long Desert, via Akabah 
and Petra, or via Nakb, to 
Palestine, 297. 

15. Cairo to the Fyoom. — Medeenet 

el Fyoom — Labyrinth — Lake 
Mceris — Birket-el-Korn .. 298 

a. Preliminary Hints, 298. 
— b. Description of the 
Fyodm, 299. — c. Cairo to 
Medeeneh, 299. — d. The 
Labyrinth and Lake Moeris, 
300. — e. Other excursions 
from Medeeneh, 302. — /. 
The Birket el Korn, 303.— 
g. Kasr Kharoon, and other 
ruins on the shores of the 
Birket el Korn, 303. — h. 
Other parts of the Fyoom, 
305. 

16. Cairo to the Little Oasis, the 

Great Oasis, and the Oasis 
of Dakhleh, by the Fyoom, 
"Wddy Ryan, and Moileh. — 
Small Oasis of El Hayz — 
Oasis of Fardfreh — Oases of 
the Blacks — Tomb of Emeer 

Khdled 306 

a. Different roads to the 
Oases, 307. — b. Requisites 
for the Journey, 307. — c. 
Distances, 307. — d. Wddy 
Ryan, and Moileh, 308. — e. 
Little Oasis, 308. — /. El 
Hayz,310.— g. Farafreh, 310. 
— h. Oases of the Blacks in 



Xll 



CONTENTS. 



ROUTES. 



ROUTE PAGE 

the interior to the west, 310. 
—I Oasis of Dakhleh, 311. 
j. Great Oasis, 312. — k. Dis- 
tances in the Great Oasis, 
315.—/. Road to the Nile at 



ROUTE PAGE 

Abydus, 315. — m. Road to 
Esneh, 315. 
17. Cairo to the Convents of St. 
Antony and St. Paul, in the 
Eastern Desert 316 



For the Desert south of Kcsseir, see Koute 19. 



Sect. III.— VOYAGE UP THE NILE. 



a. Introduction, 318. — b. Voyage by Steamer, 318. — c. Voyage in a Daha- 
beeah with a Dragoman, 319. — d. Voyage in a Dahabeeah without a 
Dragoman, 322. — e. General hints, 324. — /. Shooting and Natural 
History, 326 .— Geography and Products, 328. — h. Inhabitants, 332.. 
». Antiquities and Ruins, 333. 



ROUTES. 



ROUTE 

1 8. Cairo to Thebes. — Benisooef — 
Maghagha — Minieh — Grottoes 
of Beni Hassan — Rhoda — Tel 
el Amarnn — Manfaloot — As- 



yoot — Soohag — Girgeh — Bel- 
lianeh, for Abydus — Denderah 
— Eeneh— Luxor, for Thebes 339 



Sect. IV. — THEBES. 

Preliminary Information 395 

a. Arrival at Luxor and General Information, 395. — b. Mode of seeing 
Thebes, 396.— c. History and Topography of Thebes, 397 — d. Ruins 
and Remains : — Western Bank — 1. Temple of Koorneh, 399. — 2. Ra- 
meseum or Memnonium, 401. — 3. The Colossi; Vocal Memnon, 407. 
4. Temples of Medeenet Haboo, and other Ruins near, 409. — 5. Dayr 
el Medeeneh, 417. — 6. Dayr el Bahree, 418. — 7. Tombs of the Kings, 
420. — 8. Tombs of Priests and Private Individuals, 428. — Drah Aboo 
'1 Negga, 428. — Assaseef, 428. — Sheykh Abd el Koorneh, 430.— Koor- 
net Murraee, &c, 435. — 9. Tombs of the Queens, 436. — Eastern 
Bank— 10. Luxor, 437.— 11. Karnak, 439. 

ROUTES. 



19. Thebes and Keneh, to Kosseir, 
on the Red' Sea.— The Abab- 

deh Desert 447 

For places on coast of 
Red Sea, see Rte. 7 (<2.) 



ROUTE 

20. Luxor (Thebes) to Assoodn, the 
First Cataract, Elephantine, 
and Philw. — Erraent — Esneh 
- El Eab — Edfoo — Hagar 
Silsileh — Eom Ombo .. ..451 



CONTENTS. 



Xlll 



Sect. Y. — NUBIA. 



Preliminary Observations, 472. — c Ancient History and Geography, 472.- 
c. Modern Inhabitants, 473. 

ROUTES. 



ROUTE \ PAGE 

2 1 . Philse to Wady Halfah.—Kalab- 

shee — Korosko — Derr — Aboo 
Simbel 475 

22. Wady Halfah to Khartoom.— 



ROUTE PAGE 

Dongola — Meroe — Berber : — 
and Khartoom, via Berber, 
to Sowakim on the Red 
Sea 490 



Index 495 



LIST OF MAPS AND PLANS. 



Plan of Alexandria ■• 76 

Plan of Cairo 116 

Plan of the Pyramids of Geezeh , .. .. 178 

Plan of the Great Pyramid 183 

Plan of an Egyptian Tomb 210 

Map of the Eastern part of the Delta and of the Suez Canal .. .. to face 216 
Plan of Mount Sinai, and of the surrounding Valleys and Hills . . . . „ 289 

Plan of the Temple of Sethi I. at Abydus 380 

Plan of the Temple of Denderah 386 

Plan of the Rameseum, or Memnonium 401 

Plan of the Great Temple of Karnak 440 

Map of Egypt at the end. 



( xiv ) 



INTRODUCTION. 



a. Season for Visiting Egypt. — b. Journey from England to Egypt. — 
c. Malta. — d. Things that should he nought in England for the Nile 
Journey. 

a. Season for Visiting Egypt. 

From October to April is the best season for a residence in Egypt. 
For those who intend to do the whole Nile voyage, and who can choose 
their own time, the months especially to be recommended, both for 
climate and convenience of travelling, are November, December, Janu- 
ary, February, and March. During these months winds from the 
North are more or less prevalent, and they not only cool the air, but 
are absolutely necessary for making progress up the Nile. A good 
deal will, of course, depend on the destination of the traveller after 
leaving Egypt. If he intends going to Syria, he should arrange so as 
not to get there before April, it being too cold to travel comfortably 
in Syria before that date. For those who propose to do the so-called 
Eastern tour completely the following average time-table may be given : 
Arrive in Egypt about the middle of November, and remain there till 
the end of February, going in a daliabeeah up to the Second Cataract 
and back. Leave Egypt at the beginning of March, and go by way of 
Sinai and Petra to Jerusalem, arriving there about the second week in 
April. Five or six weeks in Palestine will then bring the traveller to 
Beyrout before the end of May. The omission from this programme 
of the Long Desert — a journey undertaken by comparatively few — 
would make a month's difference in the traveller's arrival in Syria ; but 
unless he thinks cold and damp — under a tent, be it remembered — less 
harmful than heat, he had better arrange for spending that month in 
Egypt, and if he does not care to give more than three months to that 
country, arrive there in December instead of November. Of course 
these remarks are not intended to apply to those who merely propose 
to do the country in the shortest possible time that steam and their 
own energy can enable them to accomplish it in. They may go from 
London to the Second Cataract and back in six weeks, and any time 
during the months named above will be as good as another. But even 
to them it may be said, choose, if you can, some period between the 
middle of December and the middle of February. It is perhaps, every 



INTRODUCTION. 



XV 



thing considered, the most delightful season in Egypt. The tempe- 
rature is delicious, often indeed, cool, the Nile neither too high so as to 
cover land, nor too low so as to look like a huge canal flowing between 
high banks, over which it is impossible to see from the deck of either 
boat or steamer, and the country perfectly lovely in colouring — it is 
in fact spring time. Further information useful for invalids, as to the 
season for visiting Egypt, will be found under Preliminary Informa- 
tion, d. 

I. Journey from England to Egypt. 

There are various routes by which the traveller may reach Egypt 
from England, but he will probably choose one of the four following : 
(1.) Direct from Southampton to Alexandria by P. & 0. steamer, via 
Gibraltar and Malta. (2.) Across the Continent to Brindisi, and 
thence by P. & 0. or Italian steamer to Alexandria. (3.) Across France 
to Marseilles, and thence by Messageries steamer to Alexandria,. (4.) 
Across the Continent to Trieste, and thence by Austrian Lloyd steamer 
to Alexandria. Eoute No. 1, as the cheapest, and involving the least 
trouble, is the best adapted for large families. Fare, 1st Class from 
Southampton to Alexandria, 201., wine not included. The voyage 
occupies about 13 days. Eoute No. 2 is the one taken by the Indian 
mail, and is at once the quickest and the most direct. To those who 
dislike the sea it especially recommends itself by the shortness of the 
sea passage, only 75 hours. The time and expense will entirely depend 
on the road chosen by the traveller for reaching Brindisi. Assuming 
that he goes direct via France and Italy with as little delay as possible, 
he may reckon the whole expense as far as Brindisi at about 151. 
From Brindisi the lst-Class fare by P. & 0. boat is 121., without wine ; 
by the Italian boat 111., with table wine. Through tickets are issued 
across the Continent at a reduced rate. Eoute No. 3 will be preferred 
by those who equally disliking a long railway journey and a long sea 
voyage, and not knowing which to avoid, choose a sort of middle course, 
which gives them 30 hours' railway and 6 days' sea. The average 
expense will be about the same as via Brindisi. Eoute No. 4 has 
nothing special to recommend it except that is the most convenient 
for those who* wish to go through Germany, and that the Austrian 
Lloyd steamers are very good ones, and the food provided on board 
exceptionally excellent. The expense would be about the same as the 
other continental routes. For the dates of departure of the various 
steamers and the fares, it is better to consult the different companies' 
latest published information, which may always be obtained at the 
several offices. 

c. Malta. • 

If on arriving at Malta you intend staying there for any time, either in 
going to or returning from Egypt, and have to land any luggage, it is 
agreeable to find there is no custom-house examination : all you have 
to do is to hire a boat as soon as the officer from the Board of Health 
has pronounced the steamer to be in pratique. 



xvi 



INTRODUCTION. 



Hotels at Malta. — Dunsford's, in S trad a Keale, and the Imperial, both 
good hotels. 

Lodging-houses. — Morelli's, in Strada Eeale, very comfortable. They 
are well adapted for persons intending to make some stay in Malta ; 
and then it is better to come to an agreement, according to the time. 

English money is the current coin in Malta. 

In returning to Malta from Egypt there is no longer any quarantine, 
except that when cholera happens to be in Egypt travellers are subject 
to a quarantine of 15 days. 

Sights at Malta. — There are few objects worthy of a visit at Malta. 
The principal in the town of Valetta are — the palace, the government 
library, the cathedral church of St. John, the fortifications, the view 
from the two Baraccas, and the palaces of the knights, called " Auberges," 
particularly those of CastiUe and Provence. 

In the Palace are the Armoury, a few good pictures, and some 
curious tapestry. Many of the apartments are handsome, especially 
the ball-room. 

The Armoury is well arranged, but the specimens of armour are not 
so curious nor so varied as might be expected in the city of the Knights. 
The complete suit of Vignacourt is very elegant and simple. It is the 
same he wore when painted by Caravaggio in a picture in the dining- 
room, a copy of which is placed above it. There is a large suit near 
the other end of the room, that appears, from its immense weight, not 
to have been worn ; and not far from this is a very primitive field- 
piece, made of copper bound round with ropes, over which a composi- 
tion of lime was put, cased in leather. 

The Turkish and Moorish arms are few, and not remarkable for 
beauty, which is singular in a place so long at war with the Osmanlis 
and the Moors. The library was founded in 1790 by the Bailli de 
Tencin, who presented the public w T ith 9700 volumes. It contains 
many curious and old works, and is composed of the private col- 
lections of the knights, who were obliged to bequeath their books to 
this public institution. Here are deposited some antiques of various 
kinds found in Malta and Gozo ; among which are a parallel Greek 
and Punic inscription, several strange headless figures from Crendi, 
two coffins of terra- cotta, and a few other objects of various styles 
and epochs. 

Of St. John's Church observe the floor, where the arms of all the 
grand masters are inlaid in various coloured marbles. They have 
been very useful in heraldry. 

The tapestry of this church is also very fine. It is put up at the 
fete of St. John, and continues to be exposed to public view for 
several days before and after that ceremony. The silver railing in 
the chapel of the Madonna, at the east end. is said to have owed its 
preservation, at the time of the French occupation of the island, to 
the paint that then concealed the valuable material of which it is 
made. 

In one of the side chapels is a picture by Michael Angelo Cara- 
vaggio, representing the beheading of St. John : a good painting, 
but badly preserved. It is said that the artist made this a present 
to the order, on condition of being created a knight of Malta, in 



INTRODUCTION. 



xvii 



consequence of the following occurrence : — One of the knights having 
offended the artist, the latter challenged him to single combat, and 
satisfaction being refused, on the plea of his not being worthy to 
meet his antagonist in a duel, Caravaggio sought to obtain a posi- 
tion which should entitle him to this right. He therefore applied 
to the grand master, in the hopes of obtaining the rank of knight ; 
which was granted, on condition of his painting this picture. It was 
done, he became a knight, and fought his duel ; but in order to diminish 
as much as possible the value of a work which the pride of a member 
of the order had condemned him to execute, he painted the picture on 
cotton instead of canvas, whence its decayed state, and the difficulty 
of its restoration. Such is the story at Malta, the truth of which may 
be doubted ; though the most important point is true, that he painted 
the picture. 

In the crypts below the cathedral are the tombs of some of the grand 
masters. 

The principal objects in the vicinity of Valetta and in the country 
are the ruins near Crendi, or Cased Crendi ; the hollow called the Devil's 
Punchbowl, or Makluba ; St. Paul's Buy ; Citta Vecchia and the Cata- 
combs ; the Garden of Boschetto ; the Governor's Villa of San Antonio ; 
the Grotto of Calypso ; and the Aqueduct built by the Grand Master 
Vignacourt in 1610. 

The ruins near Casal Crendi, excavated by order of the governor, 
Sir Henry Bouverie, in 1839-40, are about twenty minutes' walk 
from that village, and are called Hagar Keem, " the upright stone :" 
— a name which has been very improperly written Khem, and has 
been erroneously supposed to bear some relation to Egypt, or the 
land of Ham (Khem). They consist of several apartments of various 
sizes, irregularly placed within one common enclosure, mostly con- 
nected with each other by passages or doorways. The rooms are 
either oval, or have one end of semicircular form ; and their walls 
\ are composed of large stones placed upright in the ground. The 
principal entrance is on the S.S.E. A short passage leads from it 
I into a small court, in which, on the left-hand side, is a small altar 
1 ornamented with a rude attempt at sculpture, representing a plant 
growing from a flower-pot ; and near it is a flat stone like a seat, 
above which are engraved on an upright block two volutes, protruding 
j on either side of an oval body. This as well as the altar may be of 
later date than the ortholithic masonry, and it is worthy of remark 
that the volute ornament is exactly the same as that placed beneath 
the feet of the Phoenician Venus, Astarte, whose statue may, therefore, 
I have stood on the slab above. That the Phoenicians, a people so 
j renowned as builders, should have erected these rude monuments is 
I lot probable ; but there may have been sufficient connexion between 
,he religion of their Punic * colonists and that of the founders of Hagar 
Keem to induce the Phoenicians, or the Carthaginians, to add this 
jmblem of their goddess ; and the horizontal courses of masonry found 
)Ccasionally here, and at similar ruins in Gozo, which are evidently 

* Pceni, Phoenician, and Punic, have the same meaning, and signify, like Adamic, Edoniito, 
i [emyarite, Aamaric (Abyssinian), red; Carthaginian, like Sidonian and Tyrian, being from 
I he city. 



xviii 



INTRODUCTION. 



later additions, may be attributed to the same people. There are not 
other signs of sculpture ; but a peculiar kind of ornament is common 
on these and all the principal members of the building, consisting of 
round holes punctured all over the face of the stones, extending little 
deeper than the surface. 

On either side of this court is a semicircular chamber ; and after 
passing on through a door in a line with the main entrance, you come 
to a second court, at the upper end of which, to the right, is the prin- 
cipal sanctuary. It is of semicircular form, and the upper part of its 
walls is built of stones placed in horizontal courses, put together with ■ 
care, and breaking joint; evidently of a later period than the small 
original sanctuary which it encloses, and which is formed of rude f 
blocks placed upright in a circle, with an entrance corresponding to | 
that of the larger external sanctuary. All the stones have been punc- j 
tured in the manner above mentioned. 

On the left of this second court are two large stone altars ; one on 
each side of a door leading to a small apartment, connected with which I 
is another little chamber, also containing an altar. There are four more 
apartments at this (south-west) end of the ruins; and in the outer ! 
wall of circuit are some very large stones placed upright, about 15 ft. . 
high above the ground. A stone of similar size stands near the sane- 
tuary to the north-east, and another of still larger dimensions is placed \ 
horizontally a. little to the east of the main entrance. Mr. Ehind 
found, on the summit of one of these upright stones, a fiat-bottomed 
basin 3 ft. 8 by 1 and 10 inches deep, hollowed out by the hand of 
man. 

About 120 ft. to the north of these ruins are other semicircular 
enclosures, made with stones placed upright in the ground ; and about 
a mile to the south, near the sea, are some ruins similar to the Hagar 
Keeni, which are also deserving of examination. 

In the same excursion may be included a visit to Makluba, and even I 
to the cave called Ghar Hassan on the sea-coast to the south-east of | 
Crendi. 

Other ruins, similar to, though much smaller than, those of Crendi, 
are found close to Valetta, at the Coradino, near Captain Spenser's 
monument and the new tank. f 

With regard to the date of these peculiar structures, and the people 
by whom they were built, it would be rash to offer any opinion. In 
Britain they would be considered Druidical, but there is nothing to 
guide us respecting their history, and the small headless figures dis- 
covered there (now preserved in the Government library at Valetta) in 
no way aid in solving the question. 

In Gozo is another ruin called Torre dei Giganti, " the Giants' Tower," 
inland on the eastern side of the island, which is on a grander scale than 
the ruins of Crendi, though of similar construction, and evidently the L 
work of the same people. 

Eowing and sailing boats go over to Gozo from Valetta daily, and L 
sometimes a small yacht may be hired for the occasion, which is cleaner 1 fa 
and more comfortable. 



INTRODUCTION. 



xix 



Valetta has a small theatre, where Italian operas are performed 
during the season. Many public and private balls are also given, par- 
ticularly in the winter. 

d. Things that should be bought in England for the Nile 

JOUENEY. 

It is not absolutely necessary now for the intending traveller in 
Egypt to provide himself before leaving England with anything more 
than he would take for an ordinary journey. There are shops at 
Alexandria and Cairo which will supply his every want more or less 
effectively and expensively. But at the same time there are certain 
things which, though they could be procured in Egypt, can certainly 
be bought better and cheaper in Europe. These are : — 



Guns. 

Gunpowder. 

Cartridges, and all shooting appliances. 
Thermometer, aneroid barometer, and all 

instruments. 
Field-glasses, or telescope, 
j Measuring-tape. 

j Writing, drawing, and painting materials. 

| Magnesium wire. Very necessary for pro- 

I perly seeing tombs and excavated tem- 
ples,without doing the injury to the sculp- 
tures and paintings that torches cause. 

; Saddle and bridle, for Syria and Greece. A 
lady will not only require a side-saddle 
for the Syrian journey, but also for the 
many excursions that are to be made on 
donkey-back up the Nile. 

I Clothes. See Preliminary Information, e. 

9 Mosquito net. 

1 Medicine. Very convenient cases, varying 
in size and price, can be obtained at 
Savory and Moore's. See Preliminary 
8 Information, /. 

Books. There is a very good and well- 
5 stocked bookseller's at Alexandria and 
[ Cairo, Robertson and Co., where the 
( j traveller can procure any book he may 
have forgotten to bring from England. 
The following list comprises some of the 
1 best known and most modern works on 
t , Egypt :— 

u [ List of Books. 

& 5 Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. ii. 

Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians. 
i(j ! Lane's Modem Egyptians. 

Sharp's History of Egypt. 

Mariette's Apercu ge'ne'rale de l'Histoire 
d'Egypte. 



Diodorus. Book I. 
Strabo. Book 17. 

Bunsen's Egypt's Place in Universal His- 
tory. 

Kenrick's Ancient History of Egypt. 1872. 
* Mariette's Itineraire de la Haute Egypte. 
Piazzi Smyth's Our Inheritance in the 

Great Pyramid. 
Lady DuiF-Gordon's Letters from Egypt. 
Lane's Arabian Nights. 
Kinglake's Eothen. 
Warburton's Crescent and the Cross. 
Lord Lindsay's Letters from Egypt and 

the Holy Land. 
About's Le Fellah. 
Hopley's Under Egyptian Palms. 
Prime's Boat Life in Egypt and Nubia. 
Curzon's Monasteries of the Levant. 
Smith's Attractions of the Nile. 
Eden's Nile without a Dragoman. 1871. 
Beaufort's Egyptian Sepulchres and Syrian 

Shrines. 
Stanley's Sinai and Palestine. 
Macgregor's Rob Roy on the Nile and the 

Jordan. 1871. 
Russell's Diary in the East. 
Irby and Mangles' Travels in Egypt, &c. 
Didier's Cinq Cents Lieues sur le Nil. 
Hoskins' Winter in Upper and Lower Egypt . 
Curtis's Nile Notes of a Howadji. 
Martineau's Eastern Life. 
Zincke's Egypt of the Pharaohs and the 

Kedive. 1872. 
Shelley's Birds of Egypt. 1873. 

Articles of food. Nothing need absolutely 
be procured in England, as all that can 
be wanted is to be found at Alexandria 
or Cairo ; but for those who are very 



XX 



INTRODUCTION. 



particular as to the quality of what 
they eat and drink, and who have time 
to make their preparations beforehand, 
the following list of things to be bought 
in Europe is suggested : — 
Tea. — Wine : light Bordeaux or Rhine 
wines are the best. — Brandy. — Butter in 
jars. — Jams. — Pre-erved vegetables. — 
Salad oil. — Tongues. — Hams. — Currie 
powder. — Liebig's Extractum Carnis. — 
Biscuits. — Paraffin candles. 

But it must be remembered that if the 
traveller intends to pat himself entirely 



into the hands of a dragoman, everything 
except wine and spirits will be provided 
for him. Full particulars as to what is 
required for those who intend to cater for 
themselves are given under Sect. III., 
Voyage up the Nile. 

All heavy goods can be sent at a small 
expense either by Southampton or Liver- 
pool. 

In London, Messrs. IVI'Cracken, of 
Cannon Street, are amongst the principal 
Agents for forwarding Parcels to Alex- 
andria and Cairo. 



HANDBOOK 

FOB 

TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT. 



SECTION I. 
, EGYPT. 



Preliminary Information. 

a. General Remarks on Sanitary State of Country. — b. Temperature. — c. The 
Seasons. — d. Diseases for which Climate is Beneficial. — e. Clothing and 
Mode of Life. — f. Medicines, and Treatment of Slight Ailments incident to 
the Country. — g. Presents. — h. Passport.— i. Coinage. — k. Weights and Mea- 
sures. — 1. Population and Revenue — m. Reigning Family and Mode of 
Government. — n. Chronological Table of Egyptian Dynasties and Kings. — 
o. List of Caliphs and Sultans of Egypt. — p. Certain Points requiring 
Examination. — q. English and Arabic Vocabulary. 



ROUTE PAGE 

1. Alexandria to Rosetta, by- 

land — Canopus — AbooJcir 
Bay 101 

2. Kosetta to Atfeh and Cairo, 

by the Nile 104 

3. Alexandria to Cairo, by land, 

through the Delta .. .. 104 



ROUTE PAGE 

4. Alexandria to Cairo, by the 

Western Bank— Embabeh 104 

5. Alexandria to Atfeh and Cairo, 

by the Canal and the Nile 105 

6. Alexandria to Cairo, by the 

Eailroad — Damanhoor — 
Kafr - ez - Zyat — Tantah 
— Benha ( Athribis) . . .. Ill 



a. General Remarks on Sanitary State of Country * 

The climate of Egypt is remarkably dry and salubrious, and although the 
mortality amongst the inhabitants is great, it can easily be accounted for apart 
from the climate. Through the ignorance, superstition, and filthiness of the 
natives, there is an excessive infant mortality, and the death-rate amongst the 



* The information contained under the headings a, b, c, has been supplied by Dr. Grant, 
resident physician at Cairo. 

[Egypf] b 



2 



a. SANITARY CONDITION. b. TEMPERATURE. Sect. I. 



youug and adult Egyptians is greatly increased by the privations, hard work, 
and exposure they have to endure. Besides this, a great number of the poor 
die for want of medical care and advice, which the Government does not 
supply them with, unless in the hospitals, of which the natives have a deep- 
seated dread. They prefer to die at their homes, surrounded by their friends, 
rather than enter a hospital. For these and other reasons the deaths far 
exceed the births : hence the native population must be dying out. 

But through the civilized measures that are being introduced by the present 
ruler, this state of matters will in time take quite a different course. Except 
the Delta and sea-coast towns, the country is quite exempt from low fevers 
and diseases of the chest. Ophthalmia, diarrhoea, dysentery, and affections 
of the liver are the principal endemic complaints. Only two or three months of 
the year can be called unhealthy, and that not to any great degree ; but about 
every ten years a severe epidemic sweeps over the country and depopulates 
whole districts. Formerly it used to be " the plague," but in later years it 
has taken the type of cholera, which up to the present date would find a 
favourable nidus for propagation in the pestiferous houses of the towns and in 
the personal dirtiness of the fellaheen. When an epidemic breaks out, it 
generally rage3 for three or four months ; all business is suspended, and 
Europeans and others flee the country, to return again after the danger is 
past. Occasionally, also, murrain is prevalent as an epidemic among the 
cattle, and vast numbers of them are destroyed by it. An extremely low Nile 
is apt to produce disease both in man and beast : thus, cholera and murrain may 
both exist together, as in 1865. 

b. Temperature. 

The Egyptian climate is more uniform than that of any other place on the 
globe. Still it varies considerably thiough the different parts of the country. 
The whole of Middle and Upper Egypt is characterized by great dryness and 
clearness of the atmosphere, while the Delta enjoys a much cooler and damper 
climate. Certain localities are having their climates noticeably modified by 
new and extensive irrigation, by the cultivation of large tracts of previously 
sterile land, and by the growth of trees. The immense surface of water now 
exposed by the Suez Canal to the influence of a tropical sun must produce 
local disturbances of the atmosphere, while the northerly winds, that blow for 
about eight months in the year, as they pass over the Canal district, will carry 
along with them a considerable amount of moisture, which, combined with that 
arising from the annual overflow of the Nile, would lead us to expect still 
milder summers but damper winters in Middle and Lower Egypt. 

The mean annual temperature at Cairo is about 71° F. From the peculiar 
dryness of the atmosphere it is rendered more susceptible of sudden changes of 
temperature ; but the fact of its dryness prevents the injurious effects that 
often result from such sudden changes. The thermometer often indicates a 
variation of 12° F. between morning and mid-day, and as much between mid- 
day and evening. The early morning is invariably cool, but after two or three 
hours the sun's warmth is speedily communicated to the atmosphere, which 
continues warm till near sunset, when it rapidly cools, and if there be any 
moisture in the air it now appears as dew which has fallen on the ground by 
half an hour after sunset. Although the thermometer falls suddenly about 
sunset, it soon rises again from the radiation of the heat absorbed by the earth 
during the day. Towards morning it falls again, to rise with the return of 
the sun. 

The thermometer seldom falls to 40° F. at Cairo, but it is frequently lower 
on the Nile. The coldest months in the year are December and January, and 
the hottest are August and September, but even then it is cool in the shade. 



Egypt. 



C. THE SEASONS. 



3 



The humidity of the atmosphere is principally controlled by the rise and fall 
of the Nile. Fogs prevail during the first two months of the receding of the 
waters. Evening fogs descend very quickly as the sun goes down, and are as 
quickly deposited after the sun has set, leaving the sky clear and the air as 
fresh as after a good shower. Morning fogs are soon dispelled by the heat of 
the sun, and then follows the clear beautiful day. 

On the desert the air is always dry and bracing, and much cooler than that 
over cultivated land. Dews at night are common in the early and later parts 
of the year, but exposure to them is not attended with any risk. During 
winter the nights are piercingly cold on the desert. The moonlight nights 
are singularly brilliant, but when there is no moon the darkness that envelopes 
the earth seems so thick that you can almost feel it, while the sky above is 
quite clear. 

c. The Seasons. 

There are but two seasons in the year — Summer and Winter. The summer 
extends from April to the end of September. It is ushered in by strong equi- 
noctial winds, which are at first cool ; but they soon give place to the hot south 
wind, or khamaseen, so called from blowing at intervals during a period of 50 
days. This wind is very peculiar, and may be thus described. It is preceded 
by an unusual stillness of the atmosphere, and, as it approaches, the air assumes 
a dusky yellow hue from being laden with impalpable dust, through which the 
sun shines obscurely, and gradually becomes quite concealed. Electric influ- 
ences accompany this wind, so that, notwithstanding the excessive heat, one 
feels excited rather than depressed by it. The respiration is quickened, and 
the skin becomes quite dry and shrunk ; and sometimes a prickly sensation is 
felt all over the body. This wind blows generally for three days in succession, 
with intervals of four or five days. It sometimes lasts from ten to twelve days 
continuously, and if blowing from the south-east is not only very destructive 
to vegetation, but exhausting to the animal organism. The khamaseens are 
not so severe as formerly, and they always cease about the middle of May ; 
northerly winds then set in and blow almost constantly till November, when 
for two or three weeks easterly winds prevail. 

A north wind blowing constantly during the summer months modifies the 
heat considerably. After the harvest in June, the country becomes an arid- 
looking waste; everything appears burned up. and the ground is dry and 
cracked in every direction. During May and June the Nile remains at its 
lowest, but by the end of June it begins to rise, and continues to increase till 
the middle of September. Before it has reached its height all the canals are 
filled, and the water is admitted into the fields. Such a surface of water 
materially alters Ihe temperature, and light dews now occur about sunset, all 
through the lower country. As the river falls, leaving the land wet and 
exposed to the action of the sun, exhalations arise, which render the Delta 
somewhat unhealthy ; the prevailing diseases then being ophthalmia, dysentery, 
diarrhoea, and ague. By the middle of November the river has retired within 
its banks ; and, except at this particular time, the atmosphere is remarkably 
free from humidity. The average summer temperature is about 85° F. : the 
mornings and nights throughout the whole summer being always pleasantly 
cool. 

The winter begins in October and ends in March. It is so genial and 
uniform as to prove a great attraction to invalids, who find here a winter 
climate unsurpassed by that of any other country in the world. " Boat life on 
the Nile is the most enjoyable of all restoratives for the sick, and for lovers of 
all that is luxurious in travel, of all that is glorious in memory, of the grand, 
the beautiful, the picturesque, and the strange, Egyptian travel is the per- 



4 



d. DISEASES BENEFITED BY CLIMATE. 



Sect. I. 



faction of life." The atmosphere continues to be comparatively dry till the 
middle of November, when there is an appreciable amount of humidity arising 
from the land left wet by the Nile. The dews at night and in the morning 
are now sometimes quite heavy, but they are of short duration, and by the end 
of December they more or less disappear, and the air regains its former dryness, 
though there are occasional showers. Kain seldom falls in Upper Egypt ; but 
on the Delta and along the Mediterranean Coast it is not at all uncommon at 
this season. About Alexandria there would be on an average 13 rainy days 
during the winter. At Cairo, five or six showers would be the average, and 
these not at all heavy. In winter, as in summer, "great changes of tempera- 
ture take place in the 24 hours owing to the general dryness and clearness of 
the atmosphere, which favour rapid evaporation during the day and radiation 
of heat during the night." At Cairo the thermometer rarely falls under the 
freezing-point, yet ice is occasionally seen there. Snow is unknown ; but in 
Upper Egypt and on the Delta, hail and thunder-storms sometimes occur with 
great violence, and do much injury; the hailstones being frequently as large 
as a pigeon's egg. 

North winds prevail in December, January, and February, and they are often 
piercingly cold. 

As you ascend the Nile (which by the middle of November has fallen one 
half, and continues decreasing till middle of May), the weather becomes 
warmer and the atmosphere drier, so that Upper and Middle Egypt are more 
healthy than the lower country or Delta. 

The mean winter temperature at Cairo is about 58° F. The season ends 
with boisterous southerly winds and dust storms, which begin to blow about 
the latter part of March, and continue for one, two, or three days at a time 
till the proper khamaseen sets in. 

d. Diseases for which Climate is Beneficial. 

The following very trustworthy and judicious remarks are from Dr. Patter- 
son's book, called Egypt and the Nile, a little work which every invalid would 
do well to procure, in the absence of any exhaustive medical treatise on the 
climate of Egypt, a thing much needed : — 

" Phthisical and bronchial affections, chronic diseases of the mucous mem- 
branes, congestive diseases of the abdominal viscera, nervous exhaustion, 
debilitated circulation from progressive disease of the heart, and especially 
that form attending advancing years, scrofulous diseases of every kind, and 
struma in its various manifestations, are the diseases in which a most marked 
improvement has been observed from a residence in Egypt. In the early stage 
of phthisis, hereditary or acquired, indicated by general delicacy of consti- 
tution, a prolonged residence in Egypt is generally attended with the best 
results ; but the patient should spend two or three winters at least. In that 
form of early phthisis where much bronchial irritation exists, the stimulating 
effect of the dry air on the irritable mucous membranes of the trachea and 
bronchi is sometimes great for the first few days after arrival, but it soon 
wears off. Cases of this kind should not come straight on to Cairo, but spend 
a few days in Alexandria ; they may then safely proceed on their Nile journey. 
Under such favourable conditions of atmosphere, the effect of a comparatively 
high temperature, and a peculiar, not to be described — stimulating, yet balmy 
— influence in the geneial functions of the body, this climate may be, often is, 
of great service in the more advanced stages of pulmonary phthisis. It may 
succeed for a time, and I believe does, in arresting the progress of suppurative 
tubercle; yet the effects of a long journey, the frequent changes of diet, and 
the want of many of the personal comforts and attentions to which such 



Egypt. 



d. DISEASES BENEFITED BY CLIMATE. 



5 



patients have been accustomed, cause me strongly to impress a careful consi- 
deration before advising them to come to Egypt, and especially to go up the 
Nile. If it be desirable that such cases should come, let them be advised to 
remain in Cairo for a time, where they can lead a quiet, regular, and vege- 
tative sort of life ; then, should they improve, they can try the Nile. As a 
rule, the Nile-boat life is not adapted to such cases, unless they proceed under 
very favourable conditions of attendance and companionship ; otherwise the 
fatigue and excitement attending the preparations and details of the Nile 
voyage irritates and weakens them. They are far away from medical advice, 
and, from debility, are seldom in a condition to take the amount of exercise 
requisite to keep their functions in order. The invalid in an incipient state of 
consumption can, by regulating his movements, command an almost uniform 
condition of daily climate for several months : first, by a short stay in Cairo ; 
then, by following the seasons, he may proceed up the Nile until he reaches a 
climate where the heat is just sufficient to allow him to spend much of the 
day in the open air, and have regular exercise, without being much fatigued. 
He can then drop gradually down the Nile towards Cairo, keeping nearly the 
same temperature all the way. If he reaches Cairo late in March, or even a 
little earlier, he will then find a condition of climate such as is, probably, 
found in no other place, in which he can remain a few weeks. About the 
middle of April the mid-day temperature begins to be felt a little too warm 
for a debilitated system, and the chance of being surprised by the hot winds 
renders it advisable to depart. A short stay in Alexandria will then be found 
beneficial, as the air is several degrees cooler than that of Cairo, the 

humidity not too great, and the early hot winds are little felt Chronic 

bronchitis, with or without much secretion of bronchial mucus, chronic 
affections of the larynx and trachea, nearly all derive benefit. . . . Pure 
asthmatic affections follow their usual vagaries here, as elsewhere. Some are 
benefited, others not at all. Patients of this class, however, when residing in 
Egypt, are favourably situated as regards the facility for change. They are 
within access of four modifications of climate — Alexandria, Cairo, Suez, and 
Ismailia — so that when one does not gdve relief, another may be tried. There 
are also the Nile and the desert. The latter, however, is seldom available, 

except under circumstances unfavourable to debilitated states of system 

The Egyptian climate, by allowing such great freedom for open-air exercise, 
and exposure to the tonic action of sun-light, has a marked influence in 
modifying the ill-effects arising from a scrofulous state of system. Few of the 

sufferers from this disease, from colder latitudes, go away unbenefited 

Diseases of rheumatic and gouty origin are often benefited, when the patient 
will lead the life he ought to do ; but this class of invalid seldom does so. . . . 
To the overworked teacher and student, the care-burdened merchant and man 
of business, and those subjected to a hard daily routine, which has broken down 
their stamina, and induced a highly excited state of nervous system ; the con- 
firmed dyspeptic and hypochondriacal invalid ; the depressed and anxious- 
minded ; the nervous and hysterical female ; — to all these the Egyptian 
climate may be beneficial. In a country where the manners and habits of 
life are so different from what obtains in European countries, pleasant and 
varied objects of attention, which strike the imagination and keep the mind 
employed, tend much to improve the depressed morale and morbidly anxious 
mind of the invalid. The bright and sunny sky is in itself an incentive to 
cheerfulness and pleasure, which, combined with the amount of healthy 
open-air exercise necessary to attain the enjoyment of sight-seeing, cannot 
fail to produce favourable results whenever that is possible. Indeed, in all 
cases where a dry and bracing air, bright sunshine, freedom from rain and 
atmospheric impurities, are the desiderata, the Egyptian winter climate claims 
an important, if not the most important, place." 



6 



e. CLOTHING AND MODE OF LIFE. 



Sect. I. 



To these last remarks may well be added those of one of the latest writers 
on Nile life, himself an invalid. Mr. Frederic Eden, in his Nile without a 
Dragoman, says : — " I cannot make an end without saying once more that the 
climate of Upper Egypt, in the winter, is as enjoyable as I believe any on 
earth can be ; that of the monotony experienced by some travellers we found 
none ; and that, to a sick man, the life led on the Nile is as agreeable as it is 
health- giving. To be absolutely free from any care, but that perversely 
carried with you ; to be absent from the hurry, bustle, and activity of home 
daily life, witii enough to occupy and distract, and nothing to fatigue the 
brain ; with air as balmy as it is soft, appetite-giving and sleep-compelling ; 
with sun to warm by day, and freshness by night to string and brace the 
nerves ; with all temptation to live in the open air, and cabins to retire to, 
literally under the foot, whenever rest or quiet be desired ; — every aid is 
given to weary nature striving to recover her lost powers. And of all the 
many places to which, seeking for health, I have been sent by doctors, by 
friends recommended, or by fancy prompted, I know of none to be compared to 
the Nile, either for the enjoyment it affords, or the chances of recovery it 
offers." 

e. Clothing and Mode op Life. 

Invalids coming to Egypt for the winter should be well provided with warm 
clothing, and should always wear flannel next the skin. Two tweed suits, one 
of lighter texture than the other, form the best outfit for the ordinary traveller: 
and on the Nile voyage he will find flannel shirts the best both for health and 
convenience of washing. A broad belt round the waist is thought to be a 
useful precaution ; perhaps the best thing of its kind is the Syrian silk scarf 
so much used by the natives. The head should be well protected : for this 
purpose the best head-dress is a common felt wide-awake, with a turban of white 
muslin wound round it. Some prefer a pith helmet, as it shelters the eyes 
more. The red tarboosh with which travellers so often delight to adorn 
themselves, even when worn, as it should be, with the linen cap or takeea 
underneath, affords little or no protection to those unaccustomed to an 
Egyptian sun : and it may be remembered with advantage that the wearing 
of a tarboosh by an European carries with it rather an air of assumption, as it 
presupposes him in the employ of the Egyptian Government. It is true that 
it is worn by many of the shopkeeping and lower-class Europeans, but no 
respectable European resident in the country would think of appearing in it 
in public, unless he were an employe of the government of the Khedive. 
Brown leather boots and shoes will be found the most useful up the Nile. 
Ladies would find Wellington boots of brown leather a great convenience. 
Coloured glass spectacles with gauze sides afford great relief to the eye from 
the glare of the sun, and a blue or green veil is often useful for the game 
purpose. 

In winter it is unnecessary to make any change in the mode of living from 
that usually adopted in Europe ; and most persons may eat whatever they 
are accustomed to in other countries. It is, however, better to avoid much 
wine or spirits, as they tend to heat the blood, and cause the hot weather to be 
more sensibly felt ; and some will find that fish (chiefly those without scales), 
eggs, and unboiled milk, do not always agree with them. Bathing in the 
Nile is by no means prejudicial in the morning and evening ; and, except in 
the neighbourhood of sandbanks, there is no fear of crocodiles. Fruit and 
vegetables, when the former are not eaten to excess and the latter are properly 
cooked, are wholesome and cooling, and mutton is better than beef. The fish 
of the Nile are not very good ; the booltee and kisher are perhaps the best. 
Light Bordeaux and Bhine wines are the most wholesome; beer requires 
strong exercise. " The Nile water, when well filtered, is soft and pure, and 



Egypt. 



f. MEDICINES AND SLIGHT AILMENTS. 



7 



may be safely used. With some it may at first disagree, and have a tendency 
to induce diarrhoea, and until this is overcome it should be tempered with a 
little good brandy." Care should be taken never to sleep in a draught : and 
invalids should avoid bedrooms on the ground-floor. A warm great-coat and 
rugs will often be found needful in Egypt during the winter, as the evenings, 
especially on the Nile, are often very cold. 

/. Medicines, and Tkeatment op Slight Ailments incident to 
the Country. 

Travellers who intend going up the Nile had better be provided with a 
small medicine chest, containing *blue pills, calomel, *rhubarb pills, *Dover's 
powder, *Gregory's powder, *James's fever powder, *carbolic acid, *laudanum, 
*sulphate of quinine, diluted sulphuric acid, *sweet spirits of nitre, chloro- 
dyne, *sulphate of zinc, nitrate of silver, *seidlitz powders, cream of tartar, 
ipecacuanha, essence of peppermint, essence of ginger, blistering plaster, 
*sticking plaster, *lint, * arnica. Those marked with an asterisk are the 
most useful. The following directions, chiefly from Dr. Patterson's book, 
for the treatment of ailments incident to the climate, will be found of 
service. Headache and biliary disturbance is often brought on by exposure 
to the sun. It is best treated by a smart purgative, and by bathing the 
head copiously with cold water, while the feet are kept in hot water, to 
which a tea-spoonful of common mustard may be added. If very severe, 
8 or 10 leeches should be applied to the temples. In simple diarrhoea 
take a blue pill, and after three hours 5 grains of Dover's powder, which 
may be repeated, if need be, at the same interval ; or a small table-spoonful 
of castor-oil, with 10 drops of laudanum, or 3 grains of Dover's powder. 
In severer cases of diarrhoea, take 15 drops of diluted sulphuric acid in a 
small wine-glass of water every half hour, till four doses have been given ; 
and if then no effect is produced, take Dover's powder as above. For 
dysentery, the best treatment is first a blue pill, and after three hours a table- 
spoonful of the following mixture, to be repeated every hour, or two hours, 
according to the severity of the symptoms : — castor oil, 2 table-spoonfuls ; 
whites of 4 eggs ; 2 wine-glassfuls of water to be added gradually, and beaten 
up with the above ; a little powdered gum arabic may be usefully added to 
this mixture. In all cases of diarrhoea and dysentery, a rice diet is the best ; 
and the drink should be rice-water, or toast-and-water, or the whites of a few 
eggs beaten up with water. A grain of quinine a day is a very convenient 
tonic after the attack is over. Ophthalmia begins by a slight redness and 
itching of the eyelids, and feeling of grittiness in the eyes, as though sand 
had got into them, accompanied after a time by a viscid matter causing the 
eyelids to adhere together. The best simple remedies are constant sponging 
of the eyes with tepid water and milk, or simple tepid (never cold) water, taking 
care to wipe them quite dry afterwards, avoidance of light, wearing a shade, and 
dropping between the eyelids three times a day a few drops of a wash containing 
from 5 to 6 grains of sulphate of zinc in a large table-spoonful of water, or, still 
better, rose-water. A slight purgative and low diet is also necessary. In very 
severe forms of this complaint, it may be necessary to have recourse to more 
severe measures, such as leeches, and the use of a strong collyrium containing 
from 5 to 8 grains of nitrate of silver in 1 oz. of water, or rose-water. Simply 
bathing' the eye with warm water will often remove an irritation which, if 
neglected, might end in ophthalmia. In all cases of sickness, one piece of 
advice should be borne in mind alike by the physician and the patient. Use 
all medicines sparingly, especially the stronger purgatives. " Many invalids 
partly nullify the good effect of change of climate, by continually dosing them- 
selves with physic, aud keeping their organs in a constant state of irritation." 



8 



g. PRESENTS. Jl. PASSPORT. Z. COINAGE. Sect. I. 



g. ' Presents. 

With regard to presents in Egypt, it may be laid down as a general rule that 
they are quite unnecessary ; which was not the case in former times. But it 
will sometimes happen that the civilities of a Sheykh Belled, or even of a Turkish 
governor, require some return; in which case some English gunpowder, a 
watch, or a telescope for the latter, and a white shawl and tarboosh, or an 
amber mouth-piece for the former, are, generally speaking, more than they 
have any reason to expect. And although, on those occasions when their 
politeness arises from the hope of reward, they may be disappointed in their 
expectations, yet they would only consider greater presents proofs of greater 
ignorance in the person who made them. But in all cases the nature of a 
present must depend on the service performed, and also upon the rank of both 
parties. 

h. Passport. 

Though no passport is really needed in Egypt, it is demanded on landing at 
Alexandria ; and it is therefore advisable, in going to Egypt as to every 
country, to be provided with a Foreign-Office passport. 

t. Coinage. 

The money tables for Egypt, if put into the form used in school arithmetics, 
would be as follows : — 

40 paras make 1 piastre, 
500 piastres make 1 purse ; 

and happy would it be for the traveller if all his money transactions in the 
country could be based on such a simple formula . but unfortunately there are 
nearly as many foreign coinages legally current in' Egypt as there are foreign 
consuls exercising jurisdiction, and the result in both cases is eminently un- 
satisfactory. Before endeavouring to guide the traveller through this pecuniary 
labyrinth by means of a table showing the comparative value of the different 
coins met with, it must be remarked, with regard to Egyptian money itself, that 
piastres have two values — tariff and current : the tariff value is the standard 
one, and is used in all the government offices, by bankers in their accounts, and 
in the lists of fares for the railways and telegraphs ; the current value is con- 
tinually changing, precisely as the value of paper money fluctuates as compared 
with gold, but with this difference, that there is no paper money nor anything 
else to represent the current piastre. All the petty commerce of Egypt at the 
markets and in the bazaars is earned on in current piastres, and consequently 
whenever the traveller is told the price of anything in piastres, it is current 
piastres that are meant. It may be taken as a general rule that the current 
piastre is half the value of the tariff piastre, therefore the two silver Egyptian 
pieces most commonly met with represent respectively J a piastre and 1 piastre 
tariff, or 1 piastre and 2 piastres current : there is but one coin to represent 
the two values. Those who wish to study the subject of Egyptian exchanges, 
and the conversion of current into tariff piastres, should purchase the Egyptian 
Commercial Calculating Tables, published by Messrs. Eobertson & Co., of 
Alexandria. The following is a table of the principal coins found in circu- 
lation in Egypt, with their approximate value in Egyptian, English, and 
French currency. The Egyptian currency is given in current piastres. It 
will be easy for the traveller to recollect that, as a rule, half the number of 
current piastres represent the tariff value. 



Egypt. 



I. COINAGE. 



9 



Name of coin in 
Arabic. 


Coin. 


Egyptian 
currency. 


English 
currency. 


French 
currency. 






Pias. 


Paras. 


£. s. d. 


TV 

rrancs. cents. 


Guinee . . 


Sovereign 


195 





1 


25 


Noos- guinee .. 


Half-sovereign 


97 


20 


10 


12 50 


Shilling .. 


Shilling 


9 


30 


10 


1 25 


Binto . . 


Napoleon 


155 





16 


20 


Noos-binto 


Half-napoleon 


77 





8 


10 


Tarali or Eeyal 


5-franc piece 


38 


20 


4 


5 


Franc 




7 


20 


10 


1 


Eoobee 




18 





2 
at hotels and 
shops, 

1 10 

at British 
Post Office and 

Telegraph. 


2 50 

except at 
French Post 
Office, where 

subject to 
same reduc- 
tion as at 
British . 


Noos-roobee 


Half-rupee 


9 


] 


Same difference in value in 


Kebba-roobee 


Quarter-rupee 


4 


20 / 


proportion as rupee. 




Eouble 


30 


„ 1 



3 


4 




25-kopeck piece 


7 


20 


10 


1 


" Sebaeen " . . 


10-kreuzer piece, J 
called a "sebaeen"! 


1 


30 


j Four generally go to the 
1 franc, and five to the 
; shilling, though in re- 




from its being worth [ 


j ality the franc is worth 




70 paras. 






j 20 paras more, and the 








' shilling one piastre more. 


Medjidieh 


Turkish dollar 


36 





4 


5 


Noos-medj idieh 


Turkish |-dollar 


18 


o 


2 


2 50 


Shilling .. .. 


Turkish shilling . . 


9 




10 


1 25 


Tarali or Eeyal 


Egyptian dollar 
Egyptian ^--dollar 


40 


I 


4 


5 


Noos - tarali or 


20 





2 


2 50 


-Keyal 










Shilling .. 


Egyptian shilling 


10 





10 


2 50 


Groosh, geersh-pl 


Egyptian silver pi-| 
astre j 


2 





2± 


25 




Egyptian silver J-i 
piastre .. .. / 


I 


o 


1J 




Ashareen fo'dda 


Egyptian copper 20- 1 





20 






Asharah fudda 


para piece . . . . \ 






Do. do. 10-para piece 





10 






Khamsah fudda 


Do. do. 5-para piece 





5 







There will now and then be found some other coins in circulation. The 
above table will perhaps be of some assistance to the traveller, in enabling him 
to form an approximate estimate of the value of the motley handful of change 
which will be so often tendered to him in the shops of Alexandria and Cairo. 
Both Turkish and Egyptian gold coins are sometimes met with, but rarely : the 
Turkish sovereign is worth about 18 shillings, the Egyptian about 20 shillings 
and sixpence. There are also half sovereigns, and four and one shilling pieces. 
When drawing money from a banker, English sovereigns, or napoleons, had 
better be taken. The rate of exchange will be calculated in tariff piastres, 
which vary from 97 4 par to 94 for the sovereign, and from 77 to 74| for the 
napoleon. Alike on letters of credit and on circular notes the bankers, by 
means of the exchange and their commission, will often manage to charge from 
Is to 2 per cent., though 1 at the utmost is all that should, unless the exchange 

b 3 



10 



h. WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 



Sect. I. 



is very low, be demanded. The traveller should certainly resist the charge of 
2 per cent., and if it is persisted in, go to some other banker. It makes very 
little, or indeed no difference, whether sovereigns or napoleons are taken. For 
all practical purposes the sovereign may be reckoned at 25 francs (rather less 
than its value), and the napoleon 16 shillings (rather more than its value). 
English people will probably prefer the sovereign, and their contract with the 
dragoman will usually be made out in that coin. In the European shops at 
Alexandria and Cairo the prices will be named according to the nationality of 
the shopkeeper ; and in the native shops to which travellers usually resort the 
price is asked nearly always in sovereigns (Arabice, guinee), napoleons (Arabic^, 
binto), shillings (same word), or francs (same word). The hotel bills will be 
made out either in English or French money. Before starting up the Nile, the 
traveller should provide himself with some small change for purchases, &c. 
This should be taken in Turkish dollars, 1 and 2 piastre silver pieces, and 5, 
10, and 20 para copper pieces. The bankers will procure this change for him, 
or he can get it for himself at a money-changer's. Donkey-boys and others 
will often be found anxious to exchange 10 and 8 rupees for a sovereign and 
a napoleon respectively. Of course if the traveller only uses his rupees where 
they pass current for 2 shillings each, this involves no loss to him ; but if he 
presents them where they are only reckoned at Is. 10d., or at their value in 
piastres, he will realise that he has lost about eighteenpence by the transaction, 
since while, e. g., the sovereign would be counted at 195 piastres, the 10 rupees 
would only represent 180. 



Jc. "Weights and Measukes. 

8 Mitkal make 1 Okeea (wokeea) or Arab oz. 

12 Okeea — 1 Rotl or pound (about 1 lb. 2 oz. 8 dwt. Troy). 

2f Kotl — 1 Oka or Wukka. 

100 to 110 Kotl 1 Kantar (about 98f avoirdupois). 

108 Rotl — 1 Kantar for coffee. 

102 Rotl — 1 Kantar for pepper, &c. 

120 Rotl — 1 Kantar for cotton. 

150 Rotl — 1 Kantar for gums, &c. 



For Gold, Gums, &c. 



make 



4 Kunik (Grains) 
64 Grains or 16 Keerat — 

14 Derhm, or 24 Keerat — 



12 Derhm 



12 
150 



Okeea 
Rotl 



1 Keerat (Carat) or Kharoobeh. 
1 Derhm (47| to 49 grains English). 
1 Mitkal (from about 1 drachm to 72 grs. 
English). 

/ 1 Oke'ea or oz. (from 571 I to 576 grs. Eng- 
~\ lish). 

— 1 Rotl or pound. 

— 1 Kantar. 



Measures of Length. 

Fitr, or span with forefinger and thumb. 

Slribr, longest span with little finger and thumb. 

Kubdeh, human fist, with the thumb erect. 

1 Drah beledee, or cubit, equal to 22 to 22§ inches English. 

1 Drah Stambdolee equal to 26 to 26| inches English. 

1 Drab Hindazee (for cloth, &c.) equal to about 25 inches English. 

2 Bah (braces) equal to 1 Kassobeh or 11 A, feet. 



Egypt. I. population, &c. — m. reigning family. 



11 



Land Measures. 
22 (formerly 24) Kharo'obeh or Kubdeh make 



13| Kassobeh or rods 

24 Keerat, or 333 Kassobeh 



In Lower Egypt. 
9 Kuddab make 1 Melweh. 
4 Kuddab — 1 Koob. 
2 Koob — 1 Kayleb. 
4 Eoob — 1 Wavbeb. 
24 Koob — 1 Ardeb. 



1 Kassobeb, equal to 
from 11 ft. 4^ in. 
to 11 ft. 11 in. 
( Englisb. 

— 1 Keerat. 

— 1 Feddan or acre. 

Corn Measure. 

In Upper Egypt 
4 Roftow make 1 Mid. 

3 Koob — 1 Mid. 

!1 Ardeb, or 
nearly 5 Eng. 
bushels. 



8 Mid or 
6 Waybeh 



I. Population. — Revenue. 

The total population of the countries under Egyptian rule may be estimated 
at about 7,000,000, of whom about 5,000,000 belong to Egypt proper. These 
5,000,000 may be thus divided :— 

Fellaheen Arabs .. 4,000,000 Turks .. .. .. .. 30,000 

Copts 500,000 Europeans 85,000 

Bedaween Arabs .. 300,000 Armenians, Jews, Levantines, &c. 85,000 

According to the Budget presented to the Assembly of Delegates in July, 
1871, for the Coptic year 1588 (Sept. 11, 1871, to Sept. 10, 1872), the amount 
of the Public Revenue for that year is reckoned at 7,694,166?., of which 
4,639,658?. is derived from the land-tax. The expenses for the same period 
are calculated at 6,638,462?., the two largest items being 675,216?. for the 
tribute, and 717,948?. for the army. 

m. Reigning Family — Mode of G-oveenment. 

The following table will show the principal male members of Mohammed 
Ali's family down to the present time : — 

Mohammed Ali Pasha. 



Ibraheem Pasha, 
2nd Viceroy. 



Toossoon Pasha. 

Abbas Pasha, 
3rd Viceroy. 



Said Pasha, 
4th Viceroy. 

Toossoon Pasha. 



Haleem Pasha. 



Achmet Pasha 
(dead). 



Ismail Pasha, 
present Khedive. 



Mustapha Pasha. 



Ibraheem Achmet 
Pasha. Bey. 



Mohammed Hussein Hassan Ibraheem Osmau 
Towfik Pasha. Pasha. Pasha. Pasha, Bey. 

and others. 

The succession formerly went to the oldest member of the family, but in 
1866 this custom was abolished, and the succession is now hereditary in a 
direct line from father to son. 

Mohammed Ali, the founder of the present dynasty, was born at Cavala in 
Roumelia, in 1768. In 1806 he was made Viceroy of Egypt by the Porte. In 
184S he was attacked with a mental ailment, and died in 1849. Besides the 
sons mentioned in the above table, he had several other children, of whom 



12 



ft. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



Sect. I. 



the best known are Ismail Pasha, burnt alive during an expedition to Sennaar, 
and Nuzleh Hanem, married to Mohammed Bey Defterdar. 

Ibraheem Pasha, Mohammed Ali's eldest son by adoption, was born in 
1789, and succeeded Ids father in the viceroyalty in 1848, when the latter 
became incapable of governing, but died four months after his accession. He 
was succeeded by his nephew Abbas Pasha, who reigned till 1854. The throne 
then devolved on Abbas Pasha's uncle, Said Pasha, the 4th son of Mahommed 
Ali, born in 1822. To him succeeded, in 1863, his nephew, the present 
sovereign, Ismail Pasha, 2nd son of Ibraheem Pasha, born in 1830. The 
eldest son, Achmet Pasha, was drowned in the Nile in 1856. According to 
the old system of succession the next heir would be Mustapha Pasha, the 3rd 
son, but in accordance with the new law, Ismail Pasha's eldest son, Moham- 
med. Towfik Pasha is to succeed him. In 1868 the title of Viceroy was ex- 
changed for the higher one of Khidewi, commonly called Khedive — a Persian 
title, of which it is difficult to determine the exact signification and value. 
The Khedive is always addressed as " His Highness." 

Although nominaily owing allegiance to the Sultan as his suzerain, the 
Khedive is in many respects practically independent. The payment of a con- 
tinually increasing tribute, now amounting to more than half a million, has 
enabled him to purchase a release from many of the restrictions under which 
he laboured. The army, which is limited to 15,000 men, amounts in reality, 
owing to the adoption of the short-service system, to 4 or 5 times that 
number. The revenues are entirely at the disposal of the Khedive ; and he 
can now levy taxes and contract loans without the authorisation of the Porte. 
The Khedive is assisted in the government by ministers appointed by himself, 
and removable at will. The most important posts are those of the Ministers 
of the Interior, Foreign Affairs, and Finance. There is an Assembly of 
Delegates, which meets every summer at Cairo to discuss matters in connection 
with the internal administration of the various towns and provinces. 

n. Chronological Table op Egyptian Dynasties and Kings. 

Any chronological table of the Kings of Egypt must necessarily be given with 
great reserve. There can be no certainty before the reign of»Psammetichus I., 
665 B.C. The enormous number of years required by the only ancient authority 
extant, the lists of Manetho, has caused many authors to consider some of the 
dynasties given by him as not successive but contemporaneous. Eecent dis- 
coveries, however, seem to show that the dynasties he gives a list of did succeed 
one another, though it is possible there may have been others reigning at the 
same time in different parts of Egypt, which are considered by him a3 illegiti- 
mate, and therefore left unnoticed. This does not, however, throw much light 
on the chronological question, and some who agree in considering Manetho's 
dynasties as, with one or two exceptions, successive, recoil from accepting the 
enormous total to which the addition of the duration assigned by him to each 
dynasty amounts. 

The following Table may help the traveller in Egypt to form some idea of 
the dynasties and their dates according to the different methods. The 1st 
column shows the date of each dynasty, according to the system of those who 
support the idea of many of Manetho's dynasties being contemporaneous : the 
2nd gives the number of the dynasty, and the 3rd its name : the 4th the most 
noted kings of that dynasty : the 5th and 6th show the date, according to those 
who think that Manetho's dynasties are, as a rule, successive, but differ as to the 
duration to be allotted to each— the 5th being the date according to Bunsen's 
method, who assigns the least number of years, and the 6th, the date according 
to M. Mariette, who hesitatingly accepts Manetho's own figures: the 7th con- 
tains a short notice of any remarkable events. All authorities agree in con- 
sidering the dynasties subsequent to the XVIIth as successive ; and after the 
XXIst dynasty the differences in the dates are inappreciable. 



Egypt. 



71. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 



13 



Events, &c. 


The first known Egyptian king and 
founder of Memphis. 

Great Pyramid of Geezeh built. 
Second do. do. 
Third do. do. 

Tomb of Tih at Sakkarah. 

• 


Date according to suc- 
cessive method. 


Mariette. 


B.C. 

5004 
4751 
4449 
4235 

3951 
3703 
3500 

3358 
3249 
3064 


Bunsen. | 


B.C. 

3623 

3433 
3209 

3054 
2947 
2925 

2925 


Most noted Kings. 


Menes. 

Shoofoo (Cheops). 

Shafra (Chephren). 

Menkeoora (Myce- 
rinus). 

Pepi (Apappus). 


Name of Dynasty. 


Thinite (Abydus). 
do. 
Memphite. 
do. 

Elephantine. 
Memphite. 
do. 
do. 

Heracleopolite 
(Ahnasieh). 
do. 

Theban. 


No. 
of 

Dynasty. 


M ti s e > p g g y m a 


Date 
according 
to Poole, 
Wilkinson, 
and others. 


B.C. 

2700 
2450 
2650 

2450 

2450 

2200 

1800? 

1800? 

2200 

1800 

2200 



14 



W. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



Sect. I. 



Events, &c. 


Flourishing period of Egyptian history. 
Date of the Obelisk of Heliopolis, Tombs of 
Beni Hassan, the Labyrinth, Lake Moeris, &c. 

Abraham visits Egypt somewhere between 
2900 and 2000 B.C. 

Joseph in Egypt somewhere between 2800 
and 1800 B.C. 

Conquers and expels Hyksos, and founds 
a powerful dynasty. 

Egyptian dominions greatly extended. 
Sister of Thothmes II. and III. 




cesslve method. 


Mariette. 


B.C. 

3064 

2851 
2398 
2214 

1703 


Bunsen. 


B.C. 

2781 
2634 

2547 
2287 
1776 
1625 

• • 


Most noted Kings. 


Osirtasen I. 
Osirtasen III. 
Amenemha III. 

Amosis. 
Amunoph I. 

Thothmes I. 

Thothmes II. 

Amunnoohet or 
Hatasoo. 


Name of Dynasty. 


Theban. 

do. 

Xoite. 

Hyksos or Shep- 
herds, 
do. 

do. 

Theban. 
The period of 
200 to 250 years 
during which this 
dynasty ruled 
Egypt, was one of 
the most glorious 
and most brilliant 
in Egyptian his- 
tory. The power 
and magnificence 
of its kings is at- 
tested by the nu- 


No. 
of 

Dynasty. 


XII. 

XIII. 
XIV. 
XV. 
XVI. 
XVII. 
XVIII. 


Date 
according 
to Poole, 
Wilkinson, 
and others. 


B.C. 

2080 

1900? 

2080 

2080 

2080 

2080 

1520 



Egypt. 



n. CHEONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



15 



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16 



W. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



Sect. I- 



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Egypt. 



71. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



17 



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18 



71. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



Sect. I. 



Events. 



122 Visit of Adrian to Egypt ; and again a.d. 130. 
297 Taking of Alexandria by Diocletian. 

325 Council of Nicaea in reign of Constantine. Athanasius and Arius. 
379 Edict of Theodosius. Destruction of the Temple of Sarapis. 
622 Conquest of Egypt by Amer (miscalled Amrou). (See Table of 
Caliphs.) 

1517 Conquest of Egypt by the Turks under Sultan Selim. 
1763 Rebellion of Ali Bey. 

1798 Invasion of Egypt by the French. Discovery of Rosetta Stone. 

1801 Expelled by the English. 

1806 Mohammed Ali made Pasha of Egypt. 

1818 Mohammed Ali imbecile ; succeeded by his son, Ibraheem Pasha, 

who died after 2 months' reign. Accession of Abbas Pacha. 
1849 Mohammed Ali died ; August 2nd. 
1854 Death of Abbas Pasha. Accession of Said Pacha. 
1859 1 Commencement of Suez Canal. 
1863 , Death of Said Pacha. Accession of Ismail Pacha. 

1868 J Receives the title of Khidewi, or Khedive. 

1869 ; Opening of Suez Canal, Nov. 19th. 



24 



n. LIST OF KINGS. 



Sect. I. 




Egypt 



0. THE CALIPHS AND SULTANS. 



27 



o. — List of the Caliphs and Scltans of Egypt. 



The frequent mention of these Kings, particularly in describing the monu- 
ments of Cairo, and the necessity of knowing at least when they reigned, 
may give value to this Chronological Table. 



Ommiades, or 
Ammawe'Sh. 


Events during their Reign. 


Began to 
reign. 






A.D. 


Aboo Bukr, or Aboo 


Invasion of Syria commenced. 


632 


Bekr (e' Sadeek). 




Omar (ebn el Knut- 


Conquest of Persia, Syria, and b.gypt. 


634 


tab, or Khattab). 


A'mer, or Amr (ebn el As) enters Egypt 
in June, 638. 




Othman. 


Conquest of Africa begun. 


644 


A'li (or Alee), and 


Ali in Arabia reigns till 661 ; and El 


656 


Moawieh I. 


Hassan, his son, nominally succeeds 
him, and having reigned six months 
abdicated, a.d. 661. Death of Hassan, 
670. Moawieh in Egypt and Syria. 




House of Ammaveeh (Ommiades) , 




Moawieh I. 


Alone. Fruitless attack on Constanti- 
nople by the Saracens, 


661 


Tezeed I. 


His son. Hossayn killed at Kerbela. 


680 


Jloawien 11. 


His son. 

[Abdallah, son of Zobayr, reigned nine 
years in the Hegaz (Arabia), from 64 


684 




to 73 a.h., or 684 to 693 a.d.*] 




Merawan T. 


684 


Abd el Melek. 


His son. Conquest of Africa completed. 
Abd el Azdez, his brother, made a kilo- 
meter at Helwan. In 76 a.h. first 
Arab coinage. The oldest coin found 
is of 79 a.h. (699 .a.d.) ; it is a silver 
Der'hem. The oldest gold deendrs are 
of the years 91 and 92 a.h. 


684 


El Weleed L 


His son. Conquest of Spain, 710. First 
invasion of India by the Moslems. 


705 


Soolayman. 


His brother. Second failure before Con- 


714 




stantinople. Was the first who founded 
a Kilometer at the Isle of Roda. 








Omar IT. 


Son of Abd el Azeez. 


717 


Yezeed IT. 


Son of Abd el Me'lek. 


750 


Hesham. 


His brother. Defeat of Abd e' Rahman in 
France, by Charles Martel, 732. 


< 24 


El Weleed II. 


Son of Zeze'ed. 


743 


Yezeed III. 


His son. 


744 


Ibrahim. 


His brother. 


744 


Merawan II. 


Grandson of Merawan I., killed at Aboose'er, 


744 




a town belonging to the Fyodm in 


to 




Egypt. 


749 



* The Hegira, or Moslem era, begins 622 a.d., dating from the "flight" of the prophet from 
Mecca. To reduce any year of the Hegira to our own, we have only to add 622 to the given 
year, and deduct 3 for every hundred, or 1 for every 33; e.g. 1233 + 622=1855 ; then for the 12u0 
deduct 36, and 1 for the 33=37, leaves 1818 a.d. 

C2 



28 



0. ABBASIDES. TOOLOOXIDES, AGLEBITES. Sect. I. 



o 

5 bp 
bf.'S 


A.X). 

755 

800 
to 
811 

oan), 
nded 

and 
but 


Contemporary Dynasties, 


Established the Ommiade dy- 
nasty at Cordova in Spain ; an 
example followed by the House 
of Ali, the Edrissites of Mau- 
ritania, and the Aglebites and 
Fatemites of Eastern Africa. 

A'jlehite Dynasty in Afrioa, 

Governor of Africa. 1 hrows otr 
his allegianoe to the Caliphs. 
Regular troops first introduced 
by him. 

ill the year a.d. 900. I£ayrawan (Cair 
f Tunis, was their capital. It was fou 

by the Fowiitem or Fatemite Dynasty. 

brahim el Agl»'b, Ahmed ebn o' Tooloon, 
".son," should properly be written ben ; 
i Egypt) ebn is used. 


Abd e' Rahman. 

Aglebeeh, or 

Ibrahim ebn* (or 
ben) el A'gleb 
(or Akleb). 

This Dynasty rules 1 
70 miles south c 
a.d. 670. 

This is followed in 910 

* In these names, I 
others, the word ebn, 
in speaking (at least ii 


Began to 
reign. . 


A.D. 

749 
754 

775 

785 
786 

809 
813 

842? 


5 

tv 
o 

■■§ s 

|.S 
*1 

£<; 

o 


His brother. Bagdad is founded 
by Munsoor, and becomes the 
seat of empire. Under these 
Caliphs, astronomy and other 
sciences were particularly en- 
curaged. 

His son. 

His son. 

His son. The hero of Arabian 
tales, the "ally" of Charle- 
magne, and the dread of the 
Romans. The Edrissites found 
the kingdom of Faz (Fez). 

His son. 

Son of Haro(5n. A great en- 
courager of arts and sciences, 
particularly astronomy. By 
his order Greek authors were 
translated into Arabic. Mea- 
sures a degree of the meridian. 
His brother. War with Theo- 
philus. Turkish guards taken 
into the service of the Caliphs. 
Decline of the Caliphate. 


F/ Seffah, Aboo 1' 
Abbas, Abdallah. 

El Munsoor, Aboo 
Gafer, Abdallah. 

El Mahdee Mo- 
hammed. 

El Hadee Moosa. 

Harodne' Rasheed, 
or E' Rasheed 11 a- 
ro6n. 

El Amedn Moham- 
med. 

El Mamodn Abdal- 
lah. 

(Ibrahim, son of 
El Mahdee, his 
competitor from 
817 to 818). 

El Mautussim bil- 
ldh, Mohammed. 



Egypt. 



O. ABBASIDES. TOGLOONIDES. AGLEBITES. 



29 



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Sect. I. 



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O. ABB ASIDES. AKHSHEEB DYNASTY. 



31 




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Oi ABBASIDES. — FOWATEM. 



33 



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Egypt 



0. AIOOBITE SULTANS OF EGYPT. 



35 




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0. MEMLOOK SULTANS. 



Sect. I. 



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Egypt. 



0. MEMLOOK SULTANS. 



37 



into 

3CUS, 

th of 
pital 
6. 

.ere) 


Tar- 


o3 03 « °° <J 


a> 




>■» 

.O 


9-80 sends an 
, and recovers 
3 Egypt since t 
ers. Founds t' 
^rostan in Cai 
n. Takes Ak 
the Christian; 
other. 


igain overrun 
1295-6. 


« -c 2 ^ » a ^ 






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tar 



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38 



0. MEMLOOK SULTANS. 



Sect. I. 



A.D. 


1309 

1310 

1341 

1341 

1342 

1342 
1345 

1345 

1348 
1351 

1354 

* 


Baharite Memlook Kings. 


Agriculture and the arts encou- 
raged. 

His son. 

His brother. 

His brother. 

His brother. 
His brother. 

His brother. 
His brother. 

Built the mosk of Sultan Hassan 
in Cairo. 


El MedefFur, or 
el Mozuffer, 
Rookn-e' deen, 
Baybers, e' Ga- 
shenke'er, elMun- 
sdoree. 

E' Naser Moham- 
med, Ebn Ka- 
ladon (restored 
again). 

El Munsoor Aboo 
Bekr. 

El Ashraf Ke- 
gels. 

E' Naser Shahab 
e'deen, Ahmed. 

E' Saleh Ismdil. 

El ^ Kamel Sha- 
ban. 

El MedufFer (or 
Mezuffer) Ha- 
gee. 

E' Naser Hassan. 
E' Sdleh, Salah— 
e'deen. 

E' Naser Hassan 
(restored). 


e 
< 


1302 

1341 
1341 


Abbasdeh in Egypt. 


His son. Abdicated, and was 
banished to Koos by Naser 
Mohammed, who crowned El 
Wathek as the new caliph. 

Deposed by Naser at his death. 

Son of Mostukfee. 


El Mostukfee bil- 
Idh Soolayman. 

El Wathek billah, 
Ibrahim. 

El Hakem be 
Omr Illah, Ah- 
med. 



Egypt. 



0. MEMLOOK SULTANS. 



39 



a 


1361 
1363 

1377 
1381 
to 1382 

iase'eh), 
1382 

1399 


Borgeeh, or Circassian Meniloolcs. 


Son of Hagee, the son of Ka- 
ladon. 

The first who ordered the She- 
reefs, or descendants of the Pro- 
phet, to wear green turbans. 
In 1365 Peter de Lusignan, 
King of Cyprus, besieges Alex- 
andria and fails. 

Deposed 

ik el Borgeeh, e' Gerdhseh (or Token 
ian or Borgite Meinlooh Kings. 

Marches into Syria, and twice 
repulses the Tartars under Tee- 
moorlang, or Teemdor (Tamer- 
lane or Timur), in 1393-4. 

His son. 

The governor of Syria having re- 
belled, Furreg marches against 
him, takes him prisoner, and 
puts him to death, 1399-1400. 

The Tartars again invade Syria : 
Furreg marches against them, 
but is defeated, and returns to 
Egypt, 1400-1. 

He recovers Syria, 1405-6. 


El Munsoor Mo- 
hammed. 

El Ashraf Shaban. 
(A great-grand- 
son of Kaladon.) 

El Munsoor Ali. 
E' Saleh Hagee. 

Dowlet el Memala 
Circast 

E' Zdher Bcrkdok. 
E' Ndser Furreg. 


A.I). 


1352 

1362 

1378 
1378 

1384 
1387 


s. 

J 

1 

1 

< 


His brother. 

His son, deposed in 

Deposed after one month. 

Restored, and deposed again 
after six years. 

Restored in 1387, and reigned 
till 1390. 


El Mautuddid bil- 
lilh, Aboo Bekr. 

Allah, Moham- 
med. 

El Mautussim Za- 
kareeh. 

El Motawukkel. 

El Wdthek billah, 
Omar. 

El Mautussim Za- 
kareeh. 



0. MEMLOOK SULTANS. 



Sect. I. 



A.D. 


CD CO CN rH <M 00 OOCOCO 
O O — i <N(N<MCq CO- COi^iO 

Tt< T*< r)< ^< T)* T* ^ ^ 


Borgeeh, or Circassian Memlooks. 


Reigns forty-seven days. 

The para was, until this reign, 
of a drachm's weight of silver, 
and Moaiud coined, instead of 
it, the modutdee, now corrupted 
into maydee. 

Attacks Cyprus, and, taking John 
III. prisoner, enforces the regu- 
lar payment of tribute, 1423-4. 

et e' Nazereen. 


El Munsoor Abd 

el Azeez. 
E' Naser Furreg 

(restored).* 
El Moaiud, Aboo 

1' Nusr, Shekh. 

El Meduffer Ah- 
med. 

E' Zaher, Aboo '1 
Futteh, Tatr. 

E' Saleh Moham- 
med. 

El Ashraf, Bursa- 
bai, or Borosbai. 

Abd el Azeez, 

Aboo T Mahasin, 

Yoosef. 
E' Zaher Gek- 

meh. 
El Munsoor Oth- 

man. 
El Ashraf Eenal. 

' possession, of the Noozli 


< 


1390 
1406 

to 
1413 

1413 
1442 
1452 

a MS. in mj 


Abbaseeh in Egypt. 


Restored again and died in 1406. 

His son, deposed by Moaiud 
Shekh, in 1413, and imprisoned 
at Alexandria till his death. 

His brother. 
His brother. 

His brother ; deposed by El 
Ashraf Eenal, in 1455, and 
exiled to Alexandria. 

* According to 


E Motawukkel. 
El Mostain billah, 

Aboo '1 Fodl, el 

Abbas. 

El Mautuddid bil- 
lah aboo '1 Fet-h, 
Daood. 

El Mostukfee bil- 
lah, Soolayman. 

El Kaiem be-omr- 
Illah, Hamza. 



Egypt. 



0. MEMLOOK SULTANS. 



41 



XD CO 



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42 



0. MEML00K SULTANS. 



Sect. I. 



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Egypt. 



p. POINTS REQUIRING EXAMINATION. 



43 



p. Certain Points requiring Examination. 

The attention of those who are induced to make researches might be usefully 
directed to the following points. The additions in italics show what has been 
done lately towards their elucidation : — 

1. Alexandria. — Ascertain the sites of the buildings of the old city. Something 

has been done towards this, but. the result has not been such as to lead to the 
hope of there being much to find. 

2. Canopic branch. — Ascertain the site of Naucratis, Anthylla, and Archandra, 

and the course of the Canopic branch. 

3. Sais. — Excavate, and make a plan of Sais : at least look for the temple of 

Neith. Excavations have been made at Sais by M. Mariette, but only to 
reveal more completely its utter state of ruin. 

4. Delta. — Examine the sites of the ruined towns in the Delta. Look for their 

name in the hieroglyphics, and for Greek inscriptions ; but particularly 
for duplicates of the Rosetta Stone. Look at Fort Julian below Rosetta 
for the upper part of that stone. A trilingular stone is said to be at 
Menouf, and others at Tanta and Cairo. Much has been done, and much 
yet remains to be done, in the Delta. Another trilingual stone, similar to the 
Rosetta Stone, has been found at San : it is in the Museum at Cairo : the 
British Museum has a cast. Every attempt has been made to discover the 
remainder of the Rosetta Stone, but without success. 

5. Heliopolis. — Excavate (if possible) the site of the temple of Heliopolis ; and 

look for the tombs of Heliopolis. The only result^of excavations at Heli- 
opolis by M. Mariette have been the discovery of the foundations of tlie other 
obelisk, and the finding at Kafr Gamors of a part of the Necropolis. 

6. Pyramids. — Look for the hieroglyphic record mentioned in the Greek in- 

scription in honour of Balbillus, found before the Sphinx. Not yet 
found, and in all probability finally lost. 

7. Memphis.— Make a plan of Memphis. Excavate about the Colossus for the 

temple. Examine the mounds. Those at the nitre-works are modern. 
The chief results of M. Mariette' s examination of the site of Memphis have 
been — the discovery of the foundations of the Temple of Phtah ; of a small 
temple of Rameses II. on the borders of the lake ; and of the debris of another 
colossus. The objects yielded by the mounds will be found at the Cairo 
Museum. 

8. Look for new names of Memphite kings, about the pyramids, Sakkarah, and 

the site of Memphis. A list of kings' names, commonly called the Tablet of 
Sakkarah, has been found at Sakkarah by M. Mariette. 

9. Look for trilingular stones in the mosks of Cairo. None have yet been found, 

but they may exist. Inscriptions of any kind found at Cairo should be care- 
fully copied. 

10. Onice.— Excavate the mounds of Onice, and look for the temple built by 

Onias. No systematic excavations have been made, but the removal of nitrous 
soil from the mounds by the villagers in 1871 laid bare some very interesting 
remains. Some specimens of what was found are in the British Museum. 
There is little doubt that the site of the city of Onias, called here Onice, is at 
at the mounds called Tel-el- Yahoodeh, near the modern village of Shibeen-el- 
Kanater, a station on the railway between Cairo and Zagazig, about 20 miles 
from the former place. 

11. Ahnasieh. — Ascertain the hieroglyphic name of Ahnasieh (Heracleopolis). 

According to M. Mariette, the hieroplyphic name is Sooten-see-nen. 

12. At Dayr Aboo Honnes, S. of Antinoe, examine the Convent in the village, 

which is said to be of early time. The Convent is destroyed. 

13. Metdhara. — Copy kings' names at the tombs of Metdhara, and columns 

with full-blown lotus capitals. The kings' names at Metdhara have been 
copied and published by Lepsius. 



44 



p. POINTS REQUIRING EXAMINATION. 



Sect. I. 



14. Hermopolitana and Thebaica Phylace. — Look for tombs in the neighbourhood. 

15. Ekhnrdm. — Look for its tombs. Ascertain the hieroglyphio name of the goddess 

Thriphis. Little or nothing found by Lepsius at Eklimeem. 

16. Thebes. — Copy all the astronomical ceilings in the tomb of Memnon, and 

other tombs of the kings ; also the whole series of the sculptures and 
hieroglyphics of one entire tomb. Copies have been made and published by 
Lepsius. 

17. Esneh. — Look for inner chambers of the temple behind the portico. Ex- 

amine the old Convent. No steps could be taken towards clearing out the 
inner chambers of the temple without first destroying that part of the modern 
village which is built over them. The convent still requires examination, and 
there are Coptic inscriptions to be copied. 

18. Ascertain what town stood near El Kenan, and the pyramid of Koola. 

19. Edfoo. — Copy the great hieroglyphic inscription of 79 columns. Copied and 

published. 

20. Assoodn. — Look for early Saracenic buildings, and the oldest pointed arches. 

21. Oasis. — Ascertain the date of the crude-brick pointed arch given by Mr. 

Hoskins at Doosh. 

22. Ethiopia. — Copy the names and sculptures of Upper Ethiopia, and make 

a list of Ethiopian kings according to their succession, and ascertain 
their dates. 

23. Mount Sinai. — Make a plan of the temple at Sarabut el Khadem. Made by 

the Ordnance Survey. 

In addition to what may yet remain to be done in any of the above points, 
the following subjects may be mentioned as worthy of occupying the attention 
of the traveller : — 

1. San. — Copy all the fragments of inscriptions on the numerous blocks of 

granite. 

2. Lsthmus of Suez. — Follow the course of the ancient Pharaonic canal, and 

look for cuneiform inscriptions. 

3. Sdkkarah. Pyramids. — Copy the whole of the inscriptions in some tomb of 

the Old Empire at either of these places : this, if properly and com- 
pletely done, would be of great service to science. 

4. Old Cairo. — Make a plan of the old Roman fortress, and of the Coptic 

church of Sitt Miriam, known as El Moallaka, " The Suspended." 

5. Asyoot. — Copy the great hieroglyphic inscription on the right of the entrance 

to the grotto called Stabl Antar. 

6. Abydos. — Try and re-construct the architectural elements of the small brick 

pyramid of the 10th and 13th dynasties. 

7. Copy in facsimile the Coptic inscriptions in the grottos of Kasr Seyad, on 

the right bank of the Nile, to the north just before reaching Keneh. 

8. Thebes, a. Luxor. — Copy the poem of Pentaoor on the base of the pylon. 

b. Medeenet Haboo. — Copy the two great historical inscriptions on the 
first pylon in the first court of the great temple, c. Tombs of the Kings. 
— Make a fac-simile copy in the two colours, black and red, of the 
roughly-drawn figures on the square pillars of No. 17, Belzoni's tomb, 
d. Earnak — Copy the two lists, containing each 115 names of peoples 
vanquished by Thothmes III., on the small pylon in front of the granite 
sanctuary. 

9. Look for stelas said to contain the names of the kings of the Xlth dynasty, 

on either bank of the river, to the north of Gebel Silsileh. 

10. Copy the historical inscriptions on the rocks of the island of Sehayl, near 

Assooan. 

11. Look for and inquire after papyri everywhere, and buy them at any price, 

but be careful of forgeries. 



Egypt 



q. ENGLISH AND ARABIC VOCABULARY. 



45 



It should be added, by way of caution, and also in explanation of the absence 
from the above list of any point involving excavation, that all old Egyptian 
remains having been placed by the Khedive under the charge of M. Mariette, 
no private individual is allowed to dig or excavate anywhere without his per- 
mission, and the exportation of objects of antiquity from the country is strictly 
forbidden. This last remark applies also to Coptic and Arab antiquities. 

q. English and Arabic Vocabulary. 

In introducing this imperfect Vocabulary, it should be observed that it is 
only intended for a person travelling in Egypt, to which the dialect followed 
particularly belongs. The English pronunciation, as much as possible, has 
been kept in view, the mode of spelling being guided by the sound of a word, 
rather than by its Arabic orthography, consequently a p has been now and 
then introduced, which letter does not exist in Arabic, but which nevertheless 
comes near to the pronunciation in certain words. It has also been thought 
better to double some of the consonants, in order to point out more clearly 
that greater stress is to be put on those letters, rather than follow the 
orthography of the Arabic, where one only was used. He, his, him, at the 
end of words, should properly be written with an h ; but it is here merely 
expressed as pronounced, with oo. For the verbs the second singular of the 
imperative has been preferred, which in an Arabic vocabulary for general 
use is better than the third person singular of the perfect tense (though this 
gives the root), or than the infinitive (musder). Those in Italics are either 
derived from, have been the origin of, or bear analogy to, a European or 
other foreign word. 

It may also be observed, that there have sometimes been introduced words 
used only by the Arabs (of the desert), and some of the common expressions 
of the people, in order that these (when of frequent occurrence) might not be 
unknown to a traveller; but in general the first and second words are the 
most used. The four kinds of Arabic are the ammee, vulgar or jargon ; ddrig, 
common parlance ; Idghaicee, literal ; and ndhwee, grammatical. 

Pronunciation. 

The a, as in father ; ay, as in may ; a or a, very broad, and frequently nasal. 

E, as in end ; ee, as in seek ; eeh, nearly as in the Italian mie. 

Ai and ei, as in German, or as y in my ; but ai rather broader. A single e, 
at the end of words, as in Doge, stroke, &c. 

/, as in is. /, as in English, but for it I have almost always used g. Indeed 
in Lower Egypt the g (gim), which should be soft, like our j, is made hard, and 
pronounced as if followed by a short i, like the Italian word Ghiaccio ; but 
whatever letter it precedes or follows, it should properly be pronounced soft. 
For the ghain, however, I use gh, a hard guttural sound. Dj as/. 

H, as our h ; and h with a dot, a very hard aspirate. 

K, as in kill. 

For the kaf, or gaf, I have used 1c with a dot, or line, below it. Its sound 
is very nearly that of a hard g, almost guttural, and much harder than our c, 
in cough. Indeed it is frequently pronounced so like a g that I have sometimes 
used that letter for it. 

Kh, as the German ch and Greek %■> Dut mucn more guttural. 

0, as in on, unless followed by w. 

as in go ; 5 and 6, rather broader; oo as in moon ; oic, as in cow. 
R is always to be distinctly pronounced, as well as the h in ah ; this h is fre- 
quently as hard as ch in loch. 



46 



q. ENGLISH AND ARABIC VOCABULARY. 



Sect. I. 



S, and sh, as in English ; but s, a hard and rather guttural sound. 

T, as in English ; and with a dot, t, very hard, almost as if preceded by u. 
Dth is like our th in that. 

Z7, as in bud: qu, as in English, when followed by another vowel: as quiyis, or 
quetis, "pretty." 

Z, as in yes at the commencement, and as in my in the middle of syllables. 
Before words beginning with t, th, g, d, dth, r, z, s, sh, and n, the / of the 
article el is ellipsed, and the e alone pronounced ; thus el shemdl reads e' shemdl, 
the left, or with the consonant doubled, esh-shemdl ; e' ras, or er-rds, the head. 
The doubled consonant, indeed, is nearer the pronunciation. 

Words within a parenthesis are either uncommonly used, as hhobs, hisra, for 
" bread," or are intended, when similar to the one before, to show the pronun- 
ciation, as makasheh (magasheh), a " broom ; " though the two words are often 
only separated by or, and a comma. Some give another meaning. 

I ought to observe that the difference of letters, as the two h's, fs, and others, 
is not always marked, but those only which I have thought of most importance, 
and in some words only here and there, to show their orthography. 



ENGLISH AND ARABIC VOCABULARY. 



Able 

About 
Above 
Absurdity 
Abundance 
Abuse, v. 
Abuse, s. 



kader. 

howalayn. 

fok, or foke. 

mus'khera. 

zeeadeh. 

ish'tem. 

sheteemeh. 



Abusive lan- id. 
guage 

By accident ; see ghusbinanee (i 



By force 
Accounts, or 

reckoning 
Add up 
Adore 

Advantage, pro 

fit 
Afraid 
I am afraid 
After 

Afterwards 

Again 

Age 

His age 

Agent 

Long ago 

Agree, v. 

A pledge, earnest,arboo 
in an agree- 
ment 

"We agreed to 
gether 

Air 

Alabaster 
Alive 



spite of myself), 
hesab. 

eg'ma. 
abed. 

fyda, or fdideh, 

nef'fa. 
kheif (khyf). 
ana kheif, a-khaf. 
bad. 

ba'den, bad-zalik. 
kummum, kummum 
om'r. [noba, tanee. 
om'roo. 
wekeel. 
zemdn. 
ittef'fuk. 



tteffuk'na weeabad. 



how'a, or how'eh. 
mar-mor, boorfee'r. 
hei, saheh (awake). 



All, collectively 
All 

All together 

At all 
Allow, v. 
Almond 
Aloe 

Alphabet 
Also 

Alter, v. 

Altitude 

Alum 

Always 

Amber 

America 



Amuse, v. 
Anchor 
Ancient 
The ancients 
And 

Et caetera 

Angel 

Anger 

To be angry 

Angle 
Animal 
Ankle 
Annoy, v. 



gimleh, gemmeean. 
kool, koolloo, pi. 

kool-loohom. 
koolloo weeabad, 

kolloohom sow'a. 
wasel. 
khal'lee. 
loz, or loze. 
subbara. 
ab'ged. 

la'kher, gazalik, 

aidun. 
gheier. 
ertifali. 
sheb. 

de'iman, or dyman. 
kahraman. 

Yenlcee dodneea (Turk- 
ish, i. e. the New 
World). 

itwun'nes. 

mur'seh, helb. 

kadeem, anteeka. 

e' nas el kadeem. 

oo. 

oo ghayr zalika. 
maldk, pi. maleiikeh. 
kahr, ghudb, zemk, 

homk. 
ez'muk, ugh'dub, 

inham'mek. 
zow'yeh. 
hywiin. 
kholkhaL 
iz'al. 



Egypt 



q. ENGLISH AND ARABIC VOCABULARY. 



47 



Annoyed 
Another 

Answer 
Answer, v. 
You are answer- 
able for 
Ant 

Antimony 



Ape 

Apostle 
Apparel 

It appears 

Appetite 

Apple 

Love apple (to- 
mato) 

Custard, apple 

Apricot (fresh 
or dry) 

dried sheet 

of, 

Arabic 

In Arabic 

Arab (i. e. of the 
desert) 

Arch, bridge 

Architect 

The ark of Noah 

Arm (of man) 
Arms (weapons) 
Arrange, v. 
Arrangement 
Art, skill 
Artichoke 
As 

Be, or I am, 

ashamed. 
Ashes 
Ass 
Ask, v. 
Ask for, v. 
Assist, v. 
At 

Avaricious 
Awake, v. a. 

, v. n. 

Awl 



zalan. 

wahed tanee, wahed 

ghayroo. 
gowab (jowab). 
rood, or roodd. 
elzemak. 

nem'el, or neml. 
kohl (for the eyes ) 

Ezek. xxiii. 40 ; 

2 Kings, ix. 30. 
kird, pi. kordod 

(gordod). 
rossool. 

lips (libs), hedodm, 

how^ig. 
bain, or byin. 
nefs. 
teffah. 

bedingan-kdta. 

kish'teh. 
mishmish. 

kumredeen (kumr- 

eddeen). 
A'rabee. 
bil A'rabee. 
Beddowee, pi. Arab * 

(Shekh - el - Arab, 

an Arab chief), 
kantara. 
mehendez. 
sefeenet saydna 

Nodeh. 
drah. 

sillah, soollah. 

sullah, sul-lah. 

tusle'eh. 

sun'na. 

khar-shdof. 

zay. 

astayhee, akhtishee. 

roomad. 

homar. 

essal, saal. 

etloob. 

sad, saad. 

fee, and. 

tumma'. 

saheh. 

as'her. 

mukh'ruz. 



Awning (of a esh'eh, tenda (Hal.). 

boat, &c.) 

Axe, or hatchet bal'ta. 

Pickaxe fas, tooree (Coptic). 



Back 

Back stream, 

eddy 
Bad (see Good) 

A bag 

Bald 

Ball 

Balsam 

Banana 

Bank of a river 

Barber 

Bark, v. 

Bark, s. 

Barley 

Barrel 

Basket 

(of palm 

sticks) 

"Wicker 

Basin 
Bat (bird) 
Bath 
Bathe, v. 
Battle 
Bead 

Beads, string of, 
carried by the 
Moslems 

Beans 

Bear, support, v. 

Bear, put up 

with, v. 
The bearer 
The bearer of 

this letter 
A bear 
Beard 
His beard 
Beat, v. 
A beating 
Beau, dandy 
Beauty 
Beautiful 
Because 
Become 
Bed 

Bedstead 



dahr, kuffa'. 
shaymeh, sheemeh. 

raMee, wahesh, 

moosh- ty'eb. 
kees, or keese. 
ak'ra. 
ko'ra. 
belisdn. 
moz (moze). 
gerf, shut, 
mezayin, mezayn. 
habhab. 
kishr (gishr). 
shayeer. 
burmeel. 
muk'taf, kdffah. 
kafFass. 

me-shenneh. 
tusht, or tisht. 
watwat, pi. wataweet 
ham mam. 
istahamma. 
harb, shemmata. 
kharras, hab 
sib'ha. 



fool. 

is'ned ; (raise) er'fa 

(see Carry), 
istah'mel. 

rafa. 

rd,fa haza e'gowab. 

dib'-h. 
dagn, dakn. 
dakneo. 
id'rob (drub). 
derb, hal'ka, kut'leh. 
shellebee, fun'garee. 
queiasa, koueiasa. 
quei-is, quiyis. 
seb'bub, beseb'bub. 
ib'ka (ib'ga). 
fersh, fursh. 



* Beddowee and Arab have the same meaning ; one is generally singular, the other plural : 
thus, " that is an Arab," " da Beddowee ; " those are Arabs," '■ d61 Arab." 



48 



q. ENGLISH AND ARABIC VOCABULARY. 



Sect. I. 



Bee 

Hive-bee 
Beef 

Beetle 

Before (time) 
Before (place) 
Beg, v.. 
Beggar 

The beginning 

Behind 

Believe, v. 

I do not believe 

Bell 
Belly 

This belongs to 
me 

Below (see 
Under) . 
A bench 
Bend, v. 
Bent (crooked) 
Berry 
Besides 

, except 

The best 
Better 

You had better 

do so 
A bet 
Betray, v. 
Between 
Beyond 

Bible 
Big 

Bill, account 
Bird, small 

, large 

Bit, piece 

of a horse 

Bite, v. 

Bitter 

Black 



Blade 
Blanket 
Blind 
Blood 
Blow, v. 
A blow 



daboor (dabboor). 

nahl, nah-1. 

lahm bukkar, lahm 

khishn. [fus. 
goran, or joran, khon- 
kub'lee. 
kod-dam. 
ish'-hat. 
shahat. 

el owel, el as'sel, assl, 

el ebtidah. 
warra, min kuffah. 
sed'dek. 

ana ma aseddek'shee 
or lem aseddek. 

gilgil, nakoos. 

batn, or botn. 

deh betaee, /. dee be- 
tatee (betahtee is 
used, hit is vulgar}. 

tah-t. 

mus'taba. 
et'nee, inten'nee. 
metnee (maoog). 
hab. 

ghayr, khelaf. 
ilia, il\ 
el ah'san. 
ah'san, a-khayr. 
ah'san tamel keddee. 

rah an eh. 

khoon. 

bayn. 

bad, warra {i.e. be- 
hind), 
towrat. 
kebeer. 
hesab. 
asfoor. 
tayr. 
het'teh. 
legam. 
odd, or add. 
morr. 

as'wed, /. soda or 
so'deh ; az'rek 
(blue, or jet black). 

siilah. 

heram, buttaneeh. 
amian (see Eye), 
dum. 

um'fookh. 

derb; on the face, 
buff (English, cuff). 



Blue (see Co- 
lours) 
Light blue 

Sky-blue 
Blunt 

A wild boar 
A board 
Boat 

Boat, ship 
Boatman 

Body 
Boil, v. 

Boiled (water) 

(meat) 

Bone 
Book 
Boot 
Border 

of cloth, 

selvage 
Born 

Borne, raised 

Borrow 

Both 



Bottle 

, square 

, earthen, 

for water 
Bottom, of a 

box, &c. 
Bow 

Bow and arrows 

Bowl 

Box 

Small box 



Boy 

Brain 

Brandy 

Brass 

Brave 
Bread 

Roll of bread 
Breadth 
, extent 



az'rek, koh'lee. 

genzaree, scander- 

anee. 
semmawee. 
bard (i. e. cold), 
haloof. 
loh. 

sefeeneh, kyaseh, 

felookah, san'dal. 
merkeb. 

nootee, marakebee, 

tyfeh. 
gessed, bed'dan. 
ighlee. 
mugh'lee. 
maslodk. 

adm, adthm, athm. 
ketab, pi. kodttub. 
gez'ma. 

harf, terf (turf), 
keenar. 

mowlodd. 
merfoda, 
sellef. 

el ethneen, wahed oo 
e'tanee, dee oo dee 
(*. e. this and that). 

kezas, gezaz (i. e. 
glass). 

morub'ba. 

koolleh, ddrak, bar- 
dak (Turkish), 
kar (gar). 

kos (koz). 
kos oo nishdb. 
kus'sah. 

senddok, pi. sena- 
deek. 

el'beh, as elbet 
e'neshok, a snuff- 
box. 

tcellet, or wullud 
(whence valet) ; Su- 
bee (i.e. chubby) 

mokh, demagh. 

ar'rakay (arakee). 

nahass-asfer, esped- 
rayg. 

gedda. 

esh (khobs, ki'sra). 

rakeef esh. 

ord. 



Egypt 



q. ENGLISH AND ARABIC VOCABULARY. 



49 



Break, v. 
Broken 

Breakfast 

Breast 

Breath 

Bribe 

Brick 

Crude brick 
Bride 
Bridge 
Bridle 

of a camel 

Bright 

shining 

light co- 
lour 
Bring, v. 
Broad 

extensive 

Broom 

Brother 
His brother 

Brother-in-law 

Brush 

Buckle 

Buffalo 

Buffoon 

Bug 

Build 

A building 
Bull 

Burden, or load 

of camels 
Buried 
Burn, v. 
Burnt 
Bury, v. 
Business 
Busy 
But, adv. 
Butter 

, fresh 

Buy, v. 
By, pr. 



Cabbage 

Cabin 

, inner 

Cable, rope 
Cairo 



Cake 
[.Egypt.-] 



ek'ser. 

maksoor; cut (as a 

rope), muktoda. 
fotoor. 
siidr (sidr). 
neffes (nef'fess). 
berteel. 

kaleb, toob ali'mar. 

toob'ny. 

arodseh. 

kan'tara. 

soor'ra. 

rus'n (russen) 

mendwer. 

lama — it is, yilma. 

maftdok. 

aat, geeb. 

areed. 

wasa. 

me-kasheh (pro- 
nounced mag^sheh). 
akh. 

akhdo ; my — akhdoia 

(akhdoya). 
neseeb. 
foor'sheh. 
ebze'em, bezeem. 
gamdos (jamdos). 
Sootaree. 
buk (Engl. bug). 
eb'nee. 

benai, binaieh. 

tor or tore (taunts). 
hem'leh. 

madfodn. 

ah'rek. keed. 

mahrook. 

id'fen. 

shoghl. 

mashghodl. 

laken, likm, likan. 

semn, me's-lee. 

zib'deh. 

ish'teree. 

be (by kindness, bil 
mardof). 

krodmb. 

mak'at (mag'at). 

khaz'neh. 

habl (cable). 

Musr, Misr, Musr e) 

Kaherah. 
kahk (cake). 



Calamity 
Calculate, v. 
Calico (from 

Calicut) 
Caliph 
Call, v. 
It is called 
What is it 

called ? 
"What is his 

name ? 
A calm 

Camel (see Ship) 

, female 

, young 

male 
, young fe- 
male 
Camp 

Camphor 
I can 
I cannot 
Candle 



Candlestick 
Cannon 
Cap, red 

, white 

Capacious 
Captain (of a 

boat) 
Caravan 
Care 

Take care 
Take care of 
I don't care 

about it 

(or him) 
Careful 
Carpenter 
Carpet 

■ , large 

Carrion 
Carry, lift, v. 

, raise 

Carry away, v. 
Cart, carriage 
Cartridge 
Case (etui) 
Cat 

Catch, v. 

in the hand 



dur'rer, azeeh. 

ah'seb. 

buf'teh. 

Khaleefeh. 

en'da, kellem, nadem. 

es'moo, ikoolahoo. 

es'moo ay? esh es'- 
moo ? 

es'moo ay ? esh es' 
moo ? 

ghaleenee. 

gem'mel, pi. genial. 

naka (nakeh). 

kadot (gadot). 

buk'kara. 

or' dee (whence 

horde ?). 
kafdor. 
ana ak'der. 
ma-akder-shee. 
shem'ma. 

shemma skander- 

anee. 
shemmadan. 
mad'feh. 
tarboosh, 
takeea (takeeh). 
wasa. 
ryis, reis. 

kaf'leh. 

igtehad. 

o'-a, ah'seb 

ah'fuz, istah'rus. 

ana malee. 

ana malee oo maloo. 

waee 

negar (nujjaV). 
segadeh (fr. seged, 

"to pray.") 
keleem, boossat. 
fatees, fate'ese. 
sheel, ayn; erfa. 

sheel, wod'dee. 
arabeeh, araba. 
rem'ieh, tame'ereh, 
zerf, bayt, elbeh, hok. 
Jcott (gott, f. gotta) ■ 

bissays ; biss. 
el'hak. 
el'koof. 

D 



50 



q. ENGLISH AND AEABIC VOCABULARY. 



Sect. I. 



Cattle baheem, bookar. 

Cauliflower karnabeet. 

The cause e'sebbub. 

A cave niaghara. 

Ceiling sukf. 

The centre el woost (middle). 

Cerastes snake hei bil koroon. 

Certainly malodm, malodmak, 

helbe't we laboob. 

Chain sil'sileh, pi. selasil. 

Chair, stool koor'see, pi. karasee. 

Chamber o'da, pi. o'ad. 

Chance, good bukht, nuse'eb, rizh 

fortune (risk, risque). 

Charcoal fah'm. [lah. 

Charity has aneh, sow-ab, lil- 

A charm hegab. 

Chase, v. istad. 

Chase, s. sayd. 

Cheap ra-khees. 

Cheat, v. ghushm, ghush'-im, 

Cheek khud. [ghish. 

Cheese gibn. 
Cherrystick pipe shehook kerays. 

Child, boy wulled. 

Children welad. 
Choke, strangle, v. itkhinnik. 

Choose, v. nuk'kee (nug'gee). 

Christian nusrdnee*, pi. Kas- 

sara (Nazarene). 

Church keneeseh. 

Cinnamon keer'feh (i. e, bark). 

Circle deira, dyreh. 

Cistern hod, hode. 

Citadel kala. 

City, capital medeeneh. 

Civet zubbet, zubbedeh. 

Civility maroof. 

Clean, v. nadduf. 

as a pipe sel'lik. 

Clean, adj. nadeef- 

Clear rei-ik, ryek. 

Clever shater. 

Cleverness shut^ra. 

Cloak bornoos. 

Close, near garei-ib (gary-ib). 

Close, v. ik'fel. 

Closet khaz'neh. 

Cloth gooh (see Linen). 

Clouds ghaym, sahab. 

Clover bersim' (burseem). 

Coals fahm hag'gar (i.e. 

" stone charcoal"). 

A live coal bus'sa, bussa-t-nar, 

Coarse, rough khishn. [gumr. 

* " He shall be called a Nazarene. 



Coast 


bur, shet. 


Cobweb 


ankaboot. 


Cock 


deek (Engl, dicky- 




bird). 


Cock-roach 


sursar. 


Coffee 


kah'-weh. 


Raw coffee 


bonn, bon. 


Coffee-pot 


bukrag, tennekeh 


(see Cup). 


Coins 


gid'dat, or giddud. 


Cold 


bard. 


The cold 


el berd, e' suk'ka 


Collect, v. 


lim. [(sug'a). 


College 


mad'resee. 


Colour 


Ion (lone), pi. elwan. 




shikl, pi. ashkal. 


Colours 


elwan, ashkal. 


black 


as'wed, az'rek ; /. 




soda, zer'ka. 


white 


ab'iad, /. bay da. 


red 


ah' mar, /. ham'ra. 


scarlet 


wer'dee. 


dark red 


ah'mar doodeh. 


purple-blue 


<5odee. 


purple 


men'oweesh. 


primrose 


bum'ba. 


peach 


khokh-ee. 


— of ashes 


roomadee. 


green 


dkhder, /. khadra. 


dark blue 


az'rek, /. zer'ka, 




ko'hlee. 


light blue 


genzaree, skandera- 




nee. 


sky-blue 


semmawee. 


brown 


as'mar, /. sam'ra. 


light brown 


kammoonee. 


yellow 


as'fer, /. saf'fra. 


orange 


portokdnee. 


spotted 


menuk'rush (menug- 


rush), munkodsh. 


dark colour 


ghamuk. 


light 


muftdoh. 


Comb 


misht. 


Come, v. 


ig'gee. 


Come up, v. 


et'la fok (foke). 


I am (he is) 


ana (hooa) gei. (gy). 


coming 


[taal. 


Come here 


taal hennee, taal gei, 


I came 


ana gayt. 


Common, low 


watee. 


Compass 


boos'leh, bayt-ebree. 


Compasses 


bee-kar. 


Complain, v. 


ish'-kee. 


of, v. 


ishtek'ee. 


Composed of 


mitruk'kib min. 



Egypt. 



q. ENGLISH AND ARABIC VOCABULARY. 



51 



Consequently 
Consulate 
Consult, v. 
Constantinople 
Continent, land, 

shore 
Continue, v. 
By contract 
Convent 
Conversation 
Cook 
Cook, v. 
Cooked meat 
Cooked, drest 
The cool 
Coop, for poultry 
Copper 

A copy (of book) 
Cord (see Rope) 
Cork, of a bottle 
Corn 

Indian corn, or 

mayz 
Corn, or wheat 
Cornelian 
Corner 

Corner, project- 
ins;, of a moun- 
tain 

It costs 

Cotton 

Cotton stuff 

Gpver, v. 

Cover 

Cough 

Count, v. 

A country 

The country 

A couple 

A couple and a 
half 

Cousin 

on mother's 

side 
Cow 



Coward 

Cream 

Creator 

Creation 

A crack, fissure 

Cracked 

Crocodile 

Crooked 

Cross 



behay's in (since). 
bayt el Konsol. 
show'er (show'wer). 
Stambdol, Istambdol. 
bur (burr). 

istamir, ber'dak. 

mekowleh (megdw- 

dayr. [leh). 

hade'et. 

tabbakh. 

et'bookh. 

tabeekh. 

mestow'ee. 

e' tarow'eh, taraw'eh. 

kaf'fass. 

nahass. 

noos'kha, nooskheh. 
habl, hab'bel. 
ghutta Lezdss. 
ghulleh. 
dodra SMmee. 

kumh (gumh). 
haggar-hakeeTc. 
rodk-n. 

koor'neh (goorna). 



es -wa. 

koton. 

kotneeh. 

ghuttee. 

ghutta. 

kohh, sehl. 

ed, ah-seb. 

belled, ekle'm. 

el khulla, el khala. 

goz, ethneen (two). 

goz oo ferd. 

ebn am, /. bint am. 
ebn khal. 

bukkar, bukkara, pi. 

bookar,boogar (Lat, 

Vacca). 
khowaf (khowwaf). 
kish'teh. 
el khaluk. 
khulk. 

shuck (shug.) 
mashkook. 

temsali,p/. temaseeh. 

ma6og. 

selceb. 



Cross, out of 

humour 
Crow 
Cruel 
Cruelty 
Cultivate, v. 
Cunning, artful 

Cup 

— glass 
Coffee-cup 
Coffee-cup stand 
Cure, v. 

Becoming cured 
It is cured 
Curious, won- 
derful 
Curtain 
Custom-house 
Cushion 
Cut, v. 

Cut with scis- 



zemkan, zalan. 
ghorab. 

moh'zee, hazee. 
azeeh, azab. 
ez'ra, i. e. sow. 
s^bab hay'leh, sa- 

hab dubar'ra. 
soltaneeh. 

koba, koobai, koo- 
fingan. [baieh. 
zerf. 

teieb (ty-eb). 

iteeb. 

tab. 

age'eb, ghareeb 

(strange), 
setarah. 
diwd.ii [douane]. 
mekhud'deh. 
ek'ta. 
koo's. 



sors, v. 
Cut, part. p. 
Cut out, as 

clothes, v. 
The cutting out e' tufseel. 



muk-toda, mekutta. 
fussel. 



Bagger 

— large 

Damp, a. 

Dance, v. 

Dandy (v. Beau) 

Danger 

He dares not 

Let him dare ! ) 

If he dares J 

Dark 

Dates 

Date-tree, palm 
Daughter 
Day 
to-day 
every day 
in days of old 
a day's jour- 
ney from 
hence 
from the day 
(or time) I 
came 
in those days 
now, in these 
days 



sekeen, khdnger. 
gembeeh, yatagdn, or 

yatahan (Turk.), 
taree. 

tarawa, rotdobeh. 
er'kus. 

khof («. e. fear), 
ma isteggereesh. 

isteg'geree ! 

ghamuk. 
bel'lah.' 
nakhl. 
bint. 

yom, pi. iyam, nahr. 
el yom, e' nahr dee. 
kool-yom, kooll-yd'm. 
aiam e'zeman, zeman. 
saffer yom min 
hen'nee. 

min nahr ma gayfc, 
min yom in gayt. 

(fee or) fil aiam dol. 
el yom, fee haza el 
wakt. 

d 2 



52 



q. ENGLISH AND ARABIC VOCABULARY. 



Sect I. 



Sunday 
Monday 
Tuesday 
Wednesday 
Thursday 
Friday 
Saturday 
Dead, s. 

Dead, died, a. 
Deaf 

Deal plank 

A great deal 
Dear 

Dear, in price 
My dear 
to a woman 



Death 
Debt 
Deceitful 
Deep 

The Deluge 
Deny, v. 
Derived from 
Descend, v. 
Descent 
The desert 



Destiny 

The Devil 

Dew 

Diamond 

Dictionary 

Die, v. 

He is dying 

He died 

Different 

Difficult 

Dig 

Diligence 

Dinner 

Directly 



el had, nahr el had. 

el ethneen. 

e'thelat. 

el e'rba. 

el khamees. 

e' godma. 

e' sebt (see Morning), 
myit, mei-it, pi. 

myeteen. 
mat. 
at'trush. 

loh - bendookee (i. e. 
Venetian). 

keteer kow'ee. 

ghalee, azeez. 

ghalee. 

ya habeebee. 

ya habeebtee, ya 
aynee, ya aynay, 
ya aydonee, i. e. 
my eye, my two 
eyes ; ya rdhee, 
my soul. 

m6t. 

dayn. 

mukkar. 

ghareek, ghoweet. 
e' toofan. 
in'kir, unkdor. 
mooshtuk min. 
in'zel. 
nezool. 

el burreeh, e'gebal, 
(i. e. the moun- 
tains). 

neseeb. 

e' Shaytdn, el Eble'es. 
nedda. 

fuss, almas (Turk.). 

kamdos. 

moot. 

bemdot. 

mat, itwufTa. 

beshka, beshkeh. 

saab, war, tekeel, 

kasee. 
faat, ef'at. 
eg'tehad. 
ghudda. 

kawam ; — in answer to 

a call, hader ! 
wus'sukh. 
kur'ruf (gurruf). 



Dirty 

Disgust (to sight 
or taste) 

I am disgusted ana akruf mm oo. 
with it . 



Disposition 
Dispute, v. 
A great distance 

Divide, v. 
Divided 
Do 

1 have nothing 
to do with it. 

I cannot do 
without it 

Doctor 

Dog 

Dollar (coin) 
A dome 

Door 
Dot 

Double, v. 
Dove 
Ringdove 
Draw, v. 

Draw out (as 

teeth) 
Drawing 

Drawers 

, chest of 

Dress 
Dress, v. 
Drink, v. 
Drive, v. 
Dromedarist, 

courier 
Dromedary 
Drop, v. 
A drop 
Drown, v. 
A druggist 
Dry 

Dry, v. a. 
— v. n. 
Duck, goose 
Dumb 
Dust 
Duty 

it is my (his) 
duty 
Dwell, v. 
Dye, v. 
Dye, dyer 

Eagle 



tubba. 

hanuk, it-hanuk. 
meshwar keeber, 

bayit. 
ek'sum. 

maksodm. [wee), 
amel (efaal, sow'- 
ana m^leesh dawa 
boo. 

ma astag'nash (as- 

taknash) an'oo. 
hakim (hakeem), 
kelb. 

reeal-franza. 
koobbeh (al koobbeh, 

alcoba, alcove}. 
bab (see Gate), 
nook'teh. 
et'nee. 
yemam. 
kim'ree. 

sow'er ; ik'tub, i. e. 

write, 
ek'la (eg'la). 

tassoweer, sdora, 

ketabeh. 
lebass. 

beshtukh'ta (Turk.). 

libs (lips). 

el'bes. 

ish'rob. 

sook (soog). 

haggan. 

heg'gin. 
nukked. 
nookteh. 

egh'-ruk, gherrek. 

attar. 

nd-shef. 

in'-shef. 

nesh-ef. 

wiz. 

ekh'-rus. 
trob, trab. 
wageb. 
wageb-alay. 

is'koon. 
es'boogh. 
sabagh, sabbagh. 

kdol-e-wahed 

(every one), 
akab, okab. 



Egypt. 



q. ENGLISH AND ARABIC VOCABULARY. 



53 




widn. 

bed'ree, bed'ree. 

ard. 

sberk. 

s£lhil, sah'leh. 
kool, akool. 
harf. 
sword, had, harf. 



Egypt 

Upper Egypt 

Elbow 

Elephant 

Nothing else, 
there is no- 
thing else 

Emerald 

Empty 

Empty, v. 

The end 

The end, its end 

The enemy 

English 

Enough 

It is enough 

Enquire, v. 

Enter, v. 

Entering 

Entire 

Entrails 

Envy 

Equal to 

Equal to each 
other, alike 

Escape, v. 
he escaped 
he has escaped 
with his life 

An estate, rented 

property, 



Europe 

European kings 
European people 

English 

French 

A Frenchman 

Germans 

a German 

Russians 

a Russian 

Italians 



bayd. 

Mus'ree, belledee, i. e. 

of the country. 
Musr, ard Musr, Misr. 
e' Sa'eed. 
kdoa. 
feel. 

ma feesh hagee 
ghayroo ; lem fe"e 
ha shay ghayrha. 

zoomoorrud. 

fargh. 

fer'regh. 

el akher. [kheroo. 
e' terf, ter'foo, a- 
el adoo, addoo. 
Ingleez, Inkleez. 
bess, bizeeddeh. 
ik'feh, yikfeh, ikef- 
istuk'see. [fee. 
id'khol, khosh. 
dakhil. 

koolloo, kameL 
mussareen. 
gheereh. 
kud, ala kud. 
kud-e-bad, zaybad. 

et'fush, yetfush. 
tufFush. 

omroo toweel, nef- 

fed be omroo. 
ard (or belled) elti- 
milk. [zam. 

Eurdpa, beled (bel- 
led) el Frang. 

el koronat el Frang. 

Frang, Afrang. 

Inglees, Inklees. 

Fransees. 
Fransowee. 

Nemsoweeh. 
Nemsowee. 

Mosko, Moskoweeh. 
Moskow'ee. 

Italidni. 



Poland 

Hungary 

Greeks 

a Greek 

Spain 
Even, level, 

equal 
Even, also 
Good evening 

(see Morning) 

The evening 
Every 

On every side 
Every one 

Every where 

Every moment 

Evident 

Evil 

Exaction 
Exactly 
Exactly so 
Exactly like it 

For example 
To excavate 
Excavation 
Excellent 
Your excellency 



Except, adv. 

Exchange 

Excuse 

Excuse me, I 
beg pardon 

Execute, deca- 
pitate 

Expend, v. 

Expense 

Expenses (of a 
house) 

Explain, ex- 
pound 

An extraordi- 
nary thing 

The eye 

Eyeball 

Eyebrow 

Eyelash 



Lehh. 

Muggar. 

Erooam'. 
Roomee. 

Beled el An'daloos. . 

mesow'wee (mesa- 
wee). 

hat'ta. 

messekoom bil khayr 
sal khayr, sad mes- 
sakoom. 

el messa, el asheeh. 

kool. 

fee kool-e' nahia. 
kool-e-wahed, kool- 

lohom (all), 
fee kool - e- matrah, 

fee kool-e-dodneea. 
kool-e-saa. 
bein (bain, byin). 
radee. 
bal'sa. 

temam, i.e. perfect, 
bizdtoo. 

zayoo sow'-a, mitloo 

sow'-a, bizatoo. 
mus'salen. 
efat, faat. 
fat, faat. 
azeem. 

genabak, hadretak 
(your presence), 
sadtak ( — high- 
ness), pi. genah- 
koom, hadratkoom, 
sadetkoom. 

ilia. 

bed-del, gheier. 
heg'geh, pi. heg'geg, 
oz'r. 

ma takhozndsh, el 

afoo. 
dya, deia, dei-ya. 

deia (dei-ya, dy-ya). 

kool'feh. 

masrdof. 



fusser. 

shay ageeb, ageiib, 

shay ghareeb. 
el ayn, pi. el aidon. 
habbet el ayn. 
hd-geb, pi. howagib. 
rimsh. 



54 q. ENGLISH AND ARABIC VOCABULARY. Sect. I. 



Eyelid 


kobbet el ayn. 


Fire, live coal 


bus'sa, bus'set-nar, 


One-eyed 


awr, ower. 




gumr, jum'ra. 






Fire a gun 


id'rob (or syeb), ben 


The face 


el wisih (el widj). 


dookeeh. 


Faded,shrivelled dublan. 


The first 


el ow'-el, el owelanee. 


Faint, v. 


dookh. 


When first I 


ow'el ma gayt. 


A fair price 


temn halla 1 , temn 


came 


menaseb. 


At first 


ow'elen. 


Very fair, toler- 


menaseb. 


Fish 


semmuk. 


able 




Fisherman 


sy-dd, semmak. 


Faith (creed), shahada. 


Flag 


bayrek, bandiy ra, 
s&n'gak. 


testimony of 






"Fall 11 
X till, v. 


uka, yodka. 


Flat 


mebuttut. 


I alse 


keddab. 


Flax 


kettan. 


His family 


alii baytoo, ahloo. 


Flea 


berghoot. 


I 1 an 


merwaha. 


Flesh 


lahm. 


Far 


bay-it. 


Flint 


sowan. 


How far from 


kud-ay min hennee. 


Flour 


dakeelc. 


this? 


Flower 


zahr, now^h. 


A farce, or ab- 
surdity 


mus-khera. 


A fly 


deban (debban). 
menash'eh. 




Fly-flap 


A fairy 


gin. 


Fly, v. 


teer. 


Farrier 


beetar. 


Fog 


shabodr. 


Farther 


abbad, abad. 


Fool 


magnodn. 


Fat, a. 


semeen, ghaleet. 


Foot 


kuddum (gudm). 


Fat, s. 


semn, shahm, dehn. 


Footstep 


at'ter (attar). 


Father 


ab, abdo, abee. 


For 


me-shau, ali-shan. 


Fatigue 


taab. 


Force 


ghusb (ghusp) 


Fault 


zemb. 


By force, in spite ghusbinanoo, ghusb 
of him a'lay. 


It is not my 


ma'leesh zemb, ma f - 


fault 


leesh daw'a. 


Forehead 


kodreh. 


Do me the fa- 


amel mardof, 


, lower 


gebeen. 


vour, kindness amelni el mardof. 


part of 


Favorisca (Ital.) tefod'thel, tefod'del. 


Foreign 


barranee, ghareeb. 


Fear 


khof, khdfe. 


To speak in a 


ertun : subst. rotan. 


A feast 


azodmeh. 


foreign language 


Feather 


reesh. 


Forget, v. 


in'sa. 


Feel, v. 


hassus. 


I forgot 


ana nesedt. 


Female 


netai, neteieh, nety, 


Do not forget 


ma tinsash. 


Ferry-boat 


madeeh. [odnseh. 


Forgive me 


sud, malesh. 


Field 


el ghayt. 


Forgive, v. 


se-m&h. 


Fig 


tin. 


Fork 


shdk (shoke), 


Fight, v. 


katel, hareb. 


Formerly 


zeman. 


A fight 


ketal, harb, shem- 


Good fortune. 


bukht, nesdeb, risk. 


mata. 


Fountain 


feskeeh. 


File 


mub'red. 


A fowl 


fur'-kher, fardog. 


Fill, v. 


em'la. 


Fox 


abool-hossayn, tdleb. 


Find, v. 


el'kah (elga). 


Free 


horr. 


Finger 


suba (sooba). 


Frenchman 


Franz owee, pi. Fran- 
zees. Fran'gee is 


Fore finger 


e' shaded. 




Middle — 


suba el woostanee. 




a corruption of 


Fourth — 


bayn el asaba. 




Francais ; it is fre- 


Little — 


khansur, khun'ser. 




quently used as a ' i 


It is finished 


khalas, khd-les, 
khul'les, khdlset,/. 




term of reproach, i 
but never as free- f 


Fire 


nar. 


• 


man. [ 



Egypt. 



q. ENGLISH AND ARABIC VOCABULARY. 



55 



Fresh, new 
Fresh (fruit) 
Fresh water 

(sweet) 
Friend 



From 

Fruit 

Fuel 

Full 

Fur 

Further 

Gain (profit) 
Gallop, v. 
Game (caccia) 
Garden 



Gardener 
(who irri- 
gates) 
Garlic 
Gate (door) 

Gather up, v. 
Gazelle 
A general 
Generosity 
He is generous 

Gentlemanly 

man 
Gently 

Get up 
Gift 

Gilt 

Gimlet 
Gold 
Ginger 
Gipsy 
Gird, v. 
Girl 
Give, v. 
Glad 

To be glad, v. 

Glass 

Globe 

Glove 

Glue 

Gnat 

Go, v. 



gede'et. 

tar'ree ; /. tareeh. 
moie helweh. 

saheb, habeeb, re- 
feek, i. e. com- 
panion. 

min. 

fowakee 

wekeed. 

melan, meMn. 

furweh. 

dbid. 

muk'seb. 

er'mah. 

sayd. 

ginnayneh, bostan, 
pi ginnein, bus- 
sateen. 

genayndtee. 

kholee. 

torn. 

bab, pi. biban, or 

abodb. 
lim. 

ghaz^l, dubbee. 
sdree-dsker (sarasker). 
kar'rem. 

eedoo maftodh, i. e. 

his hand is open, 
ragel lateef, ragel 

zereef. 
be-shw5'-esh, dla 

mahlak. 
koom. 

hadeeh, bak-shdesh, 

(bakshish) 
medahab, mutlee be 

daliab. 
bereemeh. 
ddhab, dthdhab. 
genzabeel. 
ghug'ger. 

haz'zem, it-haz'zem. 
bint. 

id'dee, a/tee. 
ferhan. 

dfrah, or effrah. 

kezdiss. 

kdra. 

shurab (i. e. stocking). 

gher'reh. 

namods. 

rooh. 



Go, get away, v. 
Go in, v. 
Gone 
Going 
Going in, p. 
Going in, s. 
I am going 
He is gone 
I went 
Go out, v. 
Do not go out 
Goat 
She goat 
Kid 

God (our Lord) 
A god or deity 



Good 

Good, excellent 

Good for no- 
thing 

Pretty good, fair 

Goose 

Gossip, v. 

Governor, -ment 

The government 

Gradual, little 
by little 

A grain 

— weight 

Grand 

Granite 

Grass 

Gratis 

Gratitude 

A grave 

Grease 

Great 

Greek 

Ancient Greek 
Grieved (it has) 
Grind, v. 
A mortar 
Grind (in a 

mill), v. 
Groom 
Grotto 
The ground 
A guard 
Guard of a 

sword 
Guard, v. 
By guess 
A guide 



im'shee, foot, 
id'khool, hosh'. 
rah. 
ryeh. 
da'khel. 
dokhdol. 
ana rye. 
hooa rah. 

ana rdht. fbar'ra. 
ekh'roog, etla, etla 
la-tetla, ma tetlash 
may-zeh. [bar'ra. 
an'zeh. 
giddee. 

Allah (e' rob'boona). 

Illah, as la illah 31' 
Allah, " there is no 
deity but God." 

teieb, tyeb, meleeh. 

madan {%. e. a mine). 

battal, ma es'wash 
hageh. 

menaseb. 

wiz. 

dur'dish. 
hakem, hokmeh. 
el bayleek, el wese'eh. 
shwo'ya be shwo'ya. 

hab. 
kumh. 

azeem. [nite). 
haggar aswan (i.e. sye- 
hashlsh. 
bellesh. 

ma'refet e' gemeel. 
todrbeh, pi. todrob. 
ziffr. 

kebeer, pi. koobar. 
Hoomee, borrowed 

from Romanus. 
Yoondnee, i.e. Ionian, 
hazeen (sab alay). 
is-han. 

mus-han, hon (hone), 
lt-han. 

sy-is, sens, 
ma-ghara. 
el ard. 

ghuffeer,pj. ghutFara. 
bur'shuk. 

istah'rus. 

be tekhmeen. 

khebeeree. 



56 



q. ENGLISH AND ARABIC VOCABULARY. 



Sect. I. 



He is not guilty ma lodsh zemb. 



Gum 
Gun 



Gunpowder 
Gust of wind 
Gypsum 

Hair 

Half 

In halves 

Halt, v. 

Hammer, axe 

A hand 

Handful 

Handkerchief 

Hand, v. 

Happen 

Happened 

Happy 

Harbour 

Hard 

Hare, rabbit 
Harm 

To do harm, v. 
There is no harm 

(see Never 

mind) 
In haste 
A hat 
Hatchet 
Hate, v. 
I have 
Have you? 
Hawk 
Hay 
He, it 
Head 
Heal, v. 
Heap 
Hear, v. 
Heart 
Heat, v. 
Heat, s. 
Heaven 
— , paradise 
Heavy 
Hebrew 
The heel 
Height 
High ground 
Hell 
Herbs 
Here 



sumgh. 
bendookeeh (being ori- 
ginally brought 
from Venice by the 
Arabs), barodt. 
baroot. 

shurd (pi. shoro<5d). 
gips (gibs). 

shar. 

noos, noosf. 
noosayn. 

wuk'kuf (wugguf ). 
kadodm. 
eed, yed. 
keb'sheh. 

mandeel, mahrama. 
now'e'L 

eg'ra, yig'ra, ye seer, 
gerra, sar. 
fer-han, mabsodt. 
mer'seh, scdla. 
gamed, yabes. 
er'neb. [rer. 
dur'rer, dordora, zur* 
door, iddor. 
ma feesh durrer. 



kawam, belaggel. 

bornayta (from Ital.). 

bal'ta, kadodm. 

ek'rah, yek'rah. 

an'dee. 

an'dak ? 

sukr. 

drees. 

hoda, (she — ) heea. 
ras, demagh. 
iteeb. 

kom (kome). 

es'-ma. 

kulb. 

sa'khen, ham'mee. 
har, sokhneeh, ham'- 
semma. [moo. 
gen'neh. 
tekeel. 

Jlebrdnee, Yahoodee. 
el kab. 

el-oo, elloo, ertifah. 
elwaieh. 
gehen'nem. 
ha-sheesh, khoddr. 
hennee, hen'i. 



Here it (he) is a-hd, a-hd hennee. 
Come here taal hennee. 
Hereafter min de'lwakt, min el« 

yom, min-oo-rye. 
Hide, v. khub'bee. 
Hidden mistakhub'bee. 
High aalee. 
Hill kom, gebel (gebbel). 

Hinder, v. (stop) hosh. 
Hire, s. kerree, ar'ruk, dgera; 

v. ek'ree. 

His beta-oo ; betahtoo, 

fern. 

Hoard up, v. howish. 
Hold, v. im'sek. 
Hole kherk. 



Bored, pierced makhrook. 



Hollow 
His home 
At home 
Honest man 
Honey ("white," 

or " of bees ") 
Hook (fish) sunnara. 
Hooks (and eyes) khobshat. 
Hooka sheesheh, 
(Turk.), 
— — snake ly, lei. 
I hope, or please Inshallah. 

God 



fargh. 
baytoo. 
fil bayt. 
ragel mazbodt. 
assal ab'iad, assal e T 
nahl. 



narkileh 



Horn 
Horse 
Horses 

Mare 

Colt 
Horseman 
Hot 

weather 

House 

Hour 

How 

How do you do ? 



[kun. 
mes'- 



hom ; pi. kordon. 
hossan. 
khayl. 
farras. 
mdh'r. 

khy-al, fa-res. 
hdmee, sdkhn. 
har. 

bayt, men'zel, 
saa. 
kayf. 

kayfak, zayak, kayf- 
el-kayf, tyebeen. 
insaneeh. 

shekleban (sheg-le- 

ban), khab'bas. 
rotdobeh, taraweh. 

(neddeh). 
meea, maia. 
meetayn. 



Human 

Humbug, pre- 
varicator 

Humidity 
— (dew) 

Hundred 
Two hundred 

Three hundred todlte-meea. 
Hungry gaya'n, jay an. 

Hunt, v. seed, istad, et-rood 

e'sayd. 

Hunter §yad, ghunnas, boar- 

dee, with gun. 



Egypt- 



q. ENGLISH AND ARABIC VOCABULARY. 



57 



In order that leg'leh ma tekser- 
you may not shee khatroo. 
hurt his feel- 
ings, or dis- 
appoint him 

Husbandman fel-lah ; pi. fellaheen. 



Husband 
Hyena 

X 

Jackal 
Jar 

Javelin 
Ice 

Identical 

Idle 

Idol 

Jealousy 
Jerusalem 



Jessamine 
In jest 
Jew 

Ancient Jews 
If 

Ignorant, novice 
111, a. 

Illness 

I imagine, v. 

It is impossible 

In, within 

Incense 

Income 

Indeed 

Indigo 

Infidel 

Ingratitude 

Ink 

Inkstand 
Inquire, v. 
Inside 
, s. 

Insolence (of 

language) 
For instance 
Instead 
Instrument 

tools 

Interpret, v. 
Interpreter 



goz, zoge. 
dob'h, dobbh. 

ana. 
taleb. 

jar'ra, kiddreh. 
har'beh, khisht. 
telg. 
bizatoo. 
tum'bal, battal. 
sdora, mas-khdota, 
sun'num (su'nm). 
gheereh. 

el Kotts, el Kods, 
"the Holy" ((7a- 
dytis). 

yesmeen. 

bil dehek ; see Joke. 
Yahoodee. 
Beni Izraeel. 
in-kan, izakdn, l'zza, 

lo-kan, mut'tama. 
gha-sheem. 
meshow'esh, aian, 

ai-yan, daeef. 
tashoweesh. 
tekhmeenee, ana 

azoon. 
ma yoomkin'sh, la 

yoomkin ebeden. 
gooa; at 7 fee. 
bokhar. 
erad. 
hatta. 

neeleh. [fere'en. 
kdfer, pi. koofar, ka- 
khusseeh, khussdseh. 
heb'r, hebber. 
dowai, dowaieh. 
saal, es'saal. 
gooa, fee kulb. 
el kulb. 

toolt e' lissan, kootr 

el kald,m. 
mus'salen. 
bedal. 

doolab, i. e. machine, 
ed'deh. 

ter'gem (translate). 
tergiman, toorgiman. 



Intestines 
Intoxicated 
Intrigue, plot 
Intriguer 

Joke 

Journey 
Joy 
Joyful 
Iron 

Irrigate, v. 
Is there ? there ii 
There is not 
Island 
Judge 
Its juice 
Just 

Just now 

Keep, take care 
of 

Keep, hold, v. 
Kettle 
Key 
Kick, v. 
Kidney 
Kill, v. 
Killed 
Kind, s. 
Kind, a. 
Kindle, v. 
King 
Kingdom 
Kiss 
Kitchen 
Kite, miluus 
Knee 
Knave 
Knife 

Penknife 
Knot 
Know, v. 
I do not know 

Knowledge 

Ladder 
Lady 

Lake, pond, pool 
Lame 
Lamp 
Lance 
Land 
Lantern 
Large 



mussareen. 
sakran. 
fit'neh, khabs. 
fettan, khabbas. 

iayb, mus-khera, day- 
saffer. [hek, mezh. 
ferrah. 

fer'han, mabsdot. 

hacleet. 

is'kee. 

fee. 

ma feesh. 
gezeereh. 
kadee. 
mdietoo. 
hakeek, sedeek. 
tow, tou. 

istah'rus, ah r fod, ah' 
fuz. 

im'sek, hosh {stop). 

buk'rag. 

muftah. 

er'fus. 

kaylweh, kilweh. 
mow'et, mow'wet. 
mat, myit. 
gens. 

sd,hab mardof, hine'iin. 

keed (geed). 

melek(mellek),soltdn. 

mem'lekeh. 

bos'sa. 

mud'bakh. 

hedy (hedei). 

rook'beh. 

ebn haram. 

sekeen ; pi. sekakeen. 

matweh. 

ok'deh. 

aref. 

ma ar^fshee, ma maish 

khabber. 
mayrefeh, mayrefeh. 

taab. 
sil'lem. 

sit, sit'teh (mistress). 

beer'keh. 

a'rug. 

kandeel, mus'rag. 
hdrbeh. 

ard, bur (ppp. to sea), 
fandos, 

kebeer, arced, wasa. 
d 3 



58 



q. ENGLISH AND ARABIC VOCABULARY. 



Sect. I. 



Lark 
The last 
Last, v. 
It is late 
Laugh, v. 
Laughter 
Law, justice 
Lay, v. 
Lay, v. a. 
Lazy 
Lead, s. 
Leaf (of book) 
Leap, v. 
Learn, v. 
Lease (ofahouse) 
Leather 



Leather.common 

morocco 

Russia 

Leave, s. 
Without leave 
Leave, v. 
Leaven 
Ledge 
Leech 
Leek 
Left, a. 
Leg 
Lemon 

(European 

kind) 
Lend, v. 
Length 

Lengthen, v. n. 

■, v. a. 

Lentils 
Leopard 
Less 

Let go, or 
alone, v. 
Letter 

, epistle 

Level 
Level, v. 
Liar 
Lie 

Liberate, en- 
franchise, v. 
Liberated 
Life 
Lift, v. 
Light, a. 



koomba. 

el a-kher, el akhranee. 

o'kut keteer,istahmel. 

el wakt rah. 

it'-hak. 

dehek. 

shurra. 

er'koot. 

rukket. 

tum'bal. 

rossass. 

warakeh, war'rak. 
noot (nut), 
itaalem, diem, 
o'gera, kerree. 
gild matbodk (mat- 

boog), " tanned 

skin." 
gild horr. 
sakhtian. 
thelateenee. 
ez'n, egazeh. 
min ghayr egazeh. 
khal'lee, foot, 
khummeer. 
soffa. 
aluk. 
korat. 

shemaL yesdr. 
rigl. 

laymoon, laymoon 

malh. 
laymoon Addlia. 

iddee-sellef, eslif. 

tool. 

it'wel. 

tow'el, towwel. 
atz, ads, addus. 
nimr. 

as'gher, akull. 
sy-eb, khallee. 

harf, pi. hardof. 
maktdob, gow'ab, 

warrakeh. 
mesow'wee. 
sow'wee. 
keddab. 
kidb. 
atuk. 

matook. 
om'r, hya. 
sheel, er'fa, ayn. 
khafeef. 



Light colour 
, s. 

Light the candle 
Give light to, v. 
Lightning 
As you like 



Like, a. 

In like manner 

I like (it pleases 

me) 
I should like 
Lime 

Lime (fruit) 
Line, or mark 

Linen-cloth 
Linseed 
Lion 
Lip 

Listen, v. 
Listen, hear 
Listen to, take 

advice 
Little, small 
Little, not much 
Live, «. 
Liver 
Lizard 
Load 
Load, v. 
Loaf of bread 
Lock 

wooden 

Padlock 
Lock, v. 
Lofty 
Long 
Look, v. 
Loose, a. 
Loosen, v. 
At liberty 
Lose, v. 
Love 
Love, v. 
Low 
Lupins 

Machine 

Mad 
Madam 

Magazine 

Maggot 



maftdoh. 
noor. 

wulla e' shem'ma. 
now'er, nowwer. 
berk. 

ala kayfak, ala me- 
zagak, ala kur- 
radak. 

zay, mittel, mitl, kayf. 

gazalik el omr, ga- 
thdlik. 

yagebnee. 

fee khatree, biddee. 
geer. 

laymo<5n helw (hel'oo). 
khot, suttr (of a 

book), 
komash kettan. 
bizr kettan. 



shiffeh. 
sen'ned. 
es'ma. 
tow'wa. 

sogheer, zwyer. 

shwoya. 

aesh, esh. 

kib'deh. 

boorse, sahleeh. 

hem'leh. 

ham'mel. 

rakeef esh. 

kayloon. 

dob'beh. 

kufl. 

eVfel. 

dlee. 

toweel. 

shoof, boss, ondoor. 
waga. 

sy-eb, hell (see Undo). 

mesyeb, me-seieb. 

dy-ah, deiah. 

hob. ' 

heb. 

Avatee. 

tirmes, tur'mis (Copt.). 

doolab. 

magnodn. 

sittee. 

hasel, shon, shdona, 

rnaklxzen. 
doot. 



Egypt 

Magic 

Male 

Female 

Make, v. 
Made 
Mallet 
Man 

Mankind 

Manufactory 
Many 
Marble 
Mark, v. 

Market 
Marrow 
Marry, v. 
Mast 
Master 
Mat, s. 

What's the 
matter ? 

with you ? 

Matters 

, things 

Mattrass 
Measure 

of length 

Meat 
Meet, v. 
Medicine 
Memory 
Merchant 

Mercury 

Messenger 

Metals, mine 

Middle 

Middle-sized 

Mighty, abie 

Milk 

A mill 
Press mill 
Minaret 
"Never mind 
A mine 
Mine, of me 
Minute, s. 

Mirror, s. 
Mix, v. 



q. ENGLISH AND ARABIC VOCABULARY. 



59 



sayher (sayhr.) 
dthukker. 

nety-eh, nety, oon'- 

seh. 
aamel. 
mamdol. 
dokmak. 
ragel; pi. regal, 
insan, beni aiam 

(sons of Adam), 
wer'sheh. 
keteer. 
ro-kham. 
alem. 

alam {see Line), 
sook, bazar. 
mokh. 

gow'-es, zow'-eg. 

saree. 

sid, seed. 

hasseereh (hasse'era) ; 

pi. hossor. 
khabbar - ay, gerra 

ay. 
mdlak. 
omoor. 
asheeat. 
mar'taba. 
meezan. 
keeas. 
lahm. 
kabel. 

dow'-a, dow'eh. 
fikr, bal. 

tager, hawagee,* 

mesebbub. 
zaybuk. 
syee, sai. 
madan. 

icoost (Eng. waist). 

woostanee. 

kader. 

lub'ben (lub'bun), 

hale'eb. 
tahoon. 
ma'sarah. 
madneh. 

See Never and Harm, 
madan ; pi. maadin. 
betaee; /. betahtee. 
dakeekeh : pi. da- 

ky-ik, dagaiik. 
mirde'i, mordi. 
ekh'let. 



Mixed 

Modest 

Moist 

Monastery 

Money 

Monkey 

Monk 

Month 



makhldot. 

mestayhee. 

taree {see Humidity). 

dayr. 

floos (from obolus?). 
nesnas. 

rahib ; pi. robbfln. 
shahr : pi. shoh6or, 
esh-hoor. 



Names of the 

1. Moharrem. 

2. Saffer. 

3. Rebeeh 'l-owel. 

4. Kebeeh '1-a- 

kher. 

5. Go6mad-owel 

6. Goomad-akher 

7. Reg'eb. 



Arabic Months. 

8. Shaban. 

9. Ramaddn. 

10. Showal. 

11. El Kadeh, or 

Zul-kadeh. 

12. El Ho'g-h, 

or Zul-Heg 
(Hag). 



Moon 
Moral, a. 
Morning 

Dawn 

Sunrise 

Forenoon 

Midday 

Afternoon 

Sunset 

1§ hour after 

sunset 
Evening 
Good morning 

Morrow 

the day after 
A mortar 
Mosk 



At most, at the 

utmost 
Moth (of clothes) 
Mother 

of pearl 

My (his) mother 
Move, v. n. 

, v. a. 

Mountain 

Mount, ascend, r. 

, ride, v. 

Mouth 



kumr (masc). 
mazbodt. 
soobh, sabah. 
feg_'r (fegger). 
telat e'sbems. 
da-hah. 
dohr. 
asser. 
mughreb. 
esh'a, ash'a. 

messa, ashe'eh. 
sabdl khayr, saba- 

koom bel-khayr. 
bodkra, baker, 
bad bodkra. 
hone, hon, miis-han. 
gamah, musged (from 

se'ged, " to bow 

down"), 
nahaitoo. 

kitteh. 
om. 

sudduf. 

ommee (ommoo). 
haz. 

kow'wum. 

geb'el (gebbel), pi. 

gebal. 
et'la foke (fok). 
erkub. 

fom, hannak (han'ak). 



* Hawagee, a Christian : Khowagee, a Moslem. 



60 

Much 

Mud 
Mug 
Musk 
Musquito 

net 

You must 
Mustard 
Mutton 
My 



My son 

Iff ail 

Nail, v. 
Naked 
Name 
Napkin 

Narrow 
Nature, the 

Creator 
Near 

Neat, elegant 
It is necessary 
Neck 
Needle 

packing 

Negro 

Neigh (whinny) v 
Neighbours 
Neither (one 

nor the other) 
Net 
Never 

Never mind, v. 
New- 
News, to tell, 
Next 



Kick-name 

Night 

Nitre 

refined 

No, nor 
Noble, prince 

North 
Nose 



q. ENGLISH AND ARABIC VOCABULARY. 



Sect. I. 



keteer (see Quantity, 
and What). 

teen, wah-1, wahal. 

kooz. 

misk. 

namdos. 

namooseeh. 

lazem. 

khar'del. 

lahm danee. 

betaee ; betalitee, 
fern., as, farras be- 
tahtee, my mare. 

ebnee. 

mesmar. 
sum'mer. 
ariah. 
esm. 

mah'rama, vulgarly 

foota. 
dyik, dtheiik. 
el khaluk. 

kary-ib (garei-ib). 
zereef. 

lazem, elzem. 
ruk'abeh (rukkabeh). 
eb'ree, pi. o'bar. 
meselleh, mayber. 
abd (" slave"), ragel 

as'wed. 
hen' (Jiinnire, Lat.). 
geeran, sing. gar. 
wulla wahed wulla 

e'tanee. 
shebbekeh. 
eb'eden, ebbeden. 
malesh, ma anndosh. 
gedeet, gedeed. 
khabber (kliabbar). 
e'tanee (ettanee), 

alagemboo (at 

its side), 
nukb, lakb. 
layl, pi. layal. 
sub'bukh. 
bardot abiad. 
la, wulla. 

emeer, ameer, pi. 

dmara. 
shemal, bahree. 
monokheer, unf. 



Not moosh. 
Not so moosh keddee, maosh 

keza. 
ma feesh hageh. 
belesh. 

de'lwakt [see Day], 



Nothing, none 
For nothing 
Now 

A great number keteer kowee. 
Number, v. ahseb, edd. 



The Number, 

1, wahed. 

2, ethneen. 

3, thelata. 

4, er'ba. 

5, khamsa. 

6, sitteh, sitt. 

7, saba. 

8, themanieh. 

9, tesa (tes'sa). 

10, asherah. 

11, hedasher. 

30, thelateen. 
40, erbaeen. 
50, khamseen. 
60, sitteen. 
70, sabaeen. 
80, themaneen. 
90, tesaeen. 



. El Eddud. 

12, ethndsher. 

13, thelatasher. 

14, erbatasher. 

15, khamstasher. 

16, sittasher. 

17, sabatasher. 

18, themantasher. 

19, tesatasher. 

20, ashereen. 

21, wahed oo ashe- 
reen, etc. 

100, meea (see Hun- 
dred). 

101, meea oo wahed. 
120 meea oo ashe- 
reen. 

1000, elf. 

1100, elf oo meea. 



Nurse 
Nut 

Oar 

Oath 

The ocean 

The Mediterra- 
nean 

An odd one 

A pair and an 
odd one. 

Do not be of- 
fended (hurt) 

Often, many 
times 

Oil of olives 
Sweet oil 

Lamp oil 
Train oil 



d&da (Turk.), mor- 
ben'dook. [d'ah. 

mukdaf, pi. maka- 

deef. 
helfan, yameen. 
el bahr el malh, el 

maleh. 
el bahr el ab'iad, i. e. 

the vjhite sea. 
ferd, furd. 
goz oo ferd. 

ma takhodshee ala 

khatrak. 
keteer ndba, kam 

no'ba! (i. e. how 

many times !) 
zayt-zaytdon. 
zayt-ty-eb,* zayt- 

helwa. 
seerig f 
zayt-har.J 



* From the kortum, or Carthamus tinctorius. 
f From the sinisim, or Sesamum Orientate. J From the flax. 



Egypt. 



q. ENGLISH AND ARABIC VOCABULARY. 



61 



Lettuce oil 
Old, ancient 
Old in age 
On, upon 
One 

The very one 
Once 
Onion 
Open, v. 
Open, p. p. 
Opening 



Or 



Orange 
Order, com- 
mand, v. 
Order, s. 
Set in order, v. 
In order that 
Origin 
Ostrich 
The other 
Another 



Oven 

Over 

Overplus 

Over and above 

Overturn, v. 

Overturned 

Overtake, v. 

Our 

Out 

Outside 
Owl 

Owner 
Oxen 

Padlock 

Pail 
Pain 
Paint, s. 
Paint, dye, v. 
A pair 
Pale 

Palm, date tree 
Pane (of glass) 
Paper 

A para (coin) 
Parsley 



zayt-khuss. 
kadeem, min zeman. 



fdk. 

wahed ; see Numbers, 
bizatoo. 

noba wahed, marra 
bus r sal. [wahed. 
ef tah. 
maftdoh. 

faVhah, applied also 
to the 1st chapter 
of the KorcCn. 

wulla, ya, ow ; e. g. 
either this or none, 
ya dee ya belesh. 

portdkan. 

aomdor, omdor. 



woddub. 
leg'leh. 
as'sel, assl. 
naam. 

e'tanee, el £-kher. 
willed akher, wahed 

ghayr, wdhed t£- 

nee, ghayroo. 
foorn. 

fdke (foke). 

zeeadeh. 

zyid. 

egh'leb. 

maghldob. 

el'hak. 

beta^ia, beta-ndhna. 

barra. 

min barra. 

muss^sa ; (horned 

— ) bdoma. 
sahab. 

teeran ; see Bull, 
kufl. 

sutl, dilweh. 

wgh'ga. 

bodia. 

es'boogh, low'wen. 
goz, ethneen. 
ab'iad, as'fer. 
nakhl, nd,kh-el. 
loh — kezas. 
war'ak ; (leaf of) 
warrakeh, ferkh. 
fodda, i. e. silver, 
bakddonis. 



Part, piece 

Partridge 

Partner 

Party 

Pass, v. n. 

Paste 

Patch, s. 

Patience 

Patient 

Be patient 

He is patient 

Pay money, v. 

Peace, pardon 

cessation 

of war 

We have made 
peace with 
each other. 

Pear 

, prickly, 

or Cactus. 
Peas 
Peasant 
Peel 
Pen 

Lead pencil 
People 
Our people 
Perfect 

entire 

Perfidy 

Perhaps 

Persia 

Persian 

Person, self 

A piastre (coin) 

Pickaxe; see Axe 

Pickles 

Picture 

A piece 

Piece, v. 

Pig 

Pigeon 

Pilgrim 

Pill 

Pin 

Pinch, v. 

Pinch, s. 

Pinchbeck (me- 
tal) 

Pipe 

Pipe, 
piece 

Pistol 

A pair of pistols 
A single pistol 



mouth- 



hetteh. 
hag'gel. 
shereek. 
gem/ma. 

foot ; v. a. fow'wet, 
aseedeh, ageen. 
roka, roga. 
tdol-t-el-bal, sabbr. 
saber. 

tow r el balak, tisboor. 

rohoo toweel. 

ed'fa floos. 

aman. 

soolh. 

istullah'na bad, or 
— weea bad. 

koomittree. 

tin shok, tin serafen- 

dee. 
bisilleh. 
fellah, 
gild, kishr. 
Mlam (kullum). 
kalam, rosass. 
nas, gem'ma, regal, 
gemma-etna, 
tern am. 
saheh, kameL 
khyana. 

yodmkin, apsar (db- 
dgem. [sar). 
agemee, Farsee. 
nefs. 

kirsh, plur. kroosh, 

toorshee. 
sdora, tassoweer. 
het'teh, kottah. 
fuss'el. 
khanzeer. 
ham^m. 
hag, hag'gee. 
hab. 
dabdos. 
ek'roos, egrus. 
goorse, koors. 
tombdk (Fr.). 

shebook. ood. 

fom, mub'sem (mup- 

sem), terkeebeh. 
taban'gia. 
goz tabangiat. 
ferd. 



62 



q. ENGLISH AND ARABIC VOCABULARY. 



Sect. I. 



A pit 

What a pity ! 
A place 

The plague 
Plank, pane (of 

glass) 
Plate 
Play, s. 
Play, v. 
Plot 
Plough 
Ploughing 
Pluck a fowl, v. 
Pluck, pull out, 

v. 

Plunder, v. 
Plural 
Pocket 
Poetry 
Poison 
Point, end 
Pole, stick 
Pomegranate 
A poor man 
Potatoes 
Pottery 
A pound 
Pour out, v. 

throw 

away, v. 
Powder 
Power 
Pray 

I pray you 
Prescribe, v. 
Press, v. 

•, squeeze, v. 

Pretty 
Prevaricator 
Price (see What, 

and Worth) 
Agree about 

price of 
Pride 
Prison 

It is probable 
Produce of the 

land 
Profit (v. gain) 
Property, pos- 
sessions 
Prophet 
Prose 



beer. 

ya khosara. 
mat'rah, moda, ma- 

kan, mahal. 
el koobbeh, e'taoon. 
loh. 

sahan, tub'buk, han- 

leb (layb). [gar. 

illab. 

fit'neh. 

mahrat. 

hart. 

en'tif el fur-kher. 
en'tish. 

inhab, nd-liah (to nab). 

gemma. 

gayb. 

shayr, nusm. 

sim. 

turf. 

middree, neboot. 
rooman. 

meske'en, fekeer. 
kolkds frangee. 
fokhar. 
rotl. 

soob, koob. 
koob. 

trob ; (gun — ) baroot. 
kodr (kudr). 
sellee, sullee. 
fee ard'ak.* 
wussuf. 



aaser (aser). 
kouei'is (qui'yis). 
shekleban. 

tem'n (temmen),sayr. 

uf'sel, fussel. 

kobr e' nefs. 
habs, hasel. 
ghaleben. 
khyrat el ard. 

milk. 

nebbee. 
nuthr, nusr. 



Prosper, v. eflah. 

Provisions zow^d, akul oo sherb. 

Pull, v. shid. 

out, v. ; pull ek'la ; eg'la ; see 

off (clothes) 
Punishment 
Pure 

On purpose 
Push, v. 

Puss ! puss ! 
Put, v. 

Put away, hide, u.diss. 
Put away, part, madsods. 
Putrify, v. affen. 
Pyramid haram, ahram. 



Pluck, 
azab. 
taher. 

bilanieh ; (in a bad 
liz. [sense) bilamed. 
biss! biss! 
hot. 



Ik quail 

What quantity? 
Quarrel, v. 
Stone quarry 
A quarter 
Quench (fire), v. 
Quince 
Quickly 

Quiet 

Race 

Raft 

Rag 

Rage 

Rain 

It rains 

Raise, v. 

Raised 

Ramrod 

Rank 

Rare, strange 

A rascal 

Rat 

Raw 

Razor 

Reach, z. 

Read, v. 

Ready 

Real 

Really, truly 
The reason 
Rebellious 
Receive money 
Reckon, v. 
Recollect, v. 

(—ion) 
A reed 



sooman [much. 

kud-day, i. e. how 

hanuk, am el kalam. 

muk'ta-hag'gar. 

roob. 

itfee. 

safer'gel. 

kawam, belaggel (»'. e, 

on wheels), yalla. 
saket. 

gens (gense). 

ramoose (ramoos). 

sharmoota, khallaka. 

zemk, kudb. 

mattar, nuttur. 

be-un'tur. 

erfa, sheel, ayn. 

merfdoa. 

harbee, kabbas. 

makam. 

ghareeb. 

ebn haram. 

far. 

ny (nye). 
moos. 

tool, elhak. 

ek'ra. 

hader. 

saheh, saduk. 

min hak, hakeeketen, 

e' sebbub. [hak'ka. 

aasee, pi aasi'i'n. 

ek'bud floos. 

ah'seb. 

iftek'r. 

(fikr). 
boos. 



" On your honour." Used to deprecate punishment, and on other pressing occasions. 



Egypt. 



q. ENGLISH AND ARABIC VOCABULARY. 



63 



A relation 
Relate, tell, r. 
Remember, v. 
I remember, v. 
Remove it from 

hence 
It is removed 

from place to 

place 
Reply, v. 
Reply, s. 
Reside, r. 
Return, v. 

, give back,r. 

Rhinoceros horn 
Ribs 
Rich 
Riches 
Rid, v. 
Ride, v. 
Riding, s. 
A rifle 
Right, a. 
Right, s. 
Right (hand) 
Rim 

Ring (annulus) 
Finger riDg 
Rinse, v. 
Rinse it out 
Rise, v. 
River 



Road 

Roast meat 
Robber 
It rocks 
It rolls 
boat N 
Roof 
A room 
Root 
Rope 

Hemp rope 

Palm 

Rose 

Rose water 

otto of 

Round, a. 



(as 



Around 

Rouse, r. 

Royal 

Rudder 



kareeb. alii, 
ah'kee. 

khallee fee balak. 
fee balee. 

un'guloo min hennee. 

itnug'gel min matrah 
ala matrah. 

rood (roodd). 

gawab. 

is'koon. 

er'ga. 

reg'ga. 

torn kharteet. 
dulldoa. 

sheban, ghunnee. 
ghunna (ghena). 
khal'lus. 
er'kub. 

rokoob. [khaneh. 
bendookdeh shesh- 
ddghrec. 
hak (el hak). 
yemeen. 
harf, soor. 
hallakah, hallak. 
dib'leh; see Seal, 
musmus. 
miismusoo. 
koom (goom) 
nahar; bahr, i. e. 

ocean (applied to 

the Kile). 
derb, sikkah, tareek. 
kebab, 
haramee. 
berook. 
itme'rga. 

sukf. 
oda. 

gidr. gidder. 
habbel, habl. 
habl teel. 
habl leef. 
werd. 

moie-werd. 
hetter el verd. 
medow'-er, mekub- 
bub. 

ho-walayn, deir ma 

idoor. 
kow'em, kovrvrcm. 
soltanee. 
duffeh. 



Ruins, remains 

see Temple 
Run, v. 

Run, as a liquid 
Rushes 

Russia leather 
Rust 



benai kadeem, kha- 

ry-ib, kharabeh. 
ig'geree. 
khor. 

soomar (sumar). 
gild thelateenee. 
suddeh. 



A Sack se&eebeh. 
Saddle (of horse) serg. 

(donkey) berda. 

(dromedary)ghabeet. 



-(camel) 



bajrs 



Sail, s. 
Sailor 



witter, howeeh 
ker, basdor. 
khorg. 

killa, komash 
mar^kebee. 



Sailor (of a boat) ndotee, tyfa. 
For his sake leg'leh khatroo. 



shi- 



, i. e. 
[cloth. 



Salad 
for Sale 
Salt, a. 
Salt, s. 
Salts 

The same 
Sand 
Sandal 
Sandstone 
Sash, girdle 
Saucer 
A saw 
I saw, v. 



sdlata. 
lel-baya. 
maleh. 
melh. 

melh Ingleez. 
bur'doo, biza'too, pi. 
ruml. [burdohdm. 
nal. 

hagar hettdn. 
hezam. 
tdsa. 
minshar. 

ana shdoft ; he saw, 

hooa shaf. 
kool. 

betkdol ay. 



Say, v. 

What do you 
say? 

Scabbard (of bayt (e'sayf). 
sword) 

Scales (large — )meezan, (kubbaneh). 
School 
Scissors 
Scold, r. 
Scorpion 
Scribe 
Sea 

See, v. 

A seal 



muk'tub. 
mekuss. 

ha'nuk, it-hanuk. 
ak-raba (ag'raba). 
kateb. 

bahr, bahr el malh, 

el maleh. 
shoof; I see, ana sheif 

(shyfe). beshdof. 
khatom (worn as a 

■ impression khitmeh. [ring). 

Search, v. fettesh. 
Search tefteesh. 



Four Seasons. 



Winter 
Spring 



shittah. 
khareef. 



64 



q. ENGLISH AND AEABIC VOCABULAEY. 



Sect. I. 



Summer 


sayf. 

demeereh. 


Sl!?ht .9 


shoof nudr. 


Autumn 


Silent a. 


Scikut. 






Be silent, v. 


os'-kut (os'koot). 


A second of time 


zanee. 


Silver 


fod'da. 


The second, the 


e'tanee. 


Simple 


mokhtus'surah. 


other 




Single 


mooffrud ferd. 


Secondly 


tanien. 


SlTlP" 7) 


ghun'nee. 


Seed 


bizr, hab, tekow'ee, 




mooffrud. 




ghulleh. 


Sir ! 


DCCUCC . DXLLX • 


Seek for 


dow'r alay. 


Sister 


okht. 


Send, v. 

Separate one 


ebaat, shaya, ersel. 


My sister 


okhtee. 


fur'red. 


His sister 


okhtoo. 


from the other 




Sit, v. 


o'-kut. 


Servant 


khuddcLm subbee 


Size 


kobr. 




(lad), 
ikh'-dem. 


Skin, s. 


gild. 


Serve, v. 


Abater skin 


keerbeh. 


Shade, s. 


dooll, dool, dill, zilL 


Sky, heaven 


semma. 


Shadow 


kheeal. 


Slave 


abd, khadem. 


Shame, disgrace 


eb, aeb. 


Female 


garreea (jareea). 


Shave, v. 
Sheep, pi. 


ah-luk. 


Slaughter, s. 


ketal. 


ghunnum. 


Sleep, s. 


nom, v. nam. 


Ram 


khaxoof. 


"Pnf ^Ippti f} 


ny em. 


Ewe 


nageh. 


Sleeping 


neim (nvim). 
be-shwo'-esh, 


Sheet, s. 


foota, malya (malaia). 


Slowly 


Shell 


wodda. 


Small, see Little 


sogheer. 


Shield 


dar'raka. 


Smell, v. 


shem. 


Shine v. 


ibrook. 


Smell s. 


shem reeh. 


Ship 


merkeb ^ 


Sweet smell 


reeh (reht) helwa. 


Shirt, s. 


kamees . pi. komsan. 


Blacksmith 


hadd<£t. 


Shoe 


merkoob, pi. mara- 


Smoke, s. 


do-khan. 




keeb. 


Smoke, v. 


ish 'rob do-khan. 


Horseshoe 


nal. 


Smooth, v. 


ef'red ; o.dj. nam. 


Yellow slipper 


TnTici" mo? 

JJJLLOb, Ili CZi . 


Snail 


Xi<Xla£j\J 11 V l\CLL<X£d\JLX\j J. 


Shop 


dokan, pi. dekakin 


Snake 


taban, han'nesh, dood 




{see Trader). 


Horned 


hei bil-kordon. 


Short 






iici slier. 


Small shot 


rush. 


Snare* 


fukh. 


Shoulder 


kitf. 


Snuff 


nesho'k (neshdke). 


Show, v. 


wer'ree. 


Snuffers 


makuss (mekuss) — 
e'shem'ma. 


Show me 


were e nee. 




Shut, v. 


uk'-fel. 


So 


keddee, keza. 


Shut the door 


rood — , etrush — , 


Soldier 


as-karee, pi. as^ker, 




ukfel el bab. 


Disciplined 


nizam. [asker. 


Shut bolt the 


sook el bab. 


Some of it 


minoo, minnoo. 
hageh, shay. 






Something 


Shut, p. p. 


merdood, matroosh, 


Some few things bad shay. 


maskdok, makfool. 


Sometimes 


walied-wahed-ndba, 


Sick {see ill) 


meshow'ish, aian. 




bad-okat. 


Sick, to be 


istuf'rugh. 


Son 


ebn, welled. 


Side 


gemb. 


Song 


gho'na. 


Sieve 


ghorbal. 


Sorry 


hazeen (saban). 


Silk 


harder. 


I am sorry, v. 


isaab'alay. 



* The camel is sometimes called merkeb (as a shoe is merkoob), not because it is the "Ship 
of the Desert," as some have supposed, but because merkeb signifies something to mount upon 
(Fr. monture), so that the ship is rather the camel of the sea than the converse, and the Arabs 
had camels or mojitures before they had ships or shoes. 



Egypt 



q. ENGLISH AND ARABIC VOCABULARY. 



65 



Sort, s. 


gens, shikl. 


Stopped, closed 


masddod. 


Sound, voice 


hess. 


Straight 


doghree. 


Sour, acid 


ha-duk, ha-mood. 
gendob, kub'lee (kib- 


String 


doobara. 


South 


Strong 


shedeet, gow'ee. 




lee). 


Straw 


tibn. 


wind 


now. 


Street 


derb, sikkeh. 


Sow (seed), o. 


ez'ra. 


Stumble, v. 


dhter. 


(cloth), v. 


khv-et. 


He struck 


derreb (see Beat). 


Span 


shibr. 


Strike a light 


ek'da (egda). 


Span with fore- 


fitr. 


Style 


kesm, terteeb, shikl. 
eftah seeratoo, eftah 


finger 
Speak to one 




Begin the sub- 


wessee (wussee). 


ject 


e' seer a. 


about, bespeak 
Speak, see Talk. 


Such a one 


foolan (felan). 




Suck, v. 


mooss. 


Spear 


harbeh. 


Sugar 


sook'ker. 


Spend (money) 


dy-a, esref. 


Sun 


shems (fern.). 


Spider 


ankaboot. 


The sun has set 


e'shems ghabet. 


web 


ankabdot. 


Sulphur 


kabreet, 


Spill, v. 


koob (kubb). 


Summer 


sayf. 
es'ned. 


Spirit 


roh. 


Support, v. 


A spirit 


afreet, pi. afareet, 


He supported 


sen'ned. 




ginnee, pi. gin. 


Supported, p. p. 


masnodd. 


A good spirit, see Angel. 


Suppose, v. 


zoon' (zoonn), khum'- 


Split, p.p. 


maflodk, mushroom. 




men. 


It gets spoilt 


ms. 


Swell, v. 


ydorem. 


It is quite spoilt tel'lef, rah khosara. 


Swollen 


warm. 


Spoon 


malaka. 


Swear, testify, v 


ish'had, ahlif. 


Sportsman 


sy-ad. 


at, abuse, v 


ish'tem. 


Square 


morub'bah, morub'ba. 


Swallow, v. 


eb'la. 


Stable, s. 


stabl. 


Sweet 


hel'wa. 


Stand up 


kdom ala haylak. 


Swim, v. 


aom. 


Stand, v. 1 
Stop J 


yodkuf, wukkuf. 


Sword 
Syria 


sayf. 
e'Sham. 


Star 


nigm ; pi. nigodm. 


System 


terteeb, nizanx, 


Statue 


mas-khdot. 




Stay, wait, v. 


us'boor. 


Table-cloth 


fodta e'so'ffra. 


Steal, v. 


esrook, es'mk[to sherfc]. 


Table 


soffra. 


Stealth, s. 


seerkah. 


, Turkish 


kodrsee. 


By stealth 


bil-duss. 


Tack (in sailing) id'rob bdlta. 


Steel 


soolb. 


Tail 


dayl. 


A steel (for flint) zeenad. 


Tailor 


khyat, terzee. 


Stick 


nebdot ; assaia (as- 
syeh), shamrodkh. 


Take, v. 


khod. 


Stick of palm 


Take away, v. 


sheel. 


gereet. 


Take in, cheat 


ghush, ghush'em. 
itkel'lem, it-had'det. 


Stick, o. 
Sticking 


ilzuk. 


Talk, v. 


lazek. 


Tall 


toweel (towweel). 


It has stuck 


lez'zek. 


Tamarinds 


tdmr hindee. 


Stuck, p. p. 


malzdok. 


Tamarisk 


tur'fa. 


Still 


s^kut. 


Tan, v. 


ed'bogh. 


yet 


lissa. 


Tax 


feerdeh (fir'deh), 


Sting 


shok. 




meeree. 


He is stingy 


ee'doo masek. 


Tea 


shy. 


Stirrup 


rekab. 


Teach, v. 


alem. 


Stone 


haggar. 


Tear, v. 


eshrut, sher'mut. 


Stop, see Stand and Wait. 


A tear 


dim'moo. 


Stop up, v. 


sid. 


Telegraph 


e-shara. 



66 



q. ENGLISH AND ARABIC VOBABULARY. 



Sect. I. 



Telescope 
Tell, v. 
Temple 
Tent 
Tent peg 
Than 



nadara. 
tool, dh-kee. 

beerbeh. 

khaym, khaymeh. 

wat'tat. 

min. an. 



We thank you nish'koor el f<5dl. 

(for a present) 
• — —{for inquiry) allah ibarak feek. 
(for a great ket'-ther — (getther — ) 

favour), 1 am khayrak. 

much obliged 

to you ! (also 

ironically) 
Thank God el ham'doo lilldh. 
Then somma, baden. 

There henak. 
They, their hoom, beta'-hoom. 
Thick te-kheen. 
Thief {see Kobber and Steal). 
Thigh fukhd, werk. 

Thin roofya (roofeia), re- 

feea. 

Thing hageh, shay. 

Things asheedt. 

, matters omoor. 

Think, v. iftekker, khum'men. 

I think, suppose ana azdon, tekhmee- 
nee. 

Third thalet. 
This dee, Mza (hdtha). 

That deeka, dikkai, da. 

Those dole (dol). 

Thirst at'tush. 
Thirsty at-sha'n. 
Thorn shoke (shok). 

Thought fikr. 
Thread, s. khayt. 
A thread fet'leh, fet'Ieh khayt. 

Threshold at'taba. 
Thrive, v. e'f'la. 
Throw, v. ermee. 
Thumb suba el kebeer. 

Thunder raad. 
Tickle, v. zukzuk (zugzug). 

Tie, v. er'boot. 
Tight, drawn mashddot. 
Time, narrow dy-ik (dei-uk), maz- 
ndok. 

Time, volta noba. 

, tempo wakt. 

Tin kazdeer (icacraiTepov). 

Tin plate safeeh. 
Tin. v. whiten beiad, byad. 
Tinder soofrin. 
Tired batla'n. 



To 

Toast (bread)' 

Tobacco 

Together 

To-morrow 

Tongs 

Tooth 

Top 

Torch 

Torn 

A torn rag 

Tortoise 

Torture 

, v. 

Touch, feel, v. 

Do not touch 
that (put not 
your hand on 
it). 

Tow 

Tow (a boat) 
Towel, napkin 
Tower 

fort 

Town 

Large town 

Trade 

Trader 

Traveller 

European 

Treachery 

Treacherous 
{see Betray 
and Perfidy). 

Tree 

Trickery, ma- 
chination 
Trouble 
Trousers 

of women 

True 

Try, prove, v. 
Tub 
Turban 
Turk 

Turn, v. 
Turquoise 
Twice 
Twist, v. 



ilia, eela. 
esh mekum'mer. 
do-khan, i. e. smoke, 
sow'a — sow'a, weea- 

bad. 
bodkra. 
ma-sheh. 

sin, pi. sinnan, si- 

nodn. 
ghutta (cover), 
mash'al. 
mesher'met 
sharmodta. 
sah'lifeh. 
az£ib. 

azeb, addab. 
has'sus. 

la tehdt yed'ak alay, 
ma tehdt-shi 
eedak ala dee. 

meshak. 
goor e' leban. 
fodta, mahrama. 
boorg. 
kala. 

belled (bel'ed), pi. 

belad. 
ben'der. 
6ebbub. 

tager, mesebbub. 
mesaffer, pi. — in. 
sowah, pi. — in. 
khiaua, kheeana. 
khein, khyin. 



seg'gereh, sheg'- 

gereh. 
dool^b, doobara, 

hayleh. 
taab. 

6harwal, lebass 

(drawers), 
shintian. 

saheh, do'ghree, &a- 

duk, saheeh. 
kur'reb. 
mustela. 
shall, em'meh. 
Toork, Ozmanlee, 

Osmanli. 
dow'er. 
faroo'see. 

marratayn, nobatayn. 
ib'room. 



Egypt. 



q. ENGLISH AND ARABIC VOCABULARY. 



67 



Tyrant 

Tyrannical 

Tyranny 

Valley- 
Value, price 
Vapour 
Vase 

Vegetables 
Very 



Ugly 
Violent 
Violet 
Virgin 
Umbrella 
Undo, untie, v. 
Uncle 

Uncle (mother's 

brother) 
Until 
Under 
Vocabulary 
Voyage 

Up, upon, over 
Upper 
Use, utility 
It is useful 

of no use 

Used, worn, 

secondhand 
Usury 
Vulture 

percnopterus 

Wafer 

Wager 



| za'lem. 
zoolm. 



Waist 

"Wait, stop, v. 

for me 

for him 

Wake, v. a. andn. 
Walk, v. 
Walking 
Wall 

(round a 

town) 
Walls 
Walnut 
I want, v. 



What do you 
want ? 



wadee (wfldy). 

temn (temmun). 

bo-khar. 

tdsa. 

khodar. 

kow'ee ; very large, 

kebeer kow'ee. 
wahesh, bil-ham. 
kow'wee (kow'ee). 
benef'sig. 
bikr. 

shemseeh. 
fook', hell, 
am. 
khal. 

ilia, le, illama, loma. 

takht. [lemee. 

sillemee, ketab sil- 

saffer. 

foke (fok). 

fokanee. 

neffa. 

infa. 

ma infash. 
mestah'mel. 

ribh. 

nisser, nisr. 
rakh-am (rakhum). 

bersham. 

rahaneh. 

gemkeeh. 

rjcoost, i. e. middle. 

us'boor. 

istennanee. 

isten'noo. 

es'-hur (es'-her) . 

im'shee. 

ma-shee. 

hayt. 

soor. 

hay tan. 
goz. 

ana o-w'es (owz), ana 
areed, ana atlub 
(taleb), matloobee. 

ow'es-ay, owz-ay ; by 
the Arabs, Esh 
tereed. 



I want 

I want nothin 
War 
Warm 
Lukewarm 
Warn, v. 
T warned you 
I was 

He, it, was 
She was 
We were 
You were 
They were 
Wash, v. 
Waste, s. 
A watch 
Water, s. 
Water, v. 

sprinkle 

Fresh water 



ow'es, ow'z, ldzemlee, 

areed. 
moosh ow'es hageh. 
harb, shemmata. 
sokhn. 
dafee. 
wu'ssee. 
ana wusayt-ak. 



koont, ana koont. 
kan. 
kan'net. 
koon'na. 

kodntum, kodntoo. 
kdnoo. 
ugh' s el. 
khosara. 
eaa. 

mo'ie, ma, mo'ieh. 
is'kee. 
rodsh, rush, 
mdie hel'wa. 
Spring (of water) ain, ayn (eye), ed. 
Water, torrent of sayl. 
(in the desert) 

basin of khdraza, mesek. 

(in a rock) 

small basin mesayk. 

of 

basin or themeeleh. 

natural reser- 
voir, when 
filled up with 
sand or gravel 

well of beer. 

reservoir hod. 

(built) 

pool of rain magara (makara). 

water 
river, or nahr. 

stream 
channel, or mig'gree. 

conduit 
Water melon 
Wax candles 
Way 
We 
Weak 
One week 
Weigh, v. 
Weight 
A well 
Well, good 
Wet 
Wet, v. 
What 



bateekh. 

shemma skanderanee. 
sikkah, derb. 
ah'na, nah'na. 
batlan, da-eef. 
godma wahed. 
yodzen. 
tokl, wezzen. 
beer. 

tyeb (v. good), 
mablodl. 
bil. 

ay, esh. [ool-ay? 



What do you say ? betkodl-ay, tek 



G8 



q. ENGLISH AND ARABIC VOCABULARY. 



Sect. I. 



What's the mat- 
ter? 

What's the price 
of this ? 

What is this 
worth ? 

What are you 
doing ? 

What o'clock is 

it? 
Wheat 
A wheel 
When 

At the time that 
Where ? 

Where are you 
going ? 

Where did you 
come from ? 

Which ? 

That which 

Whip of hippo- 
potamus hide 

White 

Whiten, v. 

Whitening 

Why? 

Who 

Who is that ? 
Who said so ? 
Whose 
The whole 
Wicked 

rascal 

Widow 
Widower 
Wife 

Wild animal 
I will, v. 
Wind, s. 
North wind 
Window 
Wine 
Wing 
Winter 
Wipe, v. 
Wire 
Wish 
Wish, v. 



khabbar-ay, gera-ay 

el khabbar-ay ? 
be-kam dee ? 

eswa-ay dee ? 

betamel-ay ; by the 
Arabs, esh te- 
sow'wee ? 

e' sa'a fee kam ? 

kum'h. 
aggeleh. 

lema (lemma), emte. 
wakt ma. 

fayn (by the Arabs, 

owwayn) ? 
ente rye fayn? 

ente gayt min ayn ? 

an'hdo ? 

el-azee, elee (ellee). 
korbag. 

ab'iad, fern, bay da. 

byed. 

tabesheer. 

lay ? lesh ? 

min. 

da min ? 

min kal (gal) keddee ? 

beta min. 

el kool, kool'loo. 

haram. 

ebn haram. 

az'beh, er'meleh. 

azeb, er'mel. 

marra, zog, hormah. 

w^hsh (waliesh). 

ana ow'es (aw's). 

reeh, how r a. 

e'ty-ab, teiab. 

shu-b^k. 

nebeet, shardb. 

ge-nah. 

shitta. 

em'sah. 

silk. 

tool'beh. 
et'loob. 



I wish, v. 

I had wished 

With 

Within 

Witness 

Wolf 

Woman 

woman (call- 
ing to a poor 
woman, re- 
spectfully) 

Women 

1 wonder at 

I wonder if, i. e. 

wish to know 
Wonderful 
Wood 
Firewood 
Wool 
Word 
Work, s. 
Work, v. 
World 
Worm 
Worth, it is 
Wound, s. 
Wounded 
Write, v. 
Wrote 
Writing 
Written 

A yard, court 
Year 

Yesterday 

The day before 

yesterday 
Yes 

Not yet 

Yield to my 

opinion 
You 

Young 
Young man 
Your 
Youth 



bid'dee, fee khatree, 

areed. 
erayt, kan fee khd- 

tree. 
ma, wee-a. 
gooa. 
shahed. 
deeb (deep), 
marra, nissa, hormah. 
ya haggeh, ya hagh 
{Cp. old hag.) 



ni s-wan, hareem . 

ana astageb. 

ya tarra, hal toora. 



khesh'-ob, (khdshub). 

hattob. 

soof. 

kilmeh, kal^m. 

shoghl. 

ishtoghl, faal. 

dooneea. 

dood. 

eswa. 

gerah (gerrah). 
magrooh. 

ik'tub ; writer, kateb. 

ket'teb. 

ketabeh. 

maktodb. 

hosh. 

senna (senneh). 
emba'ra (by the Arabs, 

ums, or umse). 
owel embdra (by the 

Arabs, owel ums). 
iwa, eiwa, nam. 
lissa. 

tawanee. 

en'te ; entee, fern. ; 

entoom, pi. 
sogheier ; vulgo zw^ir. 
sheb, gedda. 
betak; betahtak,/. 
shebab, sheboobeeh. 



( 69 ) 




View in the Delta during the Inundation of the Nile. 



ALEXANDRIA. 



Geneeal Infoemation. 

1. Landing at Alexandria.— 2. Hotels. — 3. Lodgings. Houses. — 4. Cafes. 
Bestaurants. — 5. Post Office. — 6. Bankers. — 7. Consulates. — 8. Physi- 
cians. — 9. Shops. Tradespeople. — 10. Agents for fomoarding goods. — 
11. Churches. — 12. Conveyances. — 13. Railways. — 14. Steamers. — 
15. Telegraph. — 1Q. Servants. — 11. Boats for Nile voyage. 

1. Landing at Alexandria. — (See about a mile off shore. The first ob- 
Introduction, on the Voyage to Alex- jects perceived from the sea are Poni- 
andria.) pey's Pillar, the forts on the mounds 

From whichever side it is ap- constructed by the French, and the 
proached the coast of Egvpt is so ex- detached forts added by Mohammed 
ceedingly low, that the highest parts Ali, the Pharos and new lighthouse, 
only begin to be seen at the distance and the buildings on the Pas et Teen 
of about 18 miles, and the line of (the " Cape of Figs "), between the two 
the coast itself is not discernible till ports; and on nearing the land the 
within 13 or 14. Though there is obelisk, the Pasha's hareem and palace, 
water to the depth of 6 fathoms close the houses of the town, the masts_ of 
to the Pharos, and from 5^ to 4 along ships, and the different batteries (which 
the whole shore to the point of Eu- have been lately much increased;, the 
nostus, at the entrance of the western windmills to the west, and the line of 
harbour, and at 1^ mile off not less coast extending to Marabut Point, begin 
than 20 fathoms, it is exceedingly dan- to be seen. " There is nothing at all 
gerous to approach at night. There is, remarkable in the view of Alexandria 
however, very good holding ground in from the sea ... . the town looks 
the roads ; and ships anchor, or lav to, like a long horizontal streak of white- 



70 



ALEXANDRIA 



LANDING ; 



Sect. I. 



wash, mingled with brown, and crossed 
perpendicularly with the sharp lines 
of ships' masts." — Dr. Macleod. 

The old lighthouse, which occupies 
the site of the ancient Pharos, on a 
rock joined to the land by a causeway T 
had long been pronounced insufficient 
for the safety of vessels making the 
coast, both from its want of height, and 
the bad quality of the light itself, espe- 
cially in foggy weather, when it could 
scarcely be seen till a vessel had neared 
the land. Its distance from the western 
harbour was an additional cause of 
complaint. To remedy these incon- 
veniences, Mohammed Ali erected the 
new lighthouse on the point of Eunos- 
tus, and the present Khedive has per- 
fected his grandfather's work by placing 
in A a 20-second revolving light, visible 
at a distance of 20 miles. 

Vessels can only enter the harbour 
in daylight ; if they arrive after sun- 
set they are obliged to lay to till the 
next morning. None may enter with- 
out a pilot, whose guidance is con- 
sidered necessary to take them through 
the complicated channels of the port. 
Sometimes, if the weather is very 
rough, a ship may have to wait out- 
side a day or more, as either a pilot 
will not come out, or the ship itself 
may draw too much water to admit of 
her passing over the principal shoal 
when the waves are running very 
high. 

It is much to be* hoped that the 
narrow-minded idea of looking upon 
the natural obstructions to entering 
the harbour at any time and in any 
weather as safeguards against a sudden 
hostile attack from an enemy's fleet, 
will not prevent the Egyptian Govern- 
ment from taking the very simple 
measures which are necessary for 
making the harbour accessible at all 
times and in all weathers. It is only 
necessary to blow up the rock which 
lies in the middle of the central or 
principal pass, and then with a well- 
arranged system of buoys and leading 
lights, ships might find their way in 
safety at any hour of the day and 
night. This must surely be the in- 
evitable complement of the magni- 
ficent harbour now in course of con- 



struction for the Government by an 
English Company, and which, when 
completed, will provide Alexandria 
with a port containing an area of 
3000 feet of still water, and landing- 
quays nearly 2 m. in length. One 
great feature in this work is the con- 
struction of a breakwater a mile and 
a half long. The workshops of the 
Company to whom the contract for 
this undertaking has been entrusted, 
at a cost of nearly 2 millions sterling, 
are situated at the quarries of Mex. 
They may be seen on the right-hand 
side as the steamer passes up into the 
harbour, and beyond them a palace 
built by the late Viceroy, Said Pacha, 
but which its position out in the desert 
has not induced his successor to finish. 

The main or central channel has 5 
and 6 fathoms water, the Marabut 4£, 
5, and 6 ; others, 4, 5, and 6 ; but they 
are very narrow, the widest not quite 
2^ cables or 1500 feet. The deepest 
part of the harbour, about due W. and 
due N. of the Catacombs, is 10, IO5, 
and in one place 1 1 fathoms ; close in, ! 
to within 200 feet of the shore, it is 
from 4 to 6 ; and under the town itself, 
at little more than 1 cable's length off, 
3 and 4 fathoms. 

As soon as the steamer anchors in 
the great harbour, shoals of boats come 
off to take the newly arrived strangers 
with their baggage ashore. If the 
traveller has already, before leaving 
England, secured the services of a 
dragoman, and been able to fix the 
date of his arrival, he will be saved 
all bother, and can leave the trouble 
and nuisance of landing in the dra- 
goman's hands : if not, he had better 
consign himself to the care of the 
Commissionaire of the hotel to which ; 
he intends going. The usual price 
paid fur a boat to or from a steamer, I 
with a moderate amount of luggage, t 
is 2s. On landing at the Custom- c 
house the stranger will be asked for a 
his passport, and the declaration that I 
he is an Englishman and therefore t! 
does not require one, will sometimes I 
suffice to pass him, but not always. 1 
Any inclination to rigour in the exa- tl 
mination of personal luggage may be t 
in general successfully met by an 



Egypt, 



THE FRANK 



QUARTER. 



71 



opportune baksheesh, but it should be 
remembered that gunpowder will be 
certainly detained. 

According to the treaty of Balta 
Liman, all goods are to pay 5 per cent. ; 
that is, 3 on entering the ports of Tur- 
key, and 2 on leaving them for the 
interior ; which of course exempts them 
from further examination at any inland 
towns. In virtue of this, wine and 
spirits are free from every other duty, 
hitherto levied upon them at Cairo and 
other places. The treaty is very ex- 
plicit in its conditions respecting the 
duties, the abolition of monopolies, and 
the right given to all Europeans of 
purchasing the produce of the country, 
and exporting it without impediment 
on the payment of an ad valorem duty. 

On landing, the stranger, if he 
escapes the rapacity of the boatmen, 
who, like all other classes at Alexan- 
dria, are never satisfied, however well 
paid, is immediately pressed on all 
sides by the most importunate of hu- 
man beings, in the shape of donkey- 
boys and carriage-drivers, who, with 
vehement vociferation and gesticula- 
tion, strive to take possession of the 
unfortunate traveller, and almost force 
him to mount. If not under guidance, 
he had better seek refuge in the omni- 
bus of the hotel to which he is going. 
Very heavy luggage can be best 
carried in a cart or truck. 

If he does not dislike going on foot 
(provided it is dry weather), a walk of 
15 or 20 minutes will take the traveller 
to the hotel. 

The streets through which he passes 
are narrow and irregular, the houses 
appearing as if thrown together by 
chance, without plan or order ; and 
few have even that Oriental character 
which is so interesting at Cairo. Here 
and there, however, the lattice-work of 
the windows and a few Saracenic arches 
give the streets a picturesque appear- 
ance; and if he happens to take the 
longer, but more interesting, road 
through the bazaars, the stranger will 
be struck with many a novel and East- 
ern scene. But he had better visit 
them after he has seemed and arranged 
his rooms at the hotel. 

On emerging frcm the dingy streets 



of the Turkish quarter, he will be sur- 
prised by their contrast with the larger 
and cleaner dwellings of the Europeans, 
where he will readily distinguish the 
houses of the consuls by the flag-staffs 
rising from their flat roofs. In the 
western harbour he will also have ob- 
served some buildings of a superior 
style, as the Pasha's palace, and some 
public buildings, which bear the stamp 
of Constantinople, or of Frank, taste. 

The Frank quarter stands at the ex- 
tremity of the town, farthest from the 
new port ; which is in consequence of 
the European vessels having formerly 
been confined to the eastern harbour, 
and the consuls and merchants having 
built their houses in that direction. It 
has, within the last fifteen years, greatly 
increased in size, and is now extending 
far beyond the large square. " Our way 
took us through Alexandria, a cosmo- 
politan city of French houses, Italian 
villas, Turkish lattice-windowed build- 
ings, and native mud-hovels, where 
every tongue is commonly spoken, and 
every coin is in current circulation. 
A city of extremes and contrasts. De- 
luged in winter by rain, and at times 
even pinched by cold: it is annually 
scorched for five months by a fierce 
sun, dusted by desert sand, and parched 
by drought. Excellent European shops 
of all descriptions stand amongst East- 
ern coffee-houses and bazaars. In- 
habited by men of all nations, a fancy 
ball could scarce produce a more in- 
congruous crowd than that which fills 
its streets. English and Greek sailors 
jostle their way through a throng of 
Italian and French merchants, Ger- 
man mechanics, Maltese servants, 
Turkish and Egyptian women, don- 
keys with their boy-masters, and camels 
with their Arab drivers. More beau- 
tiful women may be seen in it any day 
than anywhere out of London, and. 
others, poor things, more ugly and 
squalid than even London can pro- 
duce. Then passes a carriage full of 
Greeks, who contradict our insular 
prejudices in favour of English beauty, 
and then an artificial product of the 
Boulevards is knocked by a donkey off 
her high heels into a puddle. And 
what puddles ! In this, the old part 



72 



ALEXANDEIA I 



HOTELS, ETC.; 



Sect. I. 



of the town, there is no road properly- 
speaking, and no pathway. Man, 
woman, or beast, each takes the way 
which offers, and makes the best of 
the open space. The road was once, 
like everything in Egypt, well, even 
prodigally, made, and then left to take 
care of itself. After the manner of 
roads, it gave unevenly, and the weak 
parts had become quagmires, the strong 
rocks. The ruts were not ruts, but 
rather chains of ponds filled with mud 
which was water, and with water 
which was mud. Between the ponds 
the remnants of the old road served as 
embankments, and at each moment 
our carriage hauled painfully up one 
of these, poised itself dripping at the 
top before making another plunge into 
the sea below." — Fred. Eden. 

2. Hotels. — Hotel d' Europe ; Hotel 
d 'Orient, or Peninsular and Oriental 
Hotel, both in the Great Square or 
Place Mehemet Ali; Hotel Abbott in 
the Place de FEglise ; and the Hotel 
d'Angleterre, near the sea baths, are 
the best and most frequented hotels. 
There is not much to choose between 
them either in comfort or position, 
and they all leave much to be desired. 
The charges at the Hotel d'Europe 
and the Hotel d'Orient are 16s. a day 
for board and lodging - , and at the 
Hotel Abbat and the Hotel dAngle- 
terre 12s. a day. The situation of the 
Hotel d'Angleterre is against it, but it 
is well spoken of for its cuisine. The 
traveller who only stops for an hour or 
two at any of these hotels is charged for 
the whole day. This is a great abuse, 
and it is quite time that a change took 
place in the hotel system in Egypt, 
and that people should be able to take 
rooms and pay for each meal separately. 

3. Lodgings. Houses. — For any in- 
formation on this point application had 
better be made at the shop of Messrs. 
Eobertson and Co., the booksellers. 

4. Cafes, Restaurants.— There are 
several in different parts of the town. 
A very good breakfast or dinner may 
be had at the Cafe' de la Bourse, over 
the Bourse. 



5. Post-office. — Mails are received 
from, and despatched to, England and 
America weekly by the P. and O. 
steamers via Southampton or Brin- 
disi, and by the Italian steamers 
via Brindisi. The Southampton mail 
at present arrives on Wednesday, and 
the Brindisi mail on Thursday. The 
departures are dependent on the arrival 
of the mail from India, Monday being 
the usual day. English and American 
letters are also received and despatched 
weekly, via Marseilles, by the French 
Messageries steamers, and via, Trieste 
by the Austrian Lloyd steamers. 
Letters sent direct from England via 
Southampton or Brindisi will be found 
at the British post-office. Bue de la 
Poste, close to the Great Square. 
Letters for England can be posted 
either at the British or French post- 
offices (the latter is at the French 
Consulate). There are four other 
foreign post-offices in Alexandria : 
the Austrian for mails via Trieste; 
the Italian for Italian mails via Brin- 
disi or Messina ; the Russian for mails 
via Odessa ; and the Greek for Greek 
mails. American mails are received 
and despatched by the English and 
French post-offices. The Egyptian 
post-office in the Place de l'Eglise is 
for letters to and from any part of the 
Egyptian dominions. Mail bags sent 
and received by every train. Letters 
from Lidia, China, Australia, &c, will 
generally be found at the British post- 
office, but it is as well to inquire at the 
French post-office also. 

6. Bankers. — Bank of Egypt, Rue 
de la Poste ; Imperial Ottoman Bank, 
Rue de 1'Okelle Neuve ; H. Oppenheim, 
Nephew and Co., Rue de la Mosque'e ; 
Anglo-Egyptian Bank, Place Mehe- 
met Ali or Great Square ; Tod, Rath- 
bone and Co., Place MeTiemet AH or 
Great Square ; Franco-Egyptian Bank ; 
Comptoir d'Escompte (de Paris), &c. 

7. Consulates. — English.: G. E. 
Stanley, Esq., Consul ; li. H. Calvert, 
Esq., Vice-Consul. Office, Rue de 
l'Obelisque ; hours, 10 till 3. Colonel 
Stanton, R.E., C.B., H. B. M.'s Agent 
and Consul-General for Egypt, resides 



Egypt. 



SHOPS ; CHURCHES 



; CONVEYANCES. 



73 



in summer at Alexandria, and in 
winter at Cairo. American : V. Bar- 
thow, Vice-Consul. 

8. Physicians. — Dr. Mackie, Rue de 
la Mosquee d Atarine, near Abbat's 
Hotel; Dr. Grosjean, Swiss, speaking 
English. Finuie Bey, dentist to the 
Khedive. 

9. Shops and Tradespeople. — There 
are many very good shops at Alex- 
andria, at which the traveller can 
supply most of his wants. Among the 
must likely to contain what he may 
require are : — 

Booksellers. — David Robertson and 
Co., in the Place Mehemet Ali or 
Great Square — a very good establish- 
ment for books, newspapers, stationery, 
photographs, and a variety of articles — 
has always a capital assortment of 
English books of every kind, with 
maps, plans, guide - books, &c, for 
Egypt and elsewhere. Mr. Philip, 
the manager, is always kindly ready 
to give travellers any information they 
may need. Messrs. Robertson have a 
branch shop at Cairo. Santamaria, 
Place Mehemet Ali, best shop for the 
latest French and Italian books; has 
also the Tauchnitz editions. Magrini 
and Co., Place Me'bemet Ali. 

Photographs. — Views of Egypt and 
the Nile may be obtained at the book- 
sellers'. Schier, Place Mehe'met Ali, 
is the best photographic artist; his 
cartes de visite are very good. 

Chemists. — British Dispensary, Ras 
et Teen Street ; Egyptian Dispensary, 
in same street. 

General Outfitters. — Cordier, Place 
Mehe'met Ali ; and any of the nume- 
; rous bazaars in the same square. 

Provision Merchants. — Goodman and 
Gradidge, in a small street behind the 
r English church. 

Jeweller. — Rocheman, Place Mehe- 
met Ali. 

Hairdresser. — Boret, Place Mehemet 
!. Ali. 

10. AOENTS FOR FORWARDING GOODS. 

1 — R. J. Moss and Co., agents for the 
it Globe Express, and for Mots' s line of 
1 Liverpool bteamers. David Robert- 
\_Egypt.~] 



son and Co., agents f >r the Ocean 
Express. The Peninsular and Oriental 
Company. 

11. Churchfs.— Church of England: 
St. Mark's Church in the Great 
Square, Rev. E. J. Davis, Consular 
Chaplain. Services on Sundays at 
13 a.m. and 3 p.m.. and on festivals 
at 11 a.m. Established Church of 
Scotland: St. Andrew's Church, Rev. 
Dr. Yule. Service on Sundays at 
11 a.m. at the church, and on board 
the Bethel ship, seamen's chapel, at 
11a m. and 7 p.m. German and French 
Protestant Church : service on Sun- 
days at 11 a.m. in French and German 
alternately. Roman Catholic Church 
in the Place de l'Eglise. There are 
also Orthodox Greek, Greek Catholic, 
Coptic, Armenian and Maronite 
churches, and several Jewish syna- 
gogues. 

12. Conveyances. — Carriages abound 
in Alexandria, for the regulation of 
which there is a municipal decree 
of 25 clauses, but the completeness of 
the compilation is more to be admired 
than its efficacy. The fixed tarif is 
from 2s. to 2s. 6d per hour by day, up 
to 9 p.m., and 3s. to 3s. 6d. by night. 
For a short course, under a quarter of 
an hour, Is. If the quarter of an 
hour is exceeded, an hour's fare must 
be paid. After the first hour, the 
time is counted by half-hours. On 
Fridays and Sundays something more 
is expected. This tarif is for inside 
the fortifications, and a radius of about 
a mile outside them. For further dis- 
tances an agreement must be made. 
A carriage for the day costs from 16s. 
to a pound. Donkeys may be found 
everywhere ; 6d. for a short course, 
and Is. an hour, should satisfy their 
importunate drivers. 

13. Railways. — The terminus of the 
network of Egyptian railways is on 
the outskirts of the town, beyond the 
canal. (For further information, see 
Rte. 7.) The station of the Ramleh 
Railway is near the head of the Old 
Port, not far from Cleopatra's Needle 
(see below, § 15). With the exception 
of the short line to Ramleh, all the 

E 



74 



ALEXANDRIA : STEAMERS, ETC. 



Sect. I. 



railways in Egypt belong to the govern- 
ment. 

14. Steameks. — The Peninsular and 
Oriental Company's steamers leave for 
Brindisi and Southampton, the Adri- 
atico Orientale Company's steamers for 
Brindisi, and the Austrian Lloyd's for 
Trieste, on the arrival of the mails 
from India. The following is a list of 
the principal steamship companies, 
with the ports to which they run. 
Further particulars as to dates of de- 
parture, fares, &c, had better be pro- 
cured at the respective offices. 

Peninsular and Oriental Company : 
Malta, Gibraltar, and Southampton 
weekly; and Brindisi, Ancona, and 
Venice weekly. 

Messageries Company : Messina and 
Marseilles weekly ; and Port Said and 
the coast of Syria to Syra, and thence 
to Marseilles. 

Austrian Lloyd Company: Corfu and 
Trieste weekly: two services to Con- 
tantinople, one touching at Smyrna, 
Mitylene, Tenedos, the Dardanelles, 
and Gallipoli, and the other calling at 
Port Said, Jaffa and Alexandretta. 

Adriatico Orientale : Brindisi, An- 
cona, and Venice weekly. 

Rubattino and Co. : Messina, Naples, 
Civita Vecchia, Leghorn, aud Genoa. 

Marc Fraissinet, Pere et Fils : Malta 
and Marseilles weekly, and Port Said 
weekly. 

Azizieh Company : two services to 
Constantinople, one touching only at 
Smyrna, the Dardanelles, and Galli- 
poli; and the other calling at Port 
Said and all the Syrian ports, both 
weekly. There is also a bi-weekly 
service of the same company by the 
Mai moodeeah Canal and the Nile to 
Cairo ; and a service from Cairo up 
the Nile to Assooan generally every 
three weeks during the winter. For 
particulars as to this last apply to 
D. Robertson and Co. 

Russian Steam Navigation Com- 
pany, via Port Said and all the Syrian 
ports to Constantinople, and thence to 
the ports of the Black Sea. 



There are also steamers to Liver- 
j pool — Moss and Co., agents; and to 
Glasgow — Fleming and Co., agents. 

15. Telegeaph.— The English Tele- 
graph Company, near the Consulate, 

I despatch messages to all parts of the 
| world. Message of 20 words to London 
via Malta and Falmouth, address and 
signature included, 11. 10s. ; to any 
other part of England ] s. more. This 
Company also has stations at many of 
the towns in Egypt. The Egyptian 
Government Telegraph, Place Me'he'- 
met Ali, undertakes the despatch of 
j messages to most of the principal 
i cities of Europe, via Constantinople. 
Its network of lines in Egypt extends 
over more than 4000 miles. The prin- 
cipal lines are from Alexandria to 
Cairo along the railway, and from Cairo 
to Khartoom, following the railway 
and the Nile ; from Alexandria to 
Suez along the railway, and from 
Suez to Khartoom following the 
shores of the Red Sea, via Sowakim 
and Massowah; from Suez to Port 
Said along the railway and the Suez 
Canal ; and from Zagazig to El Arish 
on the Syrian frontier. 

16. Servants. — Nile travellers who 
arrive in Egypt without having made 
any previous arrangement as to a dra- 
goman, or who have had no particular 
one recommended to them by former 
travellers, had better defer engaging 
one until they get to Cairo. If they 
see one whom they think would suit 
them, they can arrange with him to 
remain with them as a valet de place 
at 5s. a day, until their plans are 
settled. Full particulars as to serv- 
ants' wages, &c, are given in Sect. II. 

17. Boats for the Nijje Voyage. — 
A few are generally to be found on the 
Mahmoodeeah Canal, and as they 

| belong mostly to Europeans, they are 
i clean and well fitted up ; but as a rule 
j the traveller had better not decide 
[ until he has seen the far larger assort- 
| ment at Cairo. 



ALEXANDRIA : ANCIENT HISTORY. 



75 



Description of Alexandria. 

L History and Topography, Ancient and Modem. — 2. Principal Ancient Build' 
ings. — 3. Present Bemains of Ancient Alexandria. — 4. Population. — 5. 
Climate. — 6. Local Government. — 7. Commerce and Industry. — 8. Ports- 
Gates. Walls. — 9. Streets. Public Places. — 10. Canals. — 11. Moshs. 
Churches. — 12. Hospitals. Charitable Societies. — 13. Schools. — 14. Theatres, 
Amusements, &c. — 15. Drives, Excursions.— 16. Plan for seeing Alexandria. 



1. Ancient History and Topo- 
graphy. — Alexandria was founded on 
the site of a small town called Racotis, 
or Rhacotis, by the great conqueror 
after whom it received its name. 

Its commodious harbour and other 
local recommendations rendered it a 
convenient spot for the site of a com- 
mercial city, and its advantageous 
position could not fail to strike the 
penetrating mind of the son of Philip. 
It promised to unite Europe, Arabia, 
and India ; to be the rival or successor 
of Tyre ; and to become the emporium 
of the world. 

In the time of the Pharaonic kings 
the trade of Egypt was nearly confined 
to the countries bordering on the Ara- 
bian Gulf ; and if, as is possible, India 
may be included among the number of 
those with which the Egyptians traded 
(either directly by water, or through 
Arabia^ the communication was main- 
tained b}' means of that sea, or by land 
over the Isthmus of Suez. Indeed, it 
is probable that iEnnum (or, as it was 
afterwards called, Philoteras Portus), 
and the predecessor of Arsinoe, were 
the only two ports on the Red Sea 
during the rule of the early Pharaohs ; 
the small harbours (the portus multi 
of Pliny) being then, as afterwards, 
merely places of refuge for vessels in 
stress of weather, or at night during a 
coasting voyage ; and no towns yet 
existed on the sites of those known in 
later times as Berenice, Nechesia, a,nd 
Leucos Portus. 

The commercial intercourse with the 
N. of Arabia, Syria, and the parts of 
Asia to the N. and N.E. of Egypt, was 
established by means of caravans, which 
entered Egypt by the Isthmus of Suez ; 
and it was with one of these, on its 
way from Syria, that the Ishmaelites 
travelled who brought Joseph into 



Egypt. They had come " from Gi- 
lead, with their camels bearing spicery, 
and balm, and myrrh, going to carry it 
down to Egypt;" and this was the 
same line of route taken by the Egyp- 
tian armies on their march into Asia. 

The Mediterranean was not much 
used by the Pharaohs for maritime pur- 
poses connected either with war or com- 
merce, until the enterprise or the hos- 
tility of strangers began to suggest its 
importance. Even then the jealousy, 
or the caution, of the Egyptians forbad 
foreign merchants to enter any other 
than the Canopic, of all the seven 
branches of the Nile ; and Naucratis 
was to them what the factories of a 
Chinese port were so long to Euro- 
pean traders. Ships of war, however, 
were fitted out upon the Mediterranean, 
as well as on the Red Sea, even in the 
age of the XVIIIth dynasty ; and in 
after times an expedition was sent 
against Cyprus by Apries, who also 
defeated the Tyrians in a naval combat. 

The Egyptians had been satisfied 
with their river as their harbour ; but 
when the advantages of a more ex- 
tended commercial intercourse with 
Europe, and the possibility of diverting 
the course of the lucrative trade with 
India and Arabia from Syria to Egypt, 
were contemplated, the necessity of a 
port on the Mediterranean coast became 
evident : and the advantages offered by 
the position of Rhacotis with its Isle of 
Pharos pointed it out as a proper place 
for establishing the projected empo- 
rium of the East. 

Tradition had fixed on this spot as 
the abode of the fabulous Proteus, 
called by Virgil and others a sea god 
and prophet, by Herodotus and Diodorus 
a king of Egypt ; whose pretended ap- 
pearance under various forms is gravely 
attributed by Lucian to his postures in 
e 2 




Plan of Alexandria, principally from the Survey of Capt. W. H. ^7*, R.N.-A A, TLe 
Heptastadium, or dyke connecting the Island of Pharos with the city. 6 b, The modern town 



Egypt. 



ALEXANDRIA : ANCIENT HISTORY. 



77 



the dance, and by Diodorus to his 
knowledge of astrology, or to the sup- 
posed custom of the king's assuming 
various dresses to impose on the credu- 
lity of the people. Though, after all 
these statements, there seems to be 
only one doubt, which is the greatest 
improbability, the story or the explana- 
tion. 

After his conquest of Syria, Alexan- 
der had advanced into Egypt, and, by 
the taking of Memphis, had secured to 
himself the possession of the whole 
country. While at Memphis he con- 
ceived the idea of visiting the temple 
of Jupiter Ammon in the African 
desert; and with this view he de- 
scended the river to the sea. He then 
followed the coast westward from Ca- 
nopus, until, his attention being struck 
with a spot opposite the Isle of Pharos, 
he stopped to examine its position, and 
the advantages it offered as a naval 
station. It had beeu occasionally used 
as a refuge for ships at a very remote 
period, and Homer had mentioned it 
as a watering-place at the time of the 
Trojan war. 

According to Strabo, the ancient 
Egyptian kings, seeing that it was a 
spot frequented by foreigners, and par- 
ticularly by Greeks, and being averse 
to the admission of strangers (who 
were then frequently pirates ), stationed 
a garrison there, and assigned to them 
as a permanent abode the village of 
Bhacotis, which was afterwards part 
of Alexandria. 

"The island of Pharos," says the 



Geographer, " is of oblong form, stand- 
ing near the shore, and forming by its 
position an admirable port. The coast 
here curves into a large bay, with two 
promontories jutting out into the sea, 
on its eastern and western extremities ; 
between which is the island, furnish- 
ing a barrier in the middle of the bay." 

This island was afterwards connected 
with the mainland by a dyke, and on 
a rock close to its extremity was built 
the famous tower of Pharos. 

Alexander, on arriving there, seeing 
how eligible a spot this natural harbour 
offered for building a city, lost no time 
in making arrangements for its com- 
mencement. The plan was drawn 
out, and Dinocrates, the architect, was 
commissioned to build the new city, 
which, from its founder, received the 
name of Alexandria. 

t: The future prosperity of this city," 
continues the Geographer, " is reported 
to have been foreshown by a remarkable 
sign, manifested during the operation 
of fixing its plan. For whilst the archi- 
tect was marking out the lines upon 
the ground, the chalk he used hap- 
pened to be exhausted, upon which 
the king, who was present at the time, 
ordered the flour destined for the work- 
men's food to be employed in its stead, 
thereby enabling him to complete the 
outline of many of the streets. This 
occurrence was deemed a good omen ;" 
and previous to prosecuting his journey 
to the Oasis, he had the satisfaction of 
witnessing the commencement of this 
flourishing city, B.C. 323. 



c c, The Frank quarter. B, Fort Caffarelli, — perhaps the site of the tower of the Heptastadinm — 
with the corresponding one at the other end. C, Old Gate of the Saracenic walls. removed in 
1842. D, Saracenic tower, where the wall turned off along the site of the docks. E, Ruins, pro- 
bably of the temple of Arsine. F, Mosk of St. Athanasius. G, Ancient columns. HHH, Modern 
villas. I, Catholic convent. J to K, Ruins probably of the Csesarium, before which the obelisks 
stood. L, Greek convent. M, Large ruins. From E to V was probably the quarter of Bruchion. 
N, Fort Cretin, or Fort Napoleon. 0, Columns and ruins. P, The Rosetta Gate. Q, The ancient 
wall of Alexandria, over which the Rosetta road passes, and near which stood the Canopic Gate. 
The hippodrome is thought to be traced 2800 metres (nearly 1§ mile) to (he East of the Rosetta 
Gate, and about 250 from the sea. At U are the statues discovered by Mr. Harris. R, Ruins. 
The Emporium (market) probably stood between E and the obelisks J; and the Museum and 
Library of the Bruchion may have been about S or R, *' the theatre adjoining the King's palace," 
as Ca;sar tells us, and the Museum being also attached to it. S, the site of the theatre. T, Site of 
the inner palaces ? V. Site of the palace ? The Jews' quarter was to the east of the modern canal, 
between V and the tomb of Sbeykh Sbahtbek. W, Pompey's pillar, erected in honour of Diocle- 
tian. X, Circus, or Stadium. Y, Site of the Gymnasium ? Or at 0? Z, Site of the Sarapeum ? 
a o. Modern canal 'for irrigation. The walls enclose what was the Arab city; but those on the 
N.W have been taken away. At I is the supposed tomb of Alexander, according to Arab tradition, 
Of the Panium, see p. 86. 



78 



ALEXANDRIA : ANCIENT HISTORY; 



Sect. I. 



Pliny, in speaking of the foundation 
of Alexandria, says, it was " built by 
Alexander the Great on the African 
coast, 12 miles from the Canopic mouth 
of the Nde, on the Mareotic Lake, 
which was formerly called Arapotes; 
that Dinochares, an architect of great 
celebrity, laid down the plan, resem- 
bling the shape of a Macedonian 
mantle, with a circular border full of 
plaits, and projecting into corners on 
the right and left ; the fifth part of its 
site being even then dedicated to the 
palace." This architect is better 
known by the name of Dinocrates ; 
and is the same who rebuilt the famous 
temple of Ephesus, after its destruction 
by Eratostratus, and who had pre- 
viously proposed to Alexander to cut 
Mount Athos into a statue of the king 
holding in one h nd a city of 10,000 
inhabitants, and from the other pour- 
ing a copious liver into the sea. But 
the naturalist gives us veiy little in- 
formation respecting the public build- 
ings or monuments of the city. 

In Plutarch's life of Alexander is 
a fabulous story of the foundation of 
Alexandria, related by the people 
of the place, who pretended its com- 
mencement to have been owing to " a 
vision, wherein a greyheaded old man 
of venerable aspect appt ared to stand 
before the king in his sleep, and to 
pronounce these words : — 

Ntjcto; eneiTa ti? eoTt ttoAvkAvcttoj evl ttovtco, 
AiyvivTOv 7rpo7rapoi0e, ®dpov 84 e KiK\rj(TKOv<Ti. 
' High over the gulfy sea the Pharian isle 
Fronts the deep roar of disemboguing Nile.'* 

" Upon this Alexander repaired to 
Pharos, which was then an island, 
lying a little above the Canopic mouth 
of the Nile, though now joined to the 
continent by a causeway. As soon as 
he saw the commodious situation of 
the spot opposite the island, being a 
neck of land of a suitable breadth, 
with a great lake on one side, and on 
the other the sea, which there forms 
a capacious haven, he said, ' Homer, 
besides his other excellent qualities, 
was a very good architect,' and ordered 
the plan of the city to be drawn cor- 
responding to the locality. For want 

* Horn. Od. A. 354. 



of chalk, the soil being black, they 
made use of flour, with which they 
drew a line about the semicircular bay 
that forms the port. This was again 
marked out with straight lines, and 
the form of the city resembled that 
of a Macedonian cloak. While Alex- 
ander was pleasing himself with this 
project, an infinite number of birds 
of several kinds, rising suddenly, like 
a black , cloud out of the river and the 
lake, devoured all the flour that had 
been used in marking out the lines : 
at which omen he was much troubled, 
till the augurs encouraged him to pre- 
ceed, by observing that it was a sign 
the city he was about to build would 
enjoy such abundance of all things 
that it would contribute to the nour- 
ishment of many nations. He there- 
fore commanded the workmen to go 
on, while he went to visit the temple 
on Jupiter Ammon." 

Strabo, whose account of the founda- 
tion of Alexandria has been already 
quoted, gives the following description 
of it when he visited it in the year 
24 b.c , 24 years after the passage of 
Cagsar, and when (Elius Gallus was 
prefect of Egypt. "Alexandria pos- 
sesses," he says, "advantages of more 
than one kind. Two seas wash it on 
both sides, one on the north, denomi- 
nated the Egyptian, the other on the 
south, which is the Lake Marea, called 
also Mareotis. The latter is fed by 
several canals from the Nile, as well 
from above as from the sides ; and by 
it many more things are brought to 
Alexandria than by the sea, so that 
the port on the lake side is richer 
than that on the coast. By this, also, 
more is exported from Alexandria than 
imported into it, which any one who has 
been at Alexandria and Dicpearchia 
must have perceived, in looking at 
the merchant ships trading to and 
fro, and comparing the cargoes that 
enter and leave those two harbours. 
Besides the wealth that pours in on 
either side, both by the seaport and 
the lake, the salubrity of the air 
should also be noticed, which is caused 
by the peninsular situation of the 
place and by the opportune rising of 
the Nile. Other cities situated on 



Egypt- 



STRABO'S 



ACCOUNT. 



70 



lakes have a heavy and suffocating 
atmosphere during the summer heats, 
and, in consequence of the evaporation 
caused by the sun, the banks of those 
lakes becoming marshy, a noxious ex- 
halation is generated, which produces 
pestilential fevers ; but at Alexandria 
the inundation of the Nile fills the 
lake in the summer season, and, by 
preventing its becoming marshy, effec- 
tually checks any unwholesome vapours. 
At that time, also, the Etesian winds, 
blowing from the northward, and 
passing over so much sea, secure to 
the Alexandrians a most delightful 
summer. 

" The site of the city has the form 
of a (Macedonian) mantle, whose two 
longest sides are bathed by water to 
the extent of nearly 30 stadia, and its 
breadth is 7 or 8 stadia, with the sea 
on one side and the lake on the other. 
The whole is intersected with spacious 
streets, through which horses and 
chariots pass freely ; but two are of 
greater breadth than the rest, being 
upwards of a plethrum wide, and these 
intersect each other at right angles. 
Its temples, grand public buildings, 
and palaces occupy a fourth or a third 
of the whole extent : for every suc- 
cessive king, aspiring to the honour of 
embellishing these consecrated monu- 
ments, added something of his own 
to what already existed. All these 
parts are not only connected with 
each other, but with the port and the 
buildings that stand outside of it. 

" Part of the palace is called the 
museum. It has corridors, a court, 
and a very large mansion, in which is 
the banqueting-room of those learned 
men who belong to it. This society 
has a public treasury, and is superin- 
tended by a president, one of the 
priesthood, whose office, having been 
established by the Ptolemies, continues 
under Csesar. 

"Another portion of the palace is 
called Soma (' the body '), which con- 
tains within its circuit the tombs of 
the kings, and of Alexander. For 
Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, took the 
body of Alexander from Perdiccas, 
while on its removal from Babylon ; and 
having carried it to Egypt, buried it 



at Alexandria, where it still remains. 
But it is no longer in the same coffin ; 
for the present one is of glass, and the 
original, which was of gold, was stolen 
by Ptolemy surnamed Cocces (Ko/cktjs) 
and Parisactus (Uapeia-aKTos), though 
his immediate fall prevented his bene- 
fiting by the robbery. 

" On the right as you sail into the 
great harbour are the island and tower 
of Pharos ; on the left, rocks, and 
the promontory of Lochias, where the 
palace stands ; and, as you advance on 
the left, contiguous to the buildings 
at the Lochias, are the inner palaces, 
which have various compartments and 
groves. Below them is a secret and 
closed port, belonging exclusively to 
the kings, and the Isle of Autirhodus, 
which lies before the artificial port, 
with a palace and a small harbour. It 
has received this name as if it were 
a rival of Ehodes. Above this is the 
theatre, then the Posidium, a certain 
cove sweeping round from what is 
called the Emporium, with a temple 
of Neptune. Antony, having made a 
mole in this part projecting still further 
into the port, erected at its extremity 
a palace, which he named Timonium. 
This he did at the end of his career, 
when he had been deserted by his 
friends, after his misfortunes at Actium, 
and had retired to Alexandria, in- 
tending to lead a secluded life there, 
and imitate the example of Timon. 
Beyond are the Csesarium and empo- 
rium i market), the recesses, and the 
docks, extending to the Hepta stadium. 
All these are in the great harbour. 

" On the other side of the Hepta- 
stadium is the port of Eunostus ; and 
above this is an artificial or excavated 
one, called Kibotus (the basin), which 
has also docks. A navigable canal 
runs into it from the lake Mareotis, 
and a small portion of the town ex- 
tends beyond (to the W. of) this canal. 
Further on are the Necropolis and the 
suburbs, where there are many gar- 
dens and tombs, with apartments set 
apart for embalming tbe dead. Within 
(to the E. of ) the canal are the Sera- 
peum, and other ancient fanes, deserted 
since the erection of the temples at 
Nicopolis, where also the amphitheatre 



80 



ALEXANDRIA : MODERN HISTORY ; 



Sect. I. 



and stadium are situated, and where 
the quinquennial games are celebrated ; 
the old establishments being now in 
little repute. The city, indeed, to 
speak briefly, is filled with ornamental 
buildings and temples, the most beau- 
tiful of which is the Gymnasium, with 
porticoes in the interior, measuring 
upwards of a stacle. There, too, are 
the courts of law, and the groves; and 
in this direction stands the Paiiium, 
an artificial height of a conical form, 
like a stone tumulus, with a spiral 
ascent. From its summit the whole 
city may be seen, stretching on all 
sides below. 

" From the Necropolis a street ex- 
tends the whole way to the Canopic 
gate, passing by the Gymnasium. Be- 
yond are the Hippodrome and other 
buildings, reaching to the Canopic 
canal. After going out (of the city) 
by the Hippodrome, you cometoNico- 
polis, built by the sea-side, not less 
than three stades distant from Alex- 
andria. Augustus Csesar ornamented 
this place, in consequence of his having 
there defeated the partisans of Antony, 
and captured the city in his advance 
from that spot." 

The circumference of ancient Alex- 
andria is said by Pliny to have been 
15 m.; and we have seen that Strabo 
gives it a diameter of 80 stadia, or as 
Diodorus says, a length of 40 stadia. 
The epithet "beautiful" is twice ap- 
plied to it by Athenseus ; and we may 
judge of its magnificence from the 
fact that the Komans themselves con- 
sidered it inferior only to their own 
capital. 

" The lucrative trade of Arabia and 
India," says Gibbon, " flowed through 
the port of Alexandria to the capital 
and provinces of the empire. Idleness 
was unknown. Some were employed 
in blowing of glass, others in weaving 
of linen; others, again, in manufac- 
turing the papyrus. Either sex, and 
every age, was engaged in the pursuits 
of industry, nor did even the blind or 
the lame want occupation suited to 
their condition. But the people of 
Alexandria, a various mixture of na- 
tions, united the vanity and incon- 
stancy of the Greeks with the super- 



stition and obstinacy of the Egyptians. 
The most trifling occasion, a transient 
scarcity of flesh or lentils, the neglect of 
an accustomed salutation, a mistake of 
precedency in the public baths, or even 
a religious dispute, were at any time 
sufficient to kindle a sedition among 
that vast multitude, whose resentments 
were furious and implacable." 

Such was Alexandria under the Ptole- 
mies and the Csesars, a world-renowned 
city of 500,000 souls, adorned with the 
arts of Greece and the wealth of 
Egypt ; its schools of learning far out- 
shone anything that Heliopolis had 
ever boasted of, and Thebes and 
Memphis in their palmiest days had 
never presented so much luxury and 
magnificence. But at the commence- 
ment of the third century its splendour 
and renown began to wane, and all that 
we know of its history from that period 
is nothing but a sad picture of decay. 
Constant revolts — arising sometimes 
from political, sometimes from religious 
causes — necessitated severe measures 
of repression, which gradually brought 
about its ruin. But notwithstanding 
the disasters to which it had been 
exposed, especially in the reigns of 
Aurelian and Theodosius, and the de- 
struction of many of its most magnifi- 
cent public buildings, it must still 
have been a wonderful city when Amer 
took it, in a.d. 641, after a siege of 14 
months ; for that general, in his letter 
to the Caliph Omar, informing him of 
the conquest he had made, says that 
he had found there 4000 palaces, a 
like number of baths, 400 places of 
amusement, and 12,000 gardens, and 
that one quarter alone was occupied 
by 40,000 Jews. 

The commerce of Alexandria, which 
was the great source of its wealth, had 
been for some time on the decline, but 
after this great conquest it decreased 
so rapidly, and the city consequently 
shrank so much in size and importance, 
that towards the end of the ninth cen- 
tury, Ahmed-ebn-Tooloon pulled down 
the old walls, and built new ones of 
an extent more adapted to the city's 
diminished limits. What little pro- 
sperity it still enjoyed was put an 
end to by the discovery of the Cape 



Egypt. 



MODERN TOPOGRAPHY. 



81 



route to India; and the conquest of 
Egypt by the Turks gave the final 
blow. In 1777 the traveller Savaiy 
estimated the Turkish population of 
Alexandria at only 6000 souls, living 
in miserable dwellings, built on the 
Heptastadium, the width of which had 
been gradually increased by the debris 
of the ancient city. The Arab part of 
the modem city still occupies the same 
site. In the early part of the present 
century Alexandria and its neighbour- 
hood was the scene of the conflict 
between France and England for 
supremacy in the East. Soon after 
Mohammed Ali began to rule Egypt 
he turned his attention to the restora- 
tion of its ancient capital, more espe- 
cially with a view to the formation of 
a navy. New buildings sprang up in 
every direction; the Frank quarter 
was developed, and such an impulse 
given to the place in every way by 
him and his successors, that at the 
present day the population is reckoned 
at more than 200,000 souls. Its becom- 
ing the centre of steam communication 
between Europe and India, and the 
principal station on the Overland 
route, has been one great cause of the 
rapid progress it has made of late 
years ; and though some of the traffic 
may be diverted from its ports to Port 
Said and the Suez Canal, the improve- 
ment now being made in the harbour, 
and the facilities for transhipment and 
quick and easy passage by rail to Suez, 
will always prevent its being com- 
pletely put on one side in the commer- 
cial dealings of the East and West; 
while for the trade of Egypt itself, so 
rapidly increasing in importance and 
extent, it must ever remain the most 
natural and commodious emporium. 

A study of the topography of modern 
Alexandria would be as dull and unin- 
teresting as that of the ancient city is 
instructive and entertaining. The 
principal public! buildings stand on the 
peninsula of Eas et Teen, the old 
island of Pharos : the town is built on 
the isthmus which connects that pen- 
insula with the mainland, and which 
formerly was only the artificial dyke 
called the Heptastadium : constant 
accumulation of soil and ruins have 



made its present width. Gradually, 
however, houses are being built on the 
mainland, where the old city stood. 
The Arab quarter, extending from the 
harbour to the Great Square, is an 
agglomeration of dirty, narrow, and 
tortuous streets, without a single object 
of interest, and the bazaars in it are 
mean and ill-provided. In the Frank 
quarter are some well-built houses and 
good shops, and when the streets are 
properly paved this part of the town 
may bear comparison with many 
Italian ones. 

Eliot Warburton wrote the following 
description of Alexandria more than 
20 years ago, and though the city has 
increased since then in size and popu- 
lation, the contrast he draws is as vivid 
as ever : — 

" It has been truly said that the 
ancient city has bequeathed nothing 
but its ruins and its name to the 
modern Alexandria. Though earth 
and sea remain unchanged, imagina- 
tion can scarcely find a place for the 
ancient walls, fifteen miles in circum- 
ference ; the vast streets, through the 
visla of whose marble porticoes the 
galleys on Lake Mareotis exchanged 
signals with those upon the sea; the 
magnificent temple of Serapis, on its 
platform of one hundred steps; the 
four thousand palaces, and the homes 
of six hundred thousand inhabitants. 
All that is now visible within the 
shrunken and mouldering walls is a 
piebald town, one half European, with 
its regular houses, tall, and white, and 
stiff; the other half Oriental, with its 
mud-coloured buildings and terraced 
roofs, varied with fat mosques and lean 
minarets. The suburbs are encrusted 
with the wretched hovels of the Arab 
poor; and immense mounds and tracts of 
rubbish occupy the wide space between 
the city and its walls : all beyond 
is a dreary waste. Yet this is the site 
Alexander selected from his wide domi- 
nions, and which Napoleon pronounced 
to be unrivalled in importance. Here 
luxury and literature, the epicurean 
and the Christian, philosophy and 
commerce, once dwelt together. Here 
stood the great library of antiquity : 
' the assembled souls of all that men 
e 3 



82 



ALEXANDRIA: ANCIENT BUILDINGS; 



Sect. I. 



held wise.' Here the Hebrew Scrip- 
tures expanded into Greek under the 
hands of the Septuagint. Here Cleo- 
patra, ' Vainqueur des vainqueurs du 
monde,' revelled with her Koman con- 
querors. Here St. Mark preached the 
truth, upon which Origen attempted 
to refine ; and here Athanasius held 
warlike controversy. Here Amer con- 
quered, and here Abercrombie fell. - ' 

2. Principal Ancient Buildings. — 
The Pharos, one of the seven wonders 
of the world, was the well-kirown tower 
or lighthouse, whose name continues 
to be applied to similar structures to the 
present day. It was a square building 
of white marble, several stories high ; 
each successive story diminished in 
size towards the top, and had a gallery 
running round it supported on the 
outer circle of the story beneath : the 
staircases inside were of such a gentle 
incline that horses and chariots could 
easily ascend them; a peculiarity of 
which the round tower of the Castle of 
Amboise in France presents a similar 
instance. The cost is said to have 
been 800 talents, which, if in Attic 
money, is about 155,000L sterling, or 
double that sum if computed by the 
talent of Alexandria. It was built by 
order of Ptolemy Philadelphus, whose 
magnanimity in allowing the name of 
the architect to be inscribed upon so 
great a work, instead of his own, is 
highly commended by Pliny. The in- 
scription ran in these words : " Sostra- 
tus of Cnidos, the son of Dexiphanes, 
to the Saviour Gods, for those who 
travel by sea." But, besides the im- 
probability of the king allowing an 
aichitect to enjoy the sole merit of so 
great a work, we have the authority of 
Lucian for believing that the name 
of Ptolemy was affixed to the Pharos, 
instead of that of Sostratus, the ori- 
ginal inscription having been — "King 
Ptolemy to the Saviour Gods, for the 
use of those who travel by sea." 
Sostratus, however, to secure the glory 
to himself in future ages, carved the 
•former inscription on the stone, and 
that of Ptolemy on stucco, which he 
placed over it ; so that in process 
of time, when the stucco fell, the 



only record was that of the deceitful 
architect. According to the Arab 
historian Abd-el-Atit', this wonderful 
structure was still existing in the 13th 
century, but no remains of it are now 
to be seen. 

The Pharos itself stood on a rock 
close to the N.E. extremity of the 
island of the same name, with which 
it communicated by means of a wall, 
and the island was also joined to the 
shore by a large causeway, called, 
from its length of seven s'tades, the 
Heptastadium. It was already con- 
structed, as Josephus shows, in the 
reign of the same Ptolemy, which 
therefore implies that it was the work 
either of Philadelpus himself, or his 
father Soter, and not of Cleopatra, as 
Ammianus Marcellinus supposes ; who 
even attributes to the same princess 
the erection of the Pharos itself. 
These erroneous notions of the his- 
torian may probably have originated 
in the tradition of some repairs made 
by Cleopatra, after the Alexandrian 
war. The causeway was similar to 
that of Tyre; and though, by con- 
necting the inland with the shore, it 
formed a separation between the two 
ports, it did not cut off all communi- 
cation from one to the other, two 
bridges being left for this purpose, 
beneath which boats and small vessels 
might freely pass. As the Heptasta- 
dium served for an aqueduct as well 
as a road to the Pharos, it is probable 
that the openings were arched ; and 
the mention of these passages satisfac- 
torily accounts for the difference of 
name applied to the causeway by ancient 
writers ; some, as Strabo, calling it a 
mole, and others a bridge, connecting 
the Pharos with the town. 

The name of this causeway was de- 
rived from its length of 7 stadia, about 
£ of a mile, or 4270 English feet, which 
was at that time the distance from the 
shore to the island. 

The old lighthouse of Alexandria 
still occupies the site of the ancient 
Pharos. 

The form of the Heptastadium is no 
longer perceptible, in consequence of 
the modern buildings having en- 
croached upon it ; but its length of 



Egypt 



THE MUSEUM. 



83 



7 stadia, or, as Caesar reckons, 1)00 
paces, may be readily made out, in 
measuring from the site of the old 
Saracenic wall behind the Frank quar- 
ter. And, though its breadth has been 
greatly increased by the accumulation 
of earth on which the modern town 
stands, a line drawn from the site of 
that wall, or from Fort Caffarelli, to 
what was properly the island of Pharos, 
would probably mark its exact posi- 
tion. 

The Museum founded by Ptolemy 
Soter was a noble institution, which, 
tended greatly to the renown of Alex- 
andria ; and from which issued those 
men of learning who have so many 
claims on the gratitude and admiration 
of posterity. It was to this school of 
philosophy that the once renowned 
college of Htliopolis transferred its 
reputation ; and that venerable city, 
which had been the resort of the sages 
of Ancient Greece, ceded to Alexandria 
the honour of being the seat of learn- 
ing, and the repository of the " wisdom 
of the Egyptians." Science, litera- 
ture, and every branch of philosophy 
continued to flourish there for many a 
generation ; foreigners repaired thither, 
to study and profit by " the instruction 
of every kind for which its schools were 
established;" and the names of Euclid, 
Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, Ctesihius, 
and the elder and younger Heron, 
Clemens, Origen, Athanasius, Ammo- 
nius, Theon, and his daughter Hypatia, 
shed a brilliant lustre over the Greek 
capital of Egypt. 

To its strictly secular character as 
a Greek philosophical institution, en- 
tirely unconnected with either the 
ancient Egyptian or Christian reli- 
gions, may perhaps be attributed the 
fact that, notwithstanding the wild 
farrago of nonsense which at one time 
encumbered the speculations of Alex- 
andrian philosophy, its schools of 
astronomy, geology, physic, and various' 
branches of science, maintained their 
reputation till the period of the Arab 
conquest. 

Attached to the Museum was the 
famous library, also founded by Pto- 
lemy Soter, and to which so many 
additions were made by his successor, 



Ptolemy Philadelphus, that already at 
the death of the latter it contained no 
less than 100,000 volumes. No pains 
were spared in adding to this collection. 
A copy of every known work was 
reputed to be deposited there, and it 
was amongst them that the Septuagint 
translation of the Bible, made by order 
of Ptolemy Philadelphus, was placed. 
Of the arrangements respecting this 
translation, and the reception of his 
countrymen, Josephus gives an inte- 
resting account ; but, always ready 
to show the great importance of the 
Jews, he forgets probability in this as 
in many other instances, and informs 
us that each of the seventy-two inter- 
preters received three talents. This, 
if computed in Alexandrian money, 
amounts to 3100Z. sterling, making a 
total of 223,200Z. ; a sum which not 
even the supposed munificence of a 
Ptolemy can render credible ; and some 
are inclined, with Prideaux, to com- 
pute the amount still higher, even at 
two millions of our money. 

Nbr does it appear that the Ptole- 
mies were always so liberally disposed, 
or so scrupulous in their way of ob- 
taining additions to their library; and 
though they spared no expense in 
sending competent persons into distant 
countries to purchase books, much 
tyranny and injustice were resorted 
to, when they could bring their pos- 
sessors within their reach, or when 
other states were generous enough to 
send them an original work. All books 
brought into the country were seized, 
and sent to the Library ; and, as soon 
as they had been transcribed, the 
copies were returned to the owners, the 
originals being deposited in the library. 
Ptolemy Euergetes even went so far 
as to borrow the works of iEschylus, 
Sophocles, and Euripides from the 
Athenians, and only returned the copies 
he had caused to be transcribed in as 
beautiful a manner as possible, pre- 
senting them, in lieu of the original, 
15 talents, or about 2906Z. sterling. 

The library of the Museum was un- 
fortunately destroyed during the war 
of Julius Caesar with the Alexandrians. 
For, in order to prevent his aggressors 
cutting off his communication with the 



84 



ALEXANDRIA : ANCIENT BUILDINGS ; 



Sect. I. 



sta, being obliged to set fire to the 
Egyptian, or, as Plutarch says, his own, 
fleet, the flames accidentally caught 
some of the houses on the port, and, 
spreading thence to the quarter of the 
Bruchion, burnt the library, and threat- 
ened destruction to the whole of the 
Museum and the adjoining buildings. 
The Museum itself escaped, but the 
famous library, consisting of 400,000 
volumes, which had cost so much 
trouble and expense for ages to collect, 
was lost for ever ; and in it doubtless 
some very valuable works of antiquity, 
many of whose names may even be 
unknown to us. 

The Museum stood, as already stated, 
in the quarter of the Bruchion. Ac- 
cording to Strabo, it was a very large 
building, attached to the palace, sur- 
rounded by an exterior peristyle, or 
corridor, for walking; and it is pro- 
bable that the philosophers frequently 
taught beneath this covered space, as 
in the stoa of Athens, or in the grove 
of Academus. It is difficult now to 
point out its exact site : it was pro- 
bably near the modern branch of the 
canal that runs past the Kosetta Gate 
to the sea. 

The Serapeum was founded by Pto- 
lemy Soter, as reported by Plutarch 
and others, for the reception of the 
statue of Serapis, a foreign deity whose 
worship was introduced from Sinope. 
It stood in that part of the city which 
had formerly been occupied by Rha- 
cotis, the predecessor of Alexandria, 
and was embellished with such magni- 
ficence that Ammianus Marcellinus 
pronounces it unequalled by any 
building in the world, except the 
Capitol at Eome. It appears not only 
to have contained the temple of the 
deity, but to have consisted, like the 
Museum, of several distinct parts, such 
as a library and peristylar halls, adorned 
with beautiful works of art. 

The Serapeum subsisted long after 
the introduction of Christianity into 
Egypt, as the last hold of the Pagans 
of Alexandria. Nor did it lose its 
importance, as Strabo would lead us 
to suppose, from the number of rival 
temples, or the increasing consequence 



of Nicopolis; and it continued to be 
their chief resort until finally demo- 
lished by order of Theodosius, a.d. 389, 
when the votaries of the cross entirely 
subverted the ancient religion of Egypt. 
M. Ampere says, " Le Serapeum e'tait 
le Palladium de la religion Egyptienne, 
et de la phitosophie Grecque. A 
l'epoque de sa destruction il repre- 
sentaitl'alliance que routes deux avaient 
fini par former contre 1'ennemi, la reli- 
gion Chretienne." The building and 
its destruction are thus described by 
Gibbon. The temple of Serapis, 
" which rivalled the pride and magni- 
ficence of the Capitol, was erected on 
the spacious summit of an artificial 
mount, raised one hundred steps above 
the level of the adjacent parts of the 
city; and the interior cavity was 
strongly supported by arches, and dis- 
tributed into vaults and subterraneous 
apartments. The consecrated build- 
ings were surrounded by a quadran- 
gular portico : the stately halls, the 
exquisite statues, displayed the tri- 
umph of the arts; and the treasures 
of ancient learning were preserved in 
the famous Alexandrian library, 
which had arisen with new splendour 
from its ashes." 

But in progress of time the animo- 
sity of the Christians was directed 
against this edifice; the "pious indig- 
nation of Theophilus" could no longer 
tolerate the honours paid to Serapis; 
"and the insults which he offered to 
an ancient chapel of Bacchus convinced 
the Pagans that he meditated a more 
important and dangerous enterprise. 
In the tumultuous capital of Egypt, 
the slightest provocation was sufficient 
to inflame a civil war. The votaries 
of Serapis, whose strength and numbers 
were much inferior to those of their 
antagonists, rose in arms at the insti- 
gation of the philosopher Olympius, 
who exhorted them to die in defence 
of the altars of the gods. These Pa- 
gan fanatics fortified themselves in the 
temple, or rather fortress of Serapis, 
repelled the besiegers by daring sal- 
lies and a resolute defence, and, by the 
inhuman cruelties which they exer- 
cised on their Christian prisoners, ob- 



Egypt. 



THE SERAPEUM. 



85 



tained the last consolation of despair. 
The efforts of the prudent magistrate 
were usefully exerted for the establish- 
ment of a truce, till the answer of 
Theodosius should determine the fate 
of Serapis. The two parties assembled 
without arms in the principal square ; 
and the imperial rescript was publicly 
read. But when a sentence of destruc- 
tion against the idols of Alexandria 
was pronounced, the Christians set up 
a shout of joy and exultation, whilst 
the unfortunate Pagans, whose fury 
had given way to consternation, retired 
with hasty and silent steps, and eluded, 
by their flight or obscurity, the resent- 
ment of their enemies. Theophilus 
proceeded to demolish the temple of 
Serapis, without any other difficulties 
than those which he found in the 
weight and solidity of the materials; 
but these obstacles proved so insupe- 
rable, that he was obliged to leave 
the foundations, and to content himself 
with reducing the edifice itself to a 
heap of rubbish ; a part of which was 
soon afterwards cleared away, to make 
room for a church, erected in honour 

of the Christian martyrs The 

colossal statue of Serapis was involved 
in the ruin of his temple and religion. 
A great number of plates of different 
metals, artificially joined together, 
composed the majestic figure of the 
deity, who touched on either side the 
walls of the sanctuary. The huge 
idol was overthrown and broken to 
pieces ; and the parts of Serapis were 
ignominiously dragged through the 
streets of Alexandria." 

The library of the Serapeum was 
scarcely less famous than that of the 
Museum. Of the 700,000 volumes of 
which the Alexandrian library as a 
whole consisted, 300,000 were in the 
Serapeum. This number included the 
200,000 volumes belonging to the 
kings of Pergamus, and presented to 
Cleopatra by Marc Antony. It was to 
prevent the increase of the Pergamus 
library that Ptolemy Epiphanes forbade 
the expoitation of the Egyptian papy- 
rus on which the volumes contained 
in it were written, whereupon " the 
copiers employed by Eumenes, king of 
Pergamus, wrote their books upon 



sheepskins, which were called Charta 
Pergamena, or parchment, from the 
name of the city in which they were 
written. Thus our own two words, 
parchment from Pergamus, and paper 
from papyrus, remain as monuments 
of the rivalry in bookmaking between 
the two kings. 

The collection in the Serapeum was 
also exposed to severe losses, at a sub- 
sequent period, during the troubles 
that occurred in the Koman empire. 
Many of the books are supposed to 
have been destroyed on those occa- 
sions, particularly at the time when 
the Serapeum was attacked by the 
Christians ; and Oroaius says he was 
at that time a witness of its empty 
shelves. We may, however, conclude 
that these losses were afterwards in 
some degree repaired, and the number 
of its volumes still further increased ; 
though later contributions were pro- 
bably not of the same importance as 
those of an earlier period : and Gibbou 
goes so far as to suppose that, if the 
library was really destroyed by Amer, 
its content were confined to the pro- 
ductions of an age when religious con- 
troversy constituted the principal occu- 
pation of the Alexandrians. " And," 
adds the historian, " if the ponderous 
mass of Arian and Monophysite con- 
troversy were indeed consumed in the 
public baths a philosopher may allow, 
with a smile, that it was ultimately 
devoted to the benefit of mankind." 
But, notwithstanding the injuries sus- 
tained by the Serapeum, during those 
tumults which ruined so many of the 
monuments of Alexandria, which con- 
verted every public building into a 
citadel, and subjected the whole city 
to the horrors of internal war, many, 
doubtless, of the ancient volumes still 
remained within its precincts ; and the 
Caliph Omar will for ever bear the 
odium of having devoted to destruction 
that library, whose numerous volumes 
are said to have sufficed for six months 
for the use of the 4000 baths of this 
immense city. 

It is related of John the Gramma- 
rian, the last disciple of Ammonius, 
surnamed Philoponus from his labo- 
rious studies of grammar and philo- 



86 



ALEXANDRIA : ANCIENT BUILDINGS. 



Sect. I. 



sopby, that having been admitted to 
tbe friendship of Amer, the lieutenant 
of the Caliph Omar, he took advan- 
tage of his intimacy with the Arab 
general to intercede for the preserva- 
tion of the library of the captured city, 
which " alone, among the spoils of 
Alexandria, had not been appropriated 
by the visit and the seal of the con- 
queror. Amrou (Amer) was inclined 
to gratify the wish of the grammarian, 
but his rigid integrity refused to ali- 
enate the minutest object without the 
consent of the caliph; and the answer 
of Omar, inspired by the ignorance of 
a fanatic, 'Jf these writings of the 
Greeks agree with the Book of God, 
they are useless, and need not be pre- 
served; if they disagree, they are per- 
nicious, and ought to be destroyed,' " 
doomed them to destruction. Such was 
the sentence said to have been pro- 
nounced by the impetuous Omar. The 
Moslems, however, to this day, deny 
its truth; and Gibbon observes, that 
" the solitary report of a stranger 
(Abulpharagius), who wrote at the 
end of 600 years, on the confines of 
Media, is overbalanced by the silence 
of two annalists of a more early date, 
both Christians, both natives of Egypt, 
and the most ancient of whom, the 
patriarch Eutychus, has amply de- 
scribed the conquest of Alexandria." 
But the admission of some Arab 
writers, cited by the learned De Sacy 
in his notes on Abd-el-Atif, seems to 
confirm the truth of Omar's vandal- 
ism ; the authorities of Makrizi and 
Abd-el-Atif are of considerable weight, 
notwithstanding the silence even of 
contemporary Christian annalists; and 
whilst we regret the destruction of this 
library, we may wish, with M. Key 
Dussueil, that the capture of Alex- 
andria had happened half or a whole 
century later ; when, instead of de- 
stroyers, the Arabs assumed the cha- 
racter of preservers of ancient litera- 
ture. 

The Cesarium or temple of Cse?ar, is 
marked by the two obelisks (called 
Cleopatra's Needles), which Pliny tells 
us "stood on the port at the temple 
of Caesar." Near this spot, according 
to Strabo, was the palace of the kings 



on the point called Lochias, r on the 
left of the great harbour, which is the 
same as the headland behind the mo- 
dern Pharillon. The tombs of the 
kings, also, stood in this district, and 
formed part of the palace under the 
name of 11 Soma." In this enclosure 
the Ptolemies were buried, as well as 
the founder of the city, whose body, 
having been brought to Egypt, and 
kept at Memphis while the tomb was 
preparing, was taken thence to Alex- 
andria, and deposited in the royal 
cemetery. 

Arab tradition has long continued 
to record the existence of the tomb of 
Alexander; and Leo Africanus men- 
tions a " small edifice standing in the 
midst of the mounds of Alexander, 
built like a chapel, remarkable for the 
tomb where the body of the great 
prophet and king, Alexander, is pre- 
served. It is highly honoured by the 
Moslems; and a great concourse of 
strangers from foreign lands who, with 
feelings of religious veneration, visit 
this tomb, often leave there luany cha- 
ritable donations." The building tra- 
ditionally reported to be the tomb of 
Alexander, was found by Mr. Stoddart 
amidst the mounds of the old city. It 
resembles an ordinary Sheykh's tomb, 
and is near the bath to the west of 
the road leading from the Fi ank quar- 
ter to the Pompey's Pillar Gate. But 
its position does not agree with the 
" Soma," according to Strabo's account; 
and the authority of Arab tradition 
cannot always be trusted. 

The sarcophagus, said to have been 
looked upon by the people of Alex- 
andria as the tomb of Iscander, was 
taken by the French from the mosk of 
Athanasius, and is now in the British 
Museum : but as the hieroglyphics on 
it prove it to have belonged to an 
Egyptian Pharaoh, its authenticity 
must be considered as more than 
doubtful. 

The Island of Antirhodus, the Posi- 
dium, the Timonium, the Emporium, 
the ports of Eunostus and Kibotus, and 
the Necropolis have been described in 
Strabo's account given at p. 78. 

The Panium, or Temple of Pan, 



REMAINS OF ANCIENT ALEXANDRIA. 



87 



described by Strabo as an artificial 
height, in the shape of a top, resem- 
bling a stone mound, with a spiral 
ascent, and commanding a view of the 
whole city, was supposed by Pococke 
to have been marked by a hill within 
the walls behind the Frank quarter, 
since occupied by Fort Caffarelli, 
which is built on ancient substructions. 
Some have conjectured it to have been 
the height on which Pompey's Pillar 
stands, and others have placed it on 
the redoubt-hill to the W. of that 
monument. 

The Gymnasium stood near the street 
which extendtd from the western or 
Necropolis Gate to that on the Canopic 
or eastern side ; which were distant 
from each other 40 stadia, the street 
being 100 ft. broad. It had porticoes 
covering the space of an eighth of a 
mile, of which Pococke conjectures 
the granite columns near the main 
street to be the remains. The Forum 
he places between this and the sea; 
and he attempts to fix the site of the 
Necropolis Gate on the S. of the pre- 
sent town. Two large streets were a 
few years ago clearly traced, as well 
as the spot where they intersected 
each other at right angles. One of 
these was probably the street men- 
tioned by Strabo as running from the 
Mareotic or Sun Gate to the sea ; the 
other, though not the corresponding 
cross main street, was one of some 
consequence, as is proved by the co- 
lumns and the remains of buildings 
that could then be seen throughout its 
course : and if there is a difficulty in 
ascribing these or other ruins to any 
particular edifice, it may readily be 
accounted for in a city which, as Di- 
odorus observes, contained a succession 
of temples and splendid mansions. 

Outside the modern walls, and at 
the extreme N.E. corner of the old 
city, was the Jews' quarter, or Regio 
Judseorum, separated from the Bruchion 
by its own wall : and though not so 
extensive as some would lead us to sup- 
pose, it was inhabited by a large popu- 
lation, governed by it3 own Ethnarch, 
and enjoying great privileges granted 
at various times by the Caesars. Its 



site was between the palaces and 
the modern tomb of Sheykh Shaktbek, 
and near this is the Jewish cemetery 
at the present day. 

The Eosetta Gate is the eastern 
entrance of the large walled circuit, 
which lies to the S. and S E. of the 
modern town. The space it encloses 
is about 10,000 ft. long, by 3200 in the 
broadest, and 1600 in the narrowest 
part. Till lately it was a large unin- 
habited area, whose gloomy mounds 
were only varied here and there by 
the gardens or villas of the Franks, 
and other inhabitants of Alexandria; 
but now that the Saracenic walls of 
the town have been removed, and this 
once vacant space is daily becoming 
occupied by streets, churches, and de- 
tached houses, it may once more be 
looked upon as part of Alexandria, 
The site of the old Canopic Gate lay 
very much further to the E. than the 
modern entrance on that side. Indeed 
the circuit has been so much dimi- 
nished, that the latter stands on what 
was once part of the street leading to 
the Canopic Gate, whose site was about 
half a mile further to the eastward. 
The wall of the ancient city, on that 
side, passed under the lofty mounds 
occupied by the French lines before 
the battle of Alexandria; and the re- 
mains of masonry, its evident line of 
direction, and the termination of the 
mounds of the town in that part, suffi- 
ciently show its position. 

3. Present Eemains of Anctent 
Alexandria. — Of the magnificent city 
described by Strabo it may be said that 
hardly a vestige remains. The two 
obelisks, one erect and one fallen, com- 
monly called Cleopatra's Needles, are 
the only striking relics of what he saw. 
These obelisks stood originally at 
Heliopolis, but were brought to Alex- 
andria in the reign of Tiberius (a.d. 
14-37), and set up in front of the tem- 
ple of Csesar, or the Csesarium, which 
the Alexandrians had erected in honour 
of the emperor. Another account in- 
deed assigns the erection of this temple 
to Cleopatra, to commemorate the birth 
of her son by Julius Csesar ; and if this 
story were true it would explain the 



88 



ALEXANDRIA I ANCIENT REMAINS ; 



Sect, I. 



origin of the traditional name. The 
obelisks are of red granite of Syene, 
and are respectively, the standing one 
71 ft. high, the fallen one 66 ft. ; the 
diameter of both at the base is the 
same, 7 ft. 7 in. Among the hiero- 
glyphs carved on them are the names 
of Thothmes III., Kameses II., and 
Sethi II., his successor. The fallen 
obelisk was given by Mohammed Ali to 
the English, who were desirous of re- 
moving it to England as a record of 
their successes in Egypt, and of the 
glorious termination of the campagin 
of 1801. The Pasha even offered to 
transport it free of expense to the 
shore, and put it on board any vessel 
or raft which might be sent to remove 
it ; but the project has been wisely 
abandoned, and cooler deliberation has 
pronounced that, from its mutilated 
state, and the obliteration of many of 
the hieroglyphics by exposure to the 
sea-air, it is unworthy the expense of 
removal.J It is now entirely covered 
with debris. U~ &*\*da>y . 

Just beyond the obelisks to the E. 
are the ruins of an old round tower, 
commonly called the "Eoman tower," 
though from its position at the corner 
of the wall just where it turns south- 
ward, and the style of its architecture, 
it belongs more properly to the early 
Arab period. 

The most striking monumental relic 
of Alexandria is the column errone- 
ously called Pompey's Pillar. It stands 
near the Mohammedan burial-place on 
an eminence which was probably the 
highest ground of the ancient city. 
It consists of a capital, shaft, base, and 
pedestal, which last reposes on sub- 
structions of smaller blocks, once be- 
longing to older monuments, and pro- 
bably brought to Alexandria for the 
purpose. On one is the name of the 
first Psamnietichus. 

Its substructions were evidently once 
under the level of the ground, and 
formed part of a paved area, the stones 
of which have been removed (probably 
to serve as materials for more recent 
buildings), leaving only those beneath 
the column itself, to the great risk of 
the monument. 

The total height of the column is 



98 ft. 9 in., the shaft is 73 ft., the 
circumference 29 ft. 8 in., and the 
diameter at the top of the capital 
16 ft. 6 in. The shaft of beautiful red 
granite, highly polished, is elegant and 
of good style, but the capital and pe- 
destal are of inferior workmanship and 
unfinished, and it is probable that, 
while the column itself was of an early 
period, the capital and shaft were 
added at the time when the pillar as 
it stands was erected as a monument 
in honour of the emperor Diocletian. 
That it was intended to serve this pur- 
pose is apparently proved by the fol- 
lowing Greek inscription : — 

TON TIMIOTATON AYTOKPATOPA 
TON nOAlOYXON AAE5ANAPEIA0 
MOKAHTIANON TON ANIKHTON 
nOYBAlOC, EIIAPXOC AIIYirTOY 

That the people of Alexandria should 
erect a similar monumeut in honour of 
Diocletian is not surprising, since he 
had on more than one occasion a claim 
to their gratitude, " having granted 
them a public allowance of corn to the 
extent of two millions of medimni,'' 
and " after he had taken the city by 
siege when in revolt against him, 
having checked the fury of his soldiers 
in their promiscuous massacre of the 
citizens." It is more probable, however, 
that this column silently records the 
capture of Alexandria by the arms of 
Diocletian in a.d. 296, when the re- 
bellion of Achilleus, who had usurped 
for 5 years the imperial title and dig- 
nities, had obliged him to lay siege to 
the revolted city, and the use of the 
epithet aviKf\Tov "invincible" applied 
to the emperor, is in favour of this 
opinion. This memorable siege, ac- 
cording to the historian of the Decline, 
lasted eight months ; when, " wasted 
by the sword and by fire, it implored 
the clemency of the conqueror, but 
experienced the full extent of his 
severity. Many thousands of the 
citizens perished in the promiscuous 
slaughter, and there were few ob- 
noxious persons in Egypt who escaped 
a sentence either of death or at least of 
exile." 

On the summit is a circular depres- 



Egypt. 



POPULATION. 



89 



sion of considerable size, intended to 
admit the base of a statue, as is usual 
on monumental columns ; and at 
each of the four sides is a cramp, by 
which it was secured: and, indeed, in 
an old picture or plan of Alexandria, 
where some of the ancient monuments 
are represented, is the figure of a man 
standing on the column. An Arab 
tradition pretends that it was one of 
four columns that once supported a 
dome or other building ; but little 
faith is to be placed in the tales of 
the modern inhabitants. Macrisi and 
Abd-el-ateef state that it stood in 
a stoa surrounded by 400 columns, 
where the library was that Omar or- 
dered to be burnt ; which (if true) 
would prove that it belonged to the 
Serapeum. 

In the hollow space to the S.W. of 
this column is the site of an ancient 
circus, or a stadium; from which the 
small fort, thrown up by the French 
on the adjoining height, received the 
name of the " Circus Eedoubt." The 
outline of its general form may still be 
traced. 

Not the least remarkable of the re- 
mains of ancient Alexandria are the cis- 
terns constructed beneath the houses 
for storing the supply of water with 
which the city was furnished by the 
Canopic canal. These cisterns were 
often of considerable size, having their 
roofs supported by rows of columns, 
vaulted in brick or stone. Being 
built of solid materials, and well stuc- 
coed, they have in many instances re- 
mained perfect to this day ; and some 
continue even now to be used for the 
same purpose by the modern inhabit- 
ants. The water is received into them 
during the inundation, and the cistern 
being cleansed every year, previous to 
the admission of a fresh supply, the 
water always remains pure and fresh. 
In some, steps are made in the side ; 
in others, men descend by an opening 
in the roof, and this serves as well for 
lowering them by ropes, as for 'draw- 
ing out the water, which is carried on 
camels to the city. 

Eeservoirs of the same kind are 
also found in the convents that stand 
on the site of the old town ; and se- 



veral wells connected with them may 
be seen outside the walls, in going to- 
wards the Mahmoodeeah Canal. They 
show the direction taken by the chan- 
nels that conveyed the water to the 
cisterns in the town. One set of them 
runs parallel to the eastern exit of the 
Mahmoodeeah, another is below the hill 
of Pompey's Pillar, and another a 
little less than half-way from this to 
the former line. It was by means of 
these cisterns that Ganymedes, during 
the war between Julius Csesar and the 
Alexandrians, contrived to distress the 
Romans, having turned the sea- water 
into all those within the quarter they 
occupied ; an evil which Csesar found 
great difficulty in remedying, by the 
imperfect substitute of wells. 

For a description of the Catacombs, 
the so-called " Baths of Cleopatra," 
Caesar's Camp, and other ruins outside 
the town, see below, § 15. 

Little now remains of the splendid 
edifices of Alexandria ; and the few 
columns, and traces of walls, which a 
few years ago rose above the mounds 
are no longer seen. The excavations 
carried on amidst the mounds of the 
old town, mostly for the purpose of lay- 
ing the foundations of modern houses, 
occasionally bring to light a few relics, 
as parts of statues, large columns, and 
remains of masonry, which last, if pro- 
perly examined and' planned at the 
time, might serve as a guide to the 
position of its ancient buildings ; and 
whoever has an opportunity would do 
well to mark the site of ruins wherever 
they are found. 

4. Population, Ancient and Mo- 
dern. — According to the account of 
Alexandria, given by Polybius, the 
inhabitants were, in his time, of three 
kinds : 1, The Egyptians, or people of 
the country, a keen and civilised race ; 
2, The mercenary troops, who were 
numerous and turbulent, for it was the 
custom to keep foreign soldiers in their 
pay, who, having arms in their hands, 
were more ready to govern than to 
obey; and, 3, The Alexandrians, not 
very decidedly tractable, for similar 
reasons, but still better than the last; 
for, having been mixed with and de- 



90 



ALEXANDRIA I 



POPULATION ; 



Sect. I. 



scended from Greeks who had settled 
there, they had not thrown off the 
customs of that people. This part of 
the population was, however, dwind- 
ling away, more especially at the time 
when Polybius visited Egypt during 
the reign of Ptolemy Physcon; who, 
in consequence of some seditious pro- 
ceedings, had attacked the people on 
several occasions with his troops, and 
had destroyed great numbers of them. 
The successors of Physcon adminis- 
tered the government as badly or even 
worse ; and it was not till it had 
passed under the dominion of the 
Komans that the condition of the city 
was improved. 

The Alexandrians continued, even 
under the Romans, to manifest their 
turbulent character : and Trebellius 
Pollio tells us they were "of so im- 
petuous and headlong a disposition, 
that on the most trifling occasions they 
were enticed to actions of the most 
dangerous tendency to the republic. 
Frequently, on account of an omission 
of civilities, the refusal of a place of 
honour at a bath, the sequestration 
of a ballad, or a cabbage, a slave's 
shoe, or other objects of like import- 
ance, they have shown such dangerous 
symptoms of sedition as to require the 
interference of an armed force. So 
general, indeed, was this tumultuous 
disposition, that, when the slave of the 
then Governor of Alexandria happened 
to be beaten by a soldier, for telling 
him that his shoes were better than the 
soldier's, a multitude immediately col- 
lected before the house of iEmilianus, 
the commanding officer, armed with 
every seditious w r eapon, and using 
furious threats. He was wounded by 
stones; and javelins and swords were 
pointed at and thrown at him." 

The letter of Adrian also gives a 
curious and far from favourable account 
of this people in his time ; which, 
though extending to all the Egyptians, 
refers particularly to the Alexandrians, 
as we perceive from the mention of 
Serapis, the great deity of their city, 
" Adrian Augustus, to the Consul Ser- 
vian, greeting: — I am convinced, my 
friend Servian, that all the inhabitants 
of Egypt, of whom you made honourable 



mention to me, are trifling, wavering, 
and changing at ev ery change of public 
rumour. The worshippers of Serapis 
are Christians, and those who call 
themselves followers of Christ pay their 
devotions to Serapis; every chief of 
a Jewish synagogue, every Samaritan, 
each Christian priest, the mathema- 
ticians, soothsayers, and physicians in 
the gymnasia, all acknowledge Serapis. 
The patriarch himself, whenever he 
goes into Egypt, is obliged by some 
to worship Serapis, by others Christ. 
The people are, of all others, the most 
inclined to sedition, vain and insolent. 
Alexandria is opulent, wealthy, popu- 
lous, without an idle inhabitant. They 
have one god (Serapis), whom the 
Christians, Jews, and Gentiles worship. 
I could wish that the city practised 
a purer morality, and showed itself 
worthy of its pre-eminence in size 
and dignity over the whole of Egypt. 
I have conceded to it every point; I 
have restored its ancient privileges ; and 
have conferred on it so many more, that 
when I was there I received the thanks 
of the inhabitants, and immediately 
on my departure they complimented 
my son Verus. You have heard, too, 
what they said about Antoninus: I wish 
them no other curse than that they 
may be fed with their own chickens, 
which are hatched in a way I am 
ashamed to relate. I have forwarded 
to you three drinking-cups, which have 
the property of changing their colour." 

As in former times, the inhabitants 
are in appearance and character a 
mixed race, from the coast of Barbary, 
and all parts of Egypt, with Turks, 
Albanians, Syrians, Greeks, Jews, 
Copts, and Armenians, independent of 
Frank settlers. 

The population of Alexandria, which 
from half a million or more in the days 
of the Ptolemies and the Cassars had 
diminished at the end of the last cen- 
tury to 6000, has been very rapidly 
recovering its numbers under Moham- 
med Ali and his successors. Accord- 
ing to the last official return of 1871, 
it is estimated at 220,000, of whom 
three-fourths are native and one-fourth 
foreign. These latter are thus di- 
vided : — 



CLIMATE ; GOVERNMENT. 91 



Egypt 

Greeks 21,000 

Italians 14.000 

French 10,000 

English and Mall ese . . . 5,000 

German-; and Swiss . . . 4,500 

Various nations .... 500 

But no great faith can be placed in the 
accuracy of these figures, and it must 
be remembered that the so-called 
European population is essentially a 
floating one. 



5. Climate. — Several ancient writ- 
ers, as Diodorus, Strabo, Ammianus 
Marcellinus. Quintus Curtius, and even 
Celsus, speak of the climate of Alex- 
andria as healthy, with a temperature 
both cool and salubrious. This Strabo 
attributes to the admission of the Nile 
water into the Lake Mareotis, and ap- 
parently not without reason ; since it 
is notorious that the fevers prevalent 
there are owing to exhalations from 
it; and medical men have lately re- 
commended that the Nile water should 
be freely admitted into it, to remedy 
this evil. At the close of the last 
century this lake was nearly dry ; but 
during the contest between the English 
and French at Alexandria, the sea was 
let into it by the former, in order to 
impede the communication of the be- 
sieged with Cairo, and cut off the 
supply of fresh water from the city ; 
anel it is now once more a lake. 

The temperature of Alexandria is 
kept tolerably cool even in summer, 
the thermometer seldom ranging above 
86° Fahr., by the N.W. winds from 
the sea, but at the same time there is 
a moisture and dampness, in the air 
produced by the same cause, especially 
at night, which are very trying to 
many constitutions ; and the disagree- 
able smell from the marshes of the 
lake, which are peculiarly offensive 
whenever the wind sets from the S.E., 
is not suggestive of health. In the 
early months of the year a great deal 
of rain generally falls all along the 
Egyptian coast, and the exhalation 
caused by the effect of a hot sun on 
the morass of mud, into which a heavy 
downpour soon converts the streets of 
Alexandria, renders a residence in the 



town at that period unwholesome as 
well as unpleasant. This cause of un- 
healthiness will, however, be in a great 
measure removed when the paving of 
the streets shall have been completed 
throughout the town. 



6. Government. — The city of Alex- 
andria forms an independent govern- 
ment apart from the province in which 
it is situated. It has its own governor, 
who is assisted in all matters relating 
to the internal administration of the 
town by a municipal council. The 
formation of this body is of very recent 
date. It is composed of half natives 
and half Europeans ; and, if the objects 
for which it was established can be 
thoroughly carried out, it will contri- 
bute very essentially to the improve- 
ment of the town, and the general 
well-being of the inhabitants. But as, 
unfortunately, it is impossible for it to 
fulfil its functions without int rf.ring 
with the privileges and immunities so 
long claimed and enjoyed by Euro- 
peans, there is every reason to fear 
that its work of reform must, for the 
present, at any rate, be very limited 
and partial. As explained elsewhere, 
every foreigner accused of any offence 
has to be indicted in the consular 
court of the nation of which he is a 
citizen. It is easy to imagine the 
labour and difficulty involved in deal- 
ing with offenders against sanitary and 
traffic regulations, with keepers of false 
weights and measures, &c, when the 
accused, instead of being dealt with at 
once by a recognised court, has to 
be brought before his own consular 
court. When it is remembered, too, 
that there are 17 of these courts, and 
that in many of them the adminis- 
tration of justice is thoroughly corrupt, 
it is no wonder that the municipal 
council find their task a hard one, and 
that their endeavour, by means of 
their police, to enforce their regulations 
is productive of constant difficulties 
between the Egyptian Government 
and the different consular authorities. 
There is no doubt that in a town like 
Alexandria, swarming with the scum 
of all the countries of the Mediter- 



92 ALEXANDKIA : COMMERCE, ETC. ; 



ranean, some supreme local authority, 
with entirely independent action, is 
necessary ; but it would perhaps have 
been better to wait until the whole 
question of civil and criminal juris- 
diction as regards foreigners had been 
settled. 

The city is divided into quarters, 
each presided over by a Sheykh, by 
whom all small matters are settled. 
The more serious cases are sent to 
the zaptieh, or chief police office, for 
decision by the prefect of police. But 
if the defendant in a civil or crimi- 
nal case be a foreigner he must be 
taken before his own consul, to be 
dealt with according to the laws of his 
own country. There is very little 
crime among the natives. The Franks, 
as they are called, are the chief offend- 
ers against law and order; and, un- 
fortunately, that section of them which 
is at once the most numerous and the 
most lawless, the Greeks, enjoys also, 
owing to the corrupt and inefficient 
state of its consular court, the greatest 
immunity from punishment. Suits 
between natives in which property is 
involved are decided by the Makke- 
meh, or Cadi's court ; and there is a 
mixed tribunal, composed of half na- 
tives and half foreigners, and presided 
over by a native, for the decision of all 
commercial cases between foreigners 
and natives, where the latter are defen- 
dants. When foreigners are the de- 
fendants they must be taken before 
their own consular court as in other 
cases. Among the natives every trade 
and profession has its sheykh, whose 
duty it is to collect the taxes, and be 
answerable for the good conduct of the 
different members. Foreigners are 
exempt from taxation. 



7. Commerce and Industry. — The 
importance of the commerce of Alex- 
andria in ancient times has been 
already spoken of. At the present 
day its carrying trade is very con- 
siderable. According to published 
returns the value of the exports during 
the year 1 871 amounted to 1(),251.608Z., 
of which the large share of 7,706,442Z. 



Sect I. 

was to England. The principal articles 
of export were — 

Value. 

Cotton (principally to England) .£6,402,756 

Cotton seed (ditto) 1,008,278 

Beans (ditto) 753,462 

Corn 573,766 

Sugar (ditto and France) . . . 379,456 
Gums (principally to England) . . 307,932 
Cofiee (ditto France) 122,110 

Among the other principal articles of 
export are ivory, wool, linseed, and 
mother-of-pearl. 

The same returns give the value of 
the imports for the year 1871 at 
5,753,020Z., of which 2,469,026Z. was 
from England. Among the principal 
articles of import were — 

Value. 

Manufactured goods (principally from 
England) . £1, 695, 870 

Wood (principally from Turkey, Aus- 
tria, and Italy) ...... 389,286 

Coal (principally from England) . . 30 7, J 95 

Oils (ditto England, Italy, Turkey, 
and France) 2^1,158 

Wines and Liqueurs (ditto France) . 229,944 

The other principal articles of import 
are raw silk, salt provisions and vege- 
tables, fruits, and marbles and stones. 

As is seen by the above statement, 
the greater part of the trade of the 
port is with England. 

The principal native industries of 
Alexandria are embroidery in gold and 
silk, weaving of cotton stuffs for 
native use, manufacture of pipe-stems, 
tobacco, arms, &c, native saddlery, 
dyeing, &c. The principal European 
industries are manufacture of Italian 
paste, starch, soap, gas, candles, oil, &c. 



8. Ports, Gates, Walls. — Mention 
has already been made of the two 
ports possessed by Alexandria, the 
Eastern or Great Harbour, now called 
the New Port, and the Western or 
Eunostus Harbour, now called the 
Old Port ; and we have seen that they 
were formerly separated by the Hepta- 
stadium, and had a communication 
by bridges which formed part of that 
mole. The Eastern or New Port has 
long been disused except by small 
native vessels, being completely ex- 
posed to the winds from the north, 
and encumbered with rocks and shoals. 



Egypt 



PORTS, GATES, STREETS, ETC. 



93 



There are no vestiges of the two moles 
which, running, the one from the 
Pharos, the other from the Pharillon, 
formerly sheltered this port. From the 
advent of the Arab conquerors until 
the beginning of the present century, 
however, it had been appropriated to 
the vessels of Christian states ; no 
Christian vessel being permitted to 
enter the Western or Old Port, which 
was reserved exclusively for Turkish 
vessels, unless compelled to do so by 
stress of weather ; and then they were 
forced to go round as soon as an op- 
portunity offered. It was in conse- 
quence of this custom that all the 
houses of the Europeans, constituting 
the Frank quarter, were built on that 
side of the city. The privilege of 
using the old harbour and that of 
riding on horseback were obtained by 
the English, for all Europeans, on 
evacuating Alexandria. 

The Western Harbour, Eunostus, 
has been described in the account of 
the landing at Alexandria, p. 70. As 
soon as the important works which are 
now in course of construction are 
completed, it is intended to put in 
force a scale of harbour dues based on 
that actually in use in the port of 
Liverpool. The total tonnage of ves- 
sels entering the harbour during 1871, 
vessels of war excepted, was 1,262,602; 
and of vessels leaving, vessels of war 
excepted, 1,267,881. In the harbour 
is a magnificent floating dock nearly 
500 feet long and 1Q0 feet broad, and. 
capable of supporting a weight of 
10,000 tons. 

The four principal gates of Alex- 
andria were the Canopic on the east, 
the Necropolis Gate on the west, and 
those of the Sun and Moon at the two 
ends of the street that ran from the 
sea to the lake. As you looked up the 
latter street, the ships in the Great 
Harbour were seen beyond the Gate 
of the Moon on one side, and those in 
the Mareotic port on the other; the 
two streets intersecting each other at 
right angles. 

The site of the Canopic Gate is 



probably to be found some 1200 yards 
to the east of the modern Eosetta 
Gate, near the Telegraph tower. No 
portion of the ancient circuit now 
remains, and even the old Arab wall 
has been entirely removed to make 
way for the increasing size of Alex- 
andria. 

The present walls, enclosing a por- 
tion of the mounds of the old city, 
were built in 1811, by Mohammed Aii, 
but they were probably based on older 
foundations. They are well built and 
of great thickness, but have lately 
been destroyed in parts to make way 
for improvements. The principal gate 
is the Eosetta Gate, strongly fortified 
with a double ditch and five bastions. 
Fort Caffarelli and Fort Napoleon 
inside the town, with numerous other 
fortifications outside, are the principal 
defences. 



9. Stkeets, Public Places, and 
Buildings. — Street nomenclature at 
Alexandria is of a very motley charac- 
ter, Arabic, French, English, Italian, 
and other names, having been given 
apparently according to the caprice 
of individuals ; and, to make the con- 
fusion worse, the names are conti- 
nually being changed. Lately, in- 
deed, the Government has given 
names to the principal places and 
streets, and in some instances these 
names have been written up, but it is 
very common to find people still 
calling them by the old name, or by 
some name which to them is more 
familiar ; e. the large square which 
used to be called the Place des Consuls, 
is now properly named the Place 
Mehemet Ali, but English people 
generally call it the Great Square. 
This square is the European eentre of 
Alexandria. In it are situated the 
principal hotels, shops, bankers' and 
merchants' offices. At the N. E. 
corner is the English church, and on 
the same side is the French Consulate, 
a large handsome-looking building. 
The houses are all built in large 
blocks called Okelles, of which the 
largest is that in which the Hotel 
d'Orient is situated. Eecent improve- 



94 



ALEXANDRIA: CANALS; 



Sect. I. 



merits have made the interior of the 
square a very pleasant promenade, 
shaded by trees and well provided 
with seats. At each end is a large 
fountain. The other principal open 
space is the Place de l'Eglise, so 
called from the Eoman Catholic 
church which occupies the S.E. side 
of it. On the same side are Abbat's 
Hotel, and the Egyptian Post-office. 

Among the principal streets of Alex- 
andria are the Eue Shereef Pasha, a 
handsome and well-built street lead- . 
ing from the Place Mehemet Ali into 
the road to the Eosetta Gate. In it 
are the houses of many of the princi- 
pal merchants ; and in the afternoon 
it presents a gay and animated ap- 
pearance, there being a constant 
stream of carriages to and from the 
drive by the canal. Parallel with this 
street are the Kue de la Poste, in which 
is the English Post-office immediately 
on the right after leaving the Square, 
and the Kue de la Mosquee d'Atarine, 
both leading to the Eosetta Gate road. 
The continuation of the Eue de la 
Mosquee d'Atarine from the other 
side of the Place de l'Eglise is called 
the Eue de la Mosquee. Erom the S. 
side of the Place Mehemet Ali the 
Eue Ibrahim extends to the bridge 
over the canal, and is the direct road 
to the station ; and the Eue Anastasi 
leads to the open space in which is 
Fort Napoleon. Both these streets 
pass through some of the lowest parts 
of the town. The Eue Eas-et-Teen 
is a long, winding street, leading from 
the W. end of the Place Melie'met Ali 
to the Palace of Eas-et-Teen : from it 
branch off the streets leading to the 
harbour. From the N. side of the 
Place Mehemet Ali a number of short 
streets lead down to the sea. Most 
of the English business houses are in 
this part ; and one of the streets was 
called Gracechurch Street, but has 
now received officially the name of 
the Eue de l'Eglise Anglaise from the 
English church whose west end faces 
it. Crossing these streets is the Eue 
de FAiguille de Cleopatre, following 
the bend of the Great Harbour up to 
the Eamleh railway station, and so 
called from passing the spot where 



Cleopatra's Needle stands. The Eng- 
lish Consulate and Telegraph offices 
are in this street. The road leading 
to the Eosetta Gate is called the Eue 
de la Porte de Eosette. At the town 
end of it are some handsome houses, 
and the Zizinia theatre. It has been 
thought better to give the names of 
the streets in French, as, wherever 
they are written up, it is usually in that 
language, and if known at all they are 
more likely to be so under their 
French title than under any other. 

Public buildings there are none in 
Alexandria : the only one which could 
even by courtesy be called so is the 
Bourse, a rather insignificant block of 
buildings, at the corner of the Eue de 
la Bourse and the Eue de 1' Aiguille 
de Cleopatre. 



10. Canals. There are but slight 
vestiges of the old canals of Alex- 
andria. Mr. Hamilton mentions the 
site of one which communicated from 
Lake Mareotis with the port. The 
banks and channel of a large canal, 
running from the lake to the old 
harbour, may also be seen about half- 
way between the modern city and 
Marabut point, about 4 miles to the 
S.W. of the modern town, and little 
more than 1^ mile beyond the Cata- 
combs. It is 6600 feet long; the 
high mounds on either side are about 
250 feet apart ; and the breadth of 
the canal itself may have been about 
80 feet. There is also the bed of a 
small channel about half-way from 
the town and the Catacombs, but 
probably of late time; and the canal 
that leads from the Mahmoodeeah to 
the Eosetta Gate, and enters the new 
port near the lazzaretto, is a modern 
work, cut through the walls and base- 
ments of ancient buildings. One old 
canal, which ran into the sea near the 
basin, or Kibotos, may have been that 
passing under the present walls, with- 
in the western gate ; but the Canopic 
canal was on the east of the town. 

The modern Mahmoodeeah canal 
was begun by Mohammed Ali in 1819, 
and opened on Jan. 20, 1820. It 
received its name in honour of the 



Egypt. 



MOSKS, CHURCHES, CONVENTS. 



95 



Sultan Mahmood II. The cost is said 
to have been 30O.OOOZ. ; and 250,000 
men were employed about one year in 
digging it, of whom 20,000 perished 
by accident, hunger, and plague. It 
commences at the village of Atfeh, on 
the Kosetta branch of the Nile, and 
has a total length of 50 miles, with an 
average width of about 100 feet. A 
part of its course is identical with that 
of the ancient Canopic branch of the 
Nile, and the old canal of Fooah, 
which was used in the time of the 
Venetians for carrying goods to Alex- 
andria, and existed, though nearly 
dry, in Savary's time, a.d. 1777. The 
right bank of the Mahmoodeeah canal 
is bordered for some distance with the 
houses and gardens of the wealthy 
inhabitants of Alexandria, and is the 
fashionable afternoon promenade. 
The gardens belonging to the Villa of 
Moharram Bey and the Villa Pastre 
are opened to the public, and a band 
plays there on Sundays and Fridays. 
They are well worth seeing for the 
beauty and luxuriance of the shrubs 
and flowers, and there are pretty 
views of the surrounding country to 
be obtained from the high ground at 
the furthest end from the canal. The 
Villa and garden of Moharram Bey 
belong to the Viceroy, who has also a 
palace on the banks of the canal, com- 
monly called No. 3 Palace. 



11. Mosks, Chueches, Convents. 
There are are no mosks at Alexandria 
which in themselves contain anything 
worth seeing, but two are interesting 
as marking ancient sites. One of the 
mosks is called "of 1001 columns," 
according in number with the fables 
of the 1001 nights. It is on the west 
side, near the Gate of Necropolis, now 
the Gabari Gate. Pococke observed 
in it four rows of columns from S. to 
W., and one row on the other side; 
and here, he says, it is supposed that 
the church of St. Mark once stood ; 
where the patriarch formerly lived ; 
and where the Evangelist is reported 
to have been put to death. This 
church was destroyed by the Moslems 
in the reign of Melek el Kamel, the 



son of Melek Adel, in 1219, whilst 
the Crusaders were besieging Dami- 
etta, for fear that they might surprise 
Alexandria and make a fortress of its 
solid walls ; and no offers on the part 
of the Christians could induce them 
to spare this venerated building. The 
other great mosk is called of St. Atha- 
nasius, doubtless, as Pococke observes, 
from having succeeded to a church of 
that name. It is from this that the 
sarcophagus, called the "tomb of 
Alexander," was taken, which is now 
in the British Museum. 

The churches and convents are 
almost entirely devoid of interest. 
The convent'of the Copts is dedicated 
to St. Mark, whose body they pretend 
to possess, though it is well known that 
it was carried off clandestinely by the 
Venetians, as stated by Leo Afi icanus, 
as well as by Darii, and other histo- 
rians. The old mosaics of St. Mark's 
at Venice also record this fact, and 
the inscription over the scene there re- 
presented does not hesitate to admit 
that the body was " stolen " by the two 
Venetian captains " Kusticus and Tri- 
bunus " (called in the Venetian histo- 
ries Kustico of Torcello and Buono of 
Malamacco), assisted by the monk 
Staurgius and the priest Theodorus. 
who had charge of the sanctuary of 
St. Mark in Alexandria. This hap- 
pened during the dogeship of Gius- 
tiniano Partecipazo, about 828 a.d. ; 
and the mosaic was put up in the new 
church at Venice in the 11th century. 
(See Sir G. Wilkinson's account of 
this mosaic, 'Jour. Archseol. Assoc.,' 
vol. vii. p. 258.) 

The Greek Church is a heavy, ugly 
building of modern date. The form 
is the usual one of a Greek cross, with 
a dome in the centre. The Greeks 
pride themselves on some relics, said 
to be of St. Catherine, who suffered 
martyrdom at Alexandria. For their 
convent of St. Saba they only claim an 
age of 500 years ; though some of the 
monks pretend that it contained the 
real church of St. Mark. 

The Latin Church is another mo- 
dern building Avith no pretensions to 
architectural beauty; and the same 
may be said of all the other ecclesias- 



96 ALEXANDRIA: HOSPITALS, SCHOOLS, THEATRES, ETC.; Sect". I. 



tical edifices belonging to the different 
religious persuasions. 

12. Hospitals, Charities, So- 
cieties. — The hospital of the Deacon- 
esses of Kaisersworth is well worth a 
visit. It is tended by European doc- 
tors, and the nursing is done by the 
deaconesses. There are three classes 
of patients ; the first-class paying 5s. 
a day, the second 3s., and the third 
treated gratis. There are no restric- 
tions as to religion, and the patient 
may be visited by a clergyman of his 
own persuasion. This hospital, one of 
the many established in different parts 
of the world by the Kaisersworth 
Deaconesses, relies entirely on volun- 
tary contributions, and is well worthy 
of support. The European Hospital 
is managed by a committee compostd 
of members of the European com- 
munity. Patients are admitted by a 
ticket from the consulate of the nation 
to which they belong. The charges 
are from 8 to 2 francs per day. Sisters 
of Charity of the order of St. Vincent 
de Paul are the nurses, and re- 
ligious ministrations are conducted by 
the Franciscans of the Holy Land. 
There are also the Government Civil 
and Military Hospital, and a hos- 
pital attached to the Orthodox Greek 
Church. 

There are several charitable So- 
cieties established at Alexandria, most 
of them in connexion with the (lif- 
erent European communities. They 
are chiefly for the purpose of providing 
help in various ways to poor fellow- 
citizens, such as giving them money 
for returning home, paying their ex- 
penses in hospital, &c. The British 
Benevolent Association gave assistance 
in 1870 to 97 persons, at an outlay of 
237Z. The Sisters of Charity have an 
establishment for foundlings, and also 
give assistance in various ways to the 
poor of all nations. There is a Mont 
de Piete at Alexandria, to which the 
natives resort in the proportion of 
about 5 per cent. 

13. Schools. — The Government 
schools consist of a Primary, and a Se- 
condary school, and a special Naval 



school. The system of instruction in 
the Government schools generally will 
be found described elsewhere. The 
Naval School has not been long estab- 
lished, and as it enjoys the advantage 
of being under the superintendence of 
Capt. MacKillop, K.N., it may produce 
better results than the other Govern- 
ment schools, where, for want of good 
masters and proper supervision, the 
knowledge acquired is at once super- 
ficial ami innccurate. Les Freres de 
l'Ecole Chretienne have a large estab- 
lishment well worth a visit, near the 
Roman Catholic church ; there are 
nearly 600 pupils, of whom more than 
300 receive gratuitous instruction : 
natives, and Europeans of all creeds 
are alike taken. The Greek Church 
has large schools both for boys and 
girls ; and there is a Protestant school 
in connexion with the Scotch Church, 
which has more than 100 boys and 
girls, of whom many receive instruction 
gratuitously. The American United 
Presbyterian Church has a school 
attached to the Mission, of which the 
Kev. D. Lansing is the head: there 
are about 100 boys and girls, Chris- 
tians, Jews, and Muslims. 



14. Theatres, Amusements. &c, — 
The Zizinia Theatre, in the Eosetta 
Gate Eoad, is a large, handsome 
building: there is generally Italian 
Opera or French Play going on there 
in the winter and spring. At the 
Debbane Theatre in the Rue de l'Obe'- 
lisque there are occasional represen- 
tations. The Grand Casino in the 
Place Melie'met Ali, is open every 
evening for singing, dancing, &c. : aud 
there are several cafe's chantants in 
different parts of the town, but most 
of them of a very low order. 

The English community have a very 
flourishing cricket club : the ground is a 
piece of desert waste near the Ramleh 
Railway Station, but a tolerable wicket 
lias been obtained by laying down 
lime concrete. Matches are often 
played in the winter season, and some 
of the members generally meet lor 
practice on Saturdays. Visitors are 
always welcome. There is a pigeon- 



Egypt. 



DEIVES AND 



EXCURSIONS. 



97" 



shooting club at Kamleh ; the matches 
take place in the summer. Excellent 
shooting may be had in the neigh- 
bourhood of Alexandria ; but it is ne- 
cessary to make the acquaintance of 
some resident sportsman in order to 
know where to go and what to do. 

15. Drives, Excursions. — The 
roads in the neighbourhood of Alex- 
andria are so bad, that driving over 
them for the sake of a drive is a very 
questionable pleasure. The regular 
afternoon promenade is out by the 
Eosetta Gate, and along the Mahmoo- 
deeah Canal, and some very good 
turn-outs may often be seen there. 
The drive presents no object of 
interest except the villas and gardens 
by the side of the canal, which have 
been already described. On the other 
side of the town a visit may be paid 
to Gabari : the road is the same as 
that to the railway station as far as 
the bridge over the canal; on crossing 
that you keep straight on through a 
slough of despond of dust or mud, 
according to the weather, and passing 
under a gateway, drive up a desolate- 
looking avenue to the race-course. 
The race meeting is held in May. 
The terrace in front of the palace 
built by Said Pasha, serves as the 
grand stand. When the gardens were, 
kept up, Gabari was much resorted 
to, but it is quite deserted now. 
There is a good view over Lake 
Mareotis. Keturning to the main 
road, the drive may .be continued to 
Mex, and a visit paid to the so-called 
Bagni di Cleopatra, and the Cata- 
combs. The Baths of Cleopatra are 
merely excavations, perhaps tombs, at 
the water's edge, below the level of 
the sea, which from their appearance 
and situation have been called baths. 
The Catacombs are a little further on. 

Nothing which remains of Alex- 
andria attest its greatness more than 
these Catacombs. The entrance to them 
is close to a spot once covered with the 
habitations and gardens of the town, 
or suburb of 'the city, which, from the 
neighbouring tombs, was called the 
Necropolis. The extent of these Cata- 
combs is remarkable ; but the prin- 

[%//>*•] 



cipal inducement to visit them is the 
elegance and symmetry of the archi- 
tecture in one of the chambers, having 
a Doric entablature and mouldings, in 
good Greek taste, which is not to be 
met with in any other part of Egypt. 

Tapers, and, if the traveller intends 
to penetrate far into them, a rope, are 
necessary ; and, if he wishes to take 
measurements of the mouldings, a 
ladder. 

The quarries of Mex are on the sea- 
shore, about five miles from Alex- 
andria. At the commencement of the 
works of the Suez Canal, the working 
of these quarries was conceded to the 
Canal Company, who intended to 
employ the stone in the composition of 
the concrete blocks for the jetties at 
Port Said, but the expense attendant 
on the conveyance of the stone such a 
distance by sea caused this idea to be 
abandoned after a time, and the blocks 
were made of concrete (lime and sand,. 
The quarries are now being worked 
by the English Company who are 
engaged in the new harbour works, 
and the stone is an important addition 
to the stoutness of the huge blocks of 
w r hich the breakwater is constructed. 
It is also used for building the quays. 
The Company have established their 
head-quarters at Mex, and built quite 
a little town for their employes and 
work-people. The process of manu- 
facturing the blocks, and the vast 
area on which thousands of blocks are 
drying, are well worth seeing. The 
palace, which forms a conspicuous 
object on the shore on entering and 
leaving the harbour, was built by Said 
Pasha, but has never been finished. 
It is one of the many monuments to 
waste in this country. On the drive 
home, after passing the canal bridge, 
a change may be made in the route 
by keeping to the left, and taking 
the street that leads past Fort Caffa- 
relli. 

A not uninteresting excursion may 
be made to the Arsenal and the Palace 
of Pias-et-Teen, and the site of the 
ancient Pharos. The route for some 
way is the same as the traveller has 
followed in coming from the harbour 
on his first arrival. Leaving the Kue 

F 



£5 8 ALEXANDEIA : 

Eas-et-Teen, and following the street 
nearest the East Harbour, a deserted 
quarter is traversed, and then a sort 
of quay along a low fort'fication that 
lines the western side of that harbour. 
At the end of this is the Pharos, 
already described. Returning, and 
leaving on the right an advanced 
fort, called Fort Adu, the axe of the 
old Isle of Pharos is traversed to the 
opposite peninsula. On the way the 
Hospital of the Kaiserswerth dea- 
conesses may be visited The Palace 
of Ras-et-Teen occupies the western 
extremity of the peninsula of that 
name. It was built by Mohammed 
Ali. An order is required for visiting 
it. There is nothing very remarkable 
except the view from the balcony, 
which is extensive and interesting. 
There is a handsome staircase of Car- 
rara marble, and a large audience hall. 
The hareem, which cannot be visited, 
is a separate building facing the sea. 
The ancient Point Eunostus, now 
Eas-et-Teen Point, on which stands 
the modern light-house, is a mile 
further on. To the right, after leaving 
the palace on the return home, is the 
Arsenal, chiefly interesting as a record 
of Mohammed Ali's ambition, and of 
the great efforts he made to establish 
his power in Egypt, and defy the autho- 
rity of the Porte. In it are still to be 
seen the remains of the fleet that 
suffered defeat at Navarino. During 
the present Khedive's reign a frigate 
and a corvette have been built in it. 
The driver may be told to return 
either by the Eue Eas-et-Teen, which 
is here bordered by some rather good 
houses in the Arab style, or by the 
quays and streets from the landing- 
place. 

A very pleasant afternoon excursion 
may be made to Ramleh either by rail 
or road. Trains leave the Eamleh 
Eailway Station, which is near the 
Obelisk, every hour, and return from 
Eamleh at the half hour. The train 
should be left at the first station from 
Alexandria, close to the Khedive's new 
palace, for the purpose of visiting 
the Roman camp and the site of the 
Battle of Alexandria. The visitor 
may then, if he feels inclined, walk 



excursions; Sect. T. 

on through the scattered houses of the 
European colony, which has, within 
the la-t few years, settled itself 
on the sands, and catch a returning 
train at any of the other stations. 
The road for driving lies out of the 
Eosetta Gate, and as it has lately been 
put in very good order as far as the 
new palace, this way of making the 
excursion will probably be preferred. 
Immediately on the left after issuing 
from the Eosetta Gate are the dif- 
ferent Christian Cemeteries, occupy- 
ing probably the site of the old 
Hippodrome. The road runs for half 
a mile over the mouuds of the ancient 
city, when it crosses the old wall, on 
which the French lines were raised, 
and descends into a plain, first culti- 
vated by order of Ibraheem Pasha. 

Here, about f of a mile from the old 
wall, two granite statues were disco- 
vered by Mr. Harris, apparentby of 
one of the Ptolemies, or of a Eoman 
emperor, with his queen, in the Egyp- 
tian style. One has the form of Osiris, 
the other of Isis, or of Athor. Other 
granite blocks and remains of columns 
show that this was the site of some 
important building. 

A little beyond this, and nearer the 
sea, are some old Catacombs (by this 
time completely broken up), in which 
were some devices painted on the 
stuccoed walls and ceilings. Here 
too was a marble sarcophagus with 
the head of Medusa, and other orna- 
mental sculpture. In some of the 
Catacombs Mr. Harris found inscrip- 
tions of Christian times, probably 
about the 4th century : and it is 
evident that they were used as places 
of sepulture for Christians as well«as 
Pagans. 

About 2 miles beyond the French 
lines, or 2J from the Eosetta Gate, is 
a Eoman Station, called Caesar's, or 
the Eoman camp. It marks the site 
of Nicopolis, or Juliopolis, where Au- 
gustus overcame the partisans of 
Antony ; and is the spot where, 1S32 
years after, the English and French 
armies engaged. 



Egypt 



SITE OF NICOPOLIS. 



99 



The ' Camp ' resembles the Myos 
Hormos, and the fortified stations or 
hydreumas in the desert ; but is 
stronger, larger, and better built. It 
is nearly square, measuring 291 paces, 
by 266 within, the walls being from 
5 to 5J paces thick. It has four 
entrances, one in the centre of each 
face, 15 paces wide, defended by round 
or semicircular towers, 18 paces in 
diameter, or 12 within. On each face 
are 6 towers, distant from each other 
38 paces ; those of the doorway ex- 
cepted, which are only 15 paces apart. 
Those at the 4 corners are larger than 
the others, having a diameter of 22 
paces. Its N.W. face stands very near 
the sea; and a short way from the 
S.W. gate are the remains of the aque- 
duct that supplied it with water; 
probably part of the one seen to the 
north of the Mahmoodeeah, about 8 
miles from Alexandria, It has been 
entirely excavated ; and the exten- 
sive system for supplying it with 
water, the wells, reservoirs, and baths, 
have been laid open. The water was 
raised from the principal well by a 
water-wheel with pots (as at the 
present day). It is now brackish. 
The wells are 33 feet deep. The 
Prsetorium, or commandant's house, 
has a large mosaic, with various orna- 
mental devices, and a half figure of 
Bacchus, holding in one hand a bunch 
of grapes, in the other a crook, the 
attribute of Osiris. Near the sea, 
outside the N.W. corner of the station, 
is another bath, and a long channel 
cased with stone, which seems to have 



supplied the bath with fresh water. 
The walls of the station are of stone, 
with the courses of flat bricks, or tiles, 
at intervals, usual in Koman buildings; 
and the whole is constructed on a scale 
worthy of the grandeur of the early 
part of the Empire. In one place is 
this inscription — 

IMP. CAESARI 
M. AVEEL. ANTONINO 
AVG. ARME>T. MEDIC. PARTH. 
GEEMAN. SAEMAT. MAXIM. 
TEIB. POTEST. XXX. 
imp. vni. COS. III. P. P. 
TEIB. LEG. II. TE. FORT. 

— put up to M. Aurelius by the Tri- 
bunes of the 2nd Legion, called ' Tra- 
jana fortis/ in the same 8th year of 
which so many of his coins remain ; 
and not very far from it is — 

p. sempeon.' 

TEAVIT. 

There is also a stone, with a few 
hieroglyphics containing the name of 
an individual called Barneses, probably 
brought from some other place. Many, 
however, of these interesting remains 
have now completely disappeared. 

In 1860 a block of marble was dis- 
covered which had probably served as 
the pedestal to a statue. On it was 
an inscription which has thus been 
deciphered and restored by M. Cec- 
caldi. The circular brackets represent 
the letters wanting in the original 
inscription, the square ones the hiatus 
caused by dilapidation : — 



[IMPEBATOBI' CAESABI] 

[DIVI • M(AECl) ' AVE(eLII) • ANTONINI ' GERMAN ICI ' PAEMATICT'] 
FILIO'DIVrCOMMODITRATEI'DnrANTONlflfr] 
PII-NEPOTI-DIVI-HADEIANI'PEONEPOTI^DIVI- 
TEAIANI'PAETHIC(l)'ABNEP [OTl] - DIVI 'NEE VAE * 
ADNEPOTI ' (LVCIO)'SEPTIMIO'SETEEO ' P[lO]' 

PEETINAC(l) * AVG(VSTO) " AEABIC(o) ' ADIAB[e]nIC[o] 1 PONT(lFICl) 

max(lmo) ' tribvnic(iae) ' potestatis " vii ' im[peratoei 1 xl] 
co(n)s(vli)-iteevm-p(atei)-p(ateiae)-peoconsvl(i) 

DECVRIONES" ALAEES [aLAE(vm]' 

VETERAXAE ' GALLIC (ae) ET * I 'THRACVM 1 MAV [RETANAE] ' 

r 2 



100 



ALEXANDRIA : PLAN FOR SEEING IT. 



Sect. I. 



Here follow two columns of names, 
those of the decurions and privates 
who had erected the statue, as the 
above dedication sets forth, to Sep- 
timius Severus, in the 11th year of his 
reign. 

The first battle on this spot was 
followed by the deaths of Antony and 
Cleopatra. The second one is famous 
in the annals of English history. In 
order to put an end to French supre- 
macy in Egypt, an expedition was 
sent out by the British Government 
in 1801, part of the troops composing 
which, under Sir David Baird, pro- 
ceeded down the Bed Sea with the 
intention of landing at Kosseir and 
marching across the desert into Egypt, 
while the remainder, under Sir Ralph 
Abercromby, disembarked at Abookeer 
Bay, the scene of Nelson's famous vic- 
tory three years before. Advancing 
on Alexandria, the English attacked 
the French under General Menou, on 
the 13th of Mai ch. Sir A. Alison says : 
"The ground occupied by the two 
armies was singularly calculated to 
awaken the most interesting recollec- 
tions. England and France were here 
to contend for the empire of the East 
in the cradle of ancient civilization, 
on the spot where Pompey was slain 
to propitiate the victorious arms of 
Caesar, and under the walls of the city 
which is destined to perpetuate, to 
the latest generations, the prophetic 
wisdom of Alexander." On the 21st 
the decisive engagement took place, 
which ended in the defeat of the 
French, though the victory was dearly 
purchased by the death of Aber- 
cromby. 

The palace, in preparing for the 
site of which some fresh relics of 
the camp were brought to light, only 
to be destroyed, is a barrack-like 
building. It was begun in 1869, but 
the greater part was burnt down in 
the following year; it has, however, 
been restored. 

Keturning to the carriage, the drive 
may be continued to the village of 
Rami eh, if even the term village may 
be given to the scattered houses on 
the sands, where many of the Euro- 
pean bankers and merchants of Alex- 



andria delight to live, especially in 
the summer. What the attraction is 
it would be difficult to say, as, with 
the exception of the high ground 
overlooking the sea, on which there 
are a few houses, the situation is a 
most dreary one. But the air is sup- 
posed to be fresher and cooler than at 
Alexandria. The excursion may be 
prolonged on donkeys to Abookeer. 
(See Rte. 1.) 

16. Plan foe Seeing Alexandria. 
— There is nothing of sufficient in- 
terest in Alexandria to detain the 
ordinary traveller more than a day ; 
indeed, he may see the few things 
that are likely to interest him in an 
afternoon's drive. Thus, starting 
from the Great Square, he will drive 
to Cleopatra's Needle, passing by the 
English Church, the Bourse, the 
Telegraph Offices, and the English 
Consulate. He will then make for 
the road to the Rosetta Gate, passing 
the Zizinia Theatre on the left of 
that road, and the fortress of Kom- 
el-Dick on the right. On issuing 
from the Rosetta Gate, before taking 
the road to the right down to the 
Mahmoodeeah Canal, the cemeteries 
may be visited, and it may be re- 
membered that on the ground lying 
between them and the shore, extend- 
ing as far the "Roman Tower," stood 
the most splendid part of the old 
quarter— the Bruchium — comprising 
the Palace of the Ptolemies, the Mu- 
seum, the Soma, the Gymnasium, &c. 
Driving along che canal, the gardens 
of the Villa Pastre and Muharrem 
Bey may be visited, and the palace 
called No. 3. Turning back, and 
keeping by the side of the canal, a 
broad road is reached leading to 
Alexandria, and, after following it a 
short way, Pompey's Pillar comes in 
sight. From this spot a direct return 
may be made to Alexandria, the 
drive having occupied about 2J or 3 
hours ; or if there is time the route 
may be continued to the bridge over 
the c.tnal, and thence to Gabari, the 
Catacombs, and Mex. This will oc- 
cupy 1 or 2 hours more, according to 
the point reached. 



Egypt. 

The drive to the Pharos, the Arse- 
nal, and the Palace of Kas-et-Teen, 
will occupy about an hour or an hour 
and half, so that all the above can be 
easily done in a day. Energetic 
people might even find time to scram- 
ble through the excursion to Kamleh 
as well, but it would be better to 
leave that for another day. It might 
form the afternoon's occupation after 
a morning spent in shopping, &c. 



ROUTE 1. 

ALEXANDRIA TO KOSETTA, BY LAND. 

Miles. 

From the Rosetta Gate of Alex- 
andria to the Roman station 
called Caesar's camp . . . . 2 J 

To Caravanserai, or Cafe, be- 
yond the site of Canopus, on 
AbookirBay 13| 

To ancient Canopic or Hera- 
cleotic mouth (called Ma- 
deeah) If 

To Etko 13* 

To Rosetta 13± 

m 

In all routes, except those by rail- 
way, the distances given must only be 
considered as more or less approxi- 
mative. 

A description of the road as far as 
Caesar's Camp, and Ramleh, a short 
distance beyond, has been already 
given. 

The most remarkable town on this 
mad, in old times, was Canopus. The 
places on the way were Eleusis, a 



101 

little to the south of Nicopolis, Zephy- 
rium, and Taposiris Parva. A short 
distance beyond, to the east of Eleu- 
sis, was the canal that led to Schedia ; 
and on a promontory at Taposiris 
was a chapel dedicated to Venus 
Arsinoe. 

In this place the town of Thonis 
was reported to have stood, whose 
name was derived from Thonis, the 
king (or governor ?) who entertained 
Menelaus and Helen. 

Pococke thinks the island a short 
distance from the coast, to the east of 
Abookeer, is the promontory of Tapo- 
siris, the successor of Thonis, the land 
having sunk and admitted the sea, so 
as to convert it into an island ; and he 
there perceived some ruins, the traces 
of subterranean passages, with the 
fragment of a sphinx. He also men- 
tions the ruins of an ancient temple 
under the water, about 2 miles from 
Alexandria, which he conjectures to 
have belonged to Zephyrium, or some 
other place on the road to Nicopolis. 

Canopus was 12 m. p., or, according 
to Strabo, 120 stadia (between 13 and 
14 English miles), from Alexandria, 
by land. It stood on the west of the 
Canopic mouth, between which and 
that town was the village of Hera- 
cleum, famed for its temple of Her- 
cules. The Greeks and Romans 
imagined it to have been called after 
Canopus, the pilot of Menelaus, who 
was buried there; but its Egyptian 
name Kahi-noub, or the " golden soil," 
and its high antiquity, suffice to show 
the folly of this assertion ; which is 
one of many instances of their mode 
of changing a foreign name, in order 
to connect it with, and explain it by, 
their own history. Canopus had a 
temple of Serapis, who was the deity 
worshipped there with the greatest re- 
spect; and it is worthy of remark that 
Mr. Hamilton discovered, amidst the 
ruins of Alexandria, a Greek inscrip- 
tion in honour of " Serapis in Cano- 
pus." The deity was supposed to 
answer by dreams to the prayers of 
his votaries, and persons of all ranks 
consulted him respecting the cure of 
diseases, and the usual questions sub- 
mitted to oracles. Many other tern- 



ROUTE 1. — ALEXANDRIA TO ROSETTA. 



102 



ROUTE 1. — ALEXANDRIA TO ROSETTA. 



Sect. I. 



pies also stood at Canopus, as well as 
numerous spacious inns for the re- 
ception of strangers, who went to 
enjoy its wholesome air, and. above 
all, the dissipation that recommended 
it to the people of Alexandria; fa- 
mous, or rather infamous, as it was, in 
the time of the Greeks and Eomans, 
for the most wanton amusements. 
Thither they repaired in crowds by 
the canal for that object. Day and 
night the water was covered with boats 
carrying men and women, who danced 
and sang with the most unrestrained 
licence. Arrived at Canopus, they 
repaired to booths erected, on the 
banks, for the express purpose of in- 
dulging in scenes of dissipation. The 
immorality of the place was notorious, 
and it is this which led Seneca to 
say, " No one in thinking of a retreat 
would select Canopus, although Ca- 
nopus might not prevent a man being 
virtuous." 

The degraded state of public morals 
in that town appears to have been 
confined to the period after the foun- 
dation of Alexandria ; and the Cano- 
pus we read of was a Greek town. 

The jars called Canobic or Canopic, 
into which w r ere put such interior 
parts of the human body as could not 
be embalmed, and which had on the 
lids the heads of the four genii of the 
dear), were so called from, this town. 

The famous trilingual stone, dis- 
covered at San (the ancient Tanis), 
and thence called by French savans 
" La Pierre de San," is known to 
English Egyptologists as the "Decree 
of Canopus," from its containing, in 
Greek, hieroglyphic, and demotic cha- 
racters, the text of a decree promul- 
gated by Ptolemy Euergetes in the 
year B.C. 237, at Canopus. At 
that time Canopus was the religious 
capital of the country. The stone is 
in the Museum of Egyptian Anti- 
quities at Cairo, in the account of 
which a further description of it will 
be found. There is a plaster cast in 
the British Museum. 

On the right of the Canopic canal 
was the Elaitic nome, so called from 
the brother of the first Ptolemy ; and 
at the mouth of the Canopic branch 



of the river was the commencement of 
the base of the Delta. 

Canopus stood near the present 
Abookeer, so well known in modern 
times from the victory obtained by 
the English fleet under Nelson, re- 
corded in our annals as the " Battle 
of the Nile.*' 

The principal details of this famous 
battle are too well known to need 
more than a brief recapitulation here. 
On the 1st of August, 1798, Nelson 
discovered the French fleet, under 
Admiral Brue'ys, at anchor in the 
form of a curve round the head of 
Abookeer Bay. The number of men- 
of-war on both sides was equal, but 
the French had some smaller vessels 
besides, and a decided superiority in 
men and guns. Although it was 
already late in the day, Nelson de- 
termined to attack at once. The 
battle lasted until daybreak the next 
morning, and ended in the total de- 
feat of the French, with the loss of 
14 vessels out of 17. The decisive 
moment of the action was the blowing 
up of the French Admiral's ship 
Ij Orient. This event is best known 
perhaps in connection with the touch- 
ing incident of the captain of the 
Orient, Casabianca, and his son, so 
beautifully commemorated by Mrs, 
Hemans, in the touching lines com- 
mencing — 

" The boy stood on the burning deck, 
Whence all but he had fled," &c. 

A few miles to the eastward of 
Abookeer is an opening, called Ma- 
deeah the "Ford," or "Ferry," by 
which the lake Etko communicates 
with the sea, and which is supposed to 
j be the old Canopic branch. Near it 
J Pococke places Heracleum, whence the 
name Heracleotic applied to that 
mouth of the river, which was also 
called Naucratic, or Ceramic. 

The Canopic was the most westerly, 
as the Pelusiac was the most easterly, 
of the mouths of the Nile. Some 
ruins still mark the site of the city of 
Hercules, to whose temple the slaves 
of Paris fled, when he was forced by 
contrary winds to take refuge in the 
1 Canopic branch of the Nile. The 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 1. ROSETTA. 



103 



temple stiil existed in the time of ' 
Herodotus, and even of Strabo. 

The whole road from Alexandria | 
to Eosetta is as tedious, dreary, and 
bleak in winter, as it is hot in sum- j 
mer. After traversing a level plain, 
you reach Eosetta, whose gardens 
and palms, rising above the surround- j 
ing sand-drifts, are an agreeable i 
change after this gloomy tract. There j 
is a constant communication by tea 
between Alexandria and Eosetta.;! 
but the passage over the bar of the ! 
river is always disagreeable, and often 
dangerous, so that the journey by sea I 
cannot be recommended. 

Rosetta — in Coptic, T-Badiit. in 
Arabic, Easheed — is situated on the 
W. bank of the Xile. near its mouth, j 
This branch of the river was formerly ! 
the Bolbitine, and a h 11 called Aboo 1 
jNIandeer. about 1| mile to the S. of ; 
of the modern town, is supposed to 
mark the site of the ancient town of j 
Bolbitinum. Eosetta was founded by ! 
one of the caliphs about a.d. 870. For j 
a long time it was one of the m st 
important commercial towns of the 
country, and at the beginning of 
the present century it still hud a 
population of about 25.0 10. This 
has now diminished to 14,000, and 
a great proportion of the houses are 
deserted and in ruins. Its former | 
flourishing condition is shown by 
their style of building, which is very 
superior to that of other Egyptian 
towns. The columns at the doors, the j 
neatness of the wooden windows, and 
the general appearance of their waUs, | 
are particularly striking. 

It has several mosks, Mann, and 
bazaars, and is surrounded by a wall 
with loopholes, which might serve to 
protect it against a band of xlrabs. bur 
would offer little resistance to artil- 
lery. The northern gate has two 
small towers at its side, of a form by 
no means common in Egypt; and 
between this and the plain are the 
most extensive g irdens. 

The situation of Eosetta, the beauty 
and extent of its gardens, and the 
supposed salubrity of its air. made it 
formerly a favourite summer resort of 
O'renes and Alexandrians; and 



though not frequented now in the 
same way, it still retains the same 
natural advantages, and may be 
regarded as one of the prettiest and 
most agreeable towns in Egypt. 
There is nothing else, however, to 
attract the visitor so much out of 
his ordinary line of march in Egypt. 

Eosetta is but little known in his- 
tory. In 1SU7 it was the scene of the 
unsuccessful attempt of the English 
to restore the authority of the Mem- 
looks, which ended in the disastrous 
retreat of the English army. It is 
equally barren of antiquities. Here 
and there a few hieroglyphs may be 
seen in single stones built into mosks 
and private houses; and fragments 
of granite and basalt are lying about. 
But it has acquired a special archae- 
ological celebrity from the celebrated 
trilingual stone — known as the " Eo- 
setta Stone" — found by the French 
in 1799, while digging the founda- 
tions of a fort, a short distance lower 
down the river. This tablet contains 
a decree made by the priests of Egypt 
in honour of Etolemy Epiphanes in 
the year B.C. 196. It is written in the 
Greek, hieroglyphic, and demotic or 
enchorial characters ; and it was from 
a comparison of the Greek letters and 
the hieroglyphs on this stone that Dr. 
Young and Champollion were enabled 
first to decipher the old Egyptian 
sacred writing. Unfortunately the 
stone was but a fragment, and the 
search for the upper part of it has 
hitherto been unsuccessful. 

The river at Eosetta is perfectly 
fresh, except after a long prevalence 
of northerly winds, when the sea- 
water, forced upwards, makes it 
slightly salt, and well-water is 
brought for sale to the town and the 
boats. The sea is distant 6 miles by 
the river, or 3 miles across the plain. 



104 RTES. 2-4. — ROSETTA AND 



ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO. Sect. T. 



ROUTE 2. 

EOSETTA TO ATFEH AND CAIRO, BY 
THE NILE. 

Miles. 

Rosetta to Aboo Mandoor . . 1 \ 

— to Berembal 8 

— to Daroot 9^ 

— to Atfeh 4 

Atfeh to Cairo (see Rte. 5) . . 125£ 

148^ 

There is nothing worthy of remark 
on the way from Rosetta to Atfeh. 

At Metoobis are the mounds of the 
ancient town of Metubis, and at 
Daroot and Shindeeoon are the sites 
of other towns. 

Atfeh is at the mouth of the Mah- 
moodeeah Canal, where it joins the 
Nile. ^See Rte. 5.) 



For the Mahmoodeeah Canal to Kar- 
rawee, see Rte. 5. 

Damanhoor, see Rte. 6. 

Menoof, by some supposed to be the 
ancient Nicium, or Prosopis, was once 
a town of some importance. It is now 
only noted for its manufactory of 
mats, called Menoof eeh, much es- 
teemed at Cairo. Menoof, or Manouf, 
is the same name that was given to 
Memphis. 



ROUTE 4. 



ROUTE 3. 

ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO, BY LAND, 
THROUGH THE DELTA. 

Miles. 

Alexandria along the north 
bank of the Mahmoodeeah 
Canal to es Sid, or Maison 



Carre'e 5 

To Karidon 13 

Birket Ghuttas, or El Birkeh .. 3 J 

Karrawee (crossing the canal) . . 4§ 
Damanhoor (after leaving the 

canal and crossing the plain) 1\ 

Nigeeleh, or to Zowyet el Bahr 23£ 
Cross the river, and then to 

Menoof 18J 

Shoobra-Shabeeah by Kafr el 
Heinmeh, then crossing the 

Damietta branch 18 

8hoobra-el-Makkasch, the Pa- 
sha's villa 13£ 

N.W. Gate of Cairo 4 



111 



ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO, BY THE 
WESTERN BANK. 

Miles. 

Alexandria to Zowyet el Bahr 



(see Rte. 3) 57 

Algam , 9| 

Teraneh L 6£ 

Beni Salameh 8 

El Guttah (or el Kuttah) . . . . 9 

Embabeh 16| 



Cross the river at Embabeh to 
Boolak, and thence to Cairo . . If 

108| 

Embabeh is only remarkable for 
having been a fortified post of the 
Memlooks, and as the town which 
gave its name to the battle called by 
the French "of the Pyramids," but 
by the Egyptians ' : of Embabeh." It 
was fought on the 21st July, 1798, 
and ended in the complete defeat by 
Buonaparte of the Egyptian forces, 
which consisted of 24,000 infantry, and 
of 10,000 cavalry, known under the 



Egypt route 5. — Alexandria to atfeh and cairo. 



105 



name of Memlooks. Seven thousand 
of these famous horsemen are said to 
have perished. An admirable account 
of the battle is given in M. Thiers' 
' History of the French Ke volution.' 

All the associations connected with 
Embabeh in the minds of the modern 
Cairenes are derived from its lupins, 
which, under the name of Embabeh 
Muddud, are loudly proclaimed in the 
streets to be " superior to almonds." 
At Embabeh is the terminus station 
of the railway to Upper Egypt. 



ROUTE 5. 

ALEX ANDRI A TO ATFEH AND CAIRO. 



Miles. 



Alexandria to es Sid, or the Mai- 






5 




13 




3£ 




4i 


Zowyet el Ghazal 


4J 


Kuins at Gheyk 


8i 


Atfeh .. 


2 




11 




14 


Nikleh 


4 




40J 




io| 




28 




7 




11 








12 




12 


Boolak (the port of Cairo) 


4 



166J 



Few now go by water from Alex- 
andria to Cairo ; but it is well to 



mention the principal objects in that 
part of the country, as a traveller 
may wish to visit them on some other 
occasion. 

The Mahmoodeeah Canal, in the 
neighbourhood of Alexandria, has 
already been described. Its general 
appearance after the gardens and 
houses are passed is far from inte- 
resting. The earth thrown up from 
the canal forms an elevated ridge, 
rising far above the adjacent lands: 
and the only objects that interrupt 
the uniform level are the mounds of 
ancient towns, whose solitary and 
deserted aspect adds not a little to the 
gloominess of the scene. 

At a place called Es Sid or the 
Maison Carrie, the English, while 
besieging the French in Alexandria, 
cut a passage in order to admit the 
sea- water into the Lake Mareotis ; and 
from its having been closed again, the 
name Sid, signifying " a dam," or 
" stoppage," has been applied to it. 

The Mahmoodeeah follows part of 
the ancient Canopic branch of the 
Nile, and the old canal of Fooah ; 
and here and there, near its banks, 
are the remains of ancient towns. 
The most remarkable in its immediate 
vicinity are those (supposed to be) of 
Schedia, between Karioon and Nishoo. 
Beginning a short way inland, they 
extend about three-quarters of a mile 
to the S. end of the large mounds of 
Nishoo, and contain confused remains 
of stone and brick, among which are 
two fragments of stone (apparently 
parts of the same block), bearing the 
names of the Great Barneses, and 
some capitals and fragments of late 
time. The most remarkable object is 
a series of massive walls in an isolated 
mound, 300 paces to the south-east- 
ward of these fragments, which Mr. 
Salt conjectured to be the docks of 
the state barges, kept at Schedia ; but 
they were evidently cisterns, like 
those in Italy and at Carthage. They 
are of Boman time, built of stone, 
with horizontal courses of the usual 
flat bricks or tiles at intervals, and 
buttresses projecting here anil there, 
to give them greater strength ; the 



106 



ROUTE 5. — ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO. 



Sect. I. 



whole originally covered with a casing 
of stucco. The walls, which are now 
15 ft. high, were about 16 in 
number, of which 12 may be still dis- 
tinctly seen, and the spaci. s between 
them were about 215 feet long and 27 
broad, being considerably larger than 
the second cisterns of Carthage, and 
only inferior in number and in length 
(but not in breadth) to the great ones 
there, which are 110 paces long by 10, 
and consist of 16 spaces or cisterns. 
The extremity of each gallery or 
cistern is rounded off, and we may 
suppose that they had also the usual 
arched roofs. A canal or branch of 
the river appears to have run through 
the level space, about 750 ft. broad, 
between them and the town. The 
distance of Nishoo from Alexandria 
agrees exactly with that given by 
Strabo from Schedia to that city, 
which he calculates at 4 schoenes, or 
nearly 14 English miles. 

Schedia was so called by the Greeks 
from the barrier, or bridge of boats, 
that closed the river at this spot, 
where duties were levied on all mer- 
chandise that passed ; and the name 
of Nishoo, applied to the neighbouring 
mounds and the modern village, may 
be derived from the Egyptian nishoi, 
signifying " the boats." The mounds 
of Nishoo are in four almost parallel 
lines, the two outer ones about 250, 
the centre two about 756 ft. apart. 
They contain no traces of building ; 
they appear to be entirely of earth, 
though of very great height, and were 
probably the result of excavations 
made in deepening the river, or the 
neighbouring canal, which, from the 
low space separating the two centre 
mounds, appears to have passed be- 
tween them. 

Schedia was a bishop's see in the 
time of Athanasius, as were Menela'is 
and Andropolis. 

At Karioon is a manufactory of 
glass, and a little more than a mile 
farther is another of pottery. The 
canal in the vicinity of Kairoon in- 
creases in breadth. Chereu, in Coptic 
Chereus, stood near this: and An- 
thylla and Archandra in the plain 
between the Mahmoodeeah and Lake 
Etko. 



About 3| m. from Karioon is the 
village of Birket Ghuttas, or El 
Birkeh (" the Lake ") ; and at Karra- 
wee the road, which has thus far 
followed the bank of the canal, turns 
off to Damanhoor. 

Near Karrawee are mounds of an 
old town of some extent, and others 
are seen in the plain to the S. A few 
miles farther the canal makes a bend 
northwards to Atfeh ; quitting the bed 
of an old canal, which joined the Nile 
farther to the S„ just below Kah- 
maneeah. 

Atfeh. — Atfeh stands at the mouth 
of the canal, upon the Bosetta branch 
of the Nile. It is a miserable village, 
abounding in dust and dogs ; but the 
first view of the Nile is striking, and a 
relief after the canal. In the neigh- 
bourhood of Atfeh there is some 
excellent snipe - shooting, which is 
much patronised by the sportsmen of 
Alexandria during the winter. The 
excursion for this purpose may be 
mad« either by hiring a boat at Alex- 
andria and going along the canal, or 
by rail to Kafr-ez-Zyat (see Kte. 6), 
and thence taking a boat down the 
river. The former method is the 
pleasantest. 

Fooah — Nearly opposite Atfeh is 
Fooah, conspicuous with its minarets, 
and a picturesque object from the river, 
if you pass it during the high Nile. 
It occupies the site of the ancient 
Metelis (in Coptic Meleg, or Meledg), 
but contains no remains beyond a few 
granite blocks, now used as the 
thresholds of doors, with hieroglyphic 
inscriptions, containing the names of 
Apries and other kings of the 26th or 
Sa'ite dynasty. Fooah has now only 
a manufactory of tarbooshes or red 
caps, and the usual we'rsheh "manu- 
factory " of large towns ; but in the 
time of Leo Africanus it was very 
flourishing ; and though its streets 
were narrow, it had the character of a 
large town, teeming with plenty, and 
noted for the appearance of its 
bazaars and shops. "The women," 
he adds, " enjoy so much freedom 
here, that their husbands permit them 
to go during the day wherever they 
please ; and the surrounding country 



Egypt 



ROUTE 5.— POO AH- 



— DESSOOK SAIS. 



107 



abounds in date-trees."' But its dates 
are not superior to others of the neigh- 
bourhood ; and the best Egyptian 
dates come from a place on the other 
side of the Delta, called Korayn, near 
Salaheeah, which are known at Cairo 
as the aameree. The Ibreniee are 
from Nubia. 

Fooah continued to be long a flou- 
rishing town ; and Belon describes it, 
in the 15th centy., 50 years after the 
conquest of Sultan Selim, as second 
only to Cairo. 

During the wars of the Crusaders, 
the Christians penetrated into Egypt, 
as far as Fooah, in the reign of Melek 
Adel ; and having plundered and 
burnt the town, retired with much 
booty. 

Fooah has given its name to the 
madder, which was first planted 
there. 

DessooJc is well known in modern 
times for the fete clebrated there in 
honour of Sheikh Ibralieem ed Des- 
sookee, a Moslem saint, who holds the 
second rank in the Egyptian calendar, 
next to the Seyyid el Bedawee of 
Tantah. There is a railway from 
Dessook to Tantah (see Rte. 6), and 
one projected to Damanhoor. 

At liahmaneeah was the eD trance 
of an old canal that went to Alexan- 
dria ; which some suppose to be the 
ancient Canopic branch, placing Nau- 
cratis at this town. Bahmaneeah 
was a fortified po^t of the French 
when in Egypt, and was taken by the 
English in May, 1801, previous to 
their inarch upon Cairo. 

Sais. — The lofty mounds of Sais are 
seen to the N. of the village of Sa-el- 
Hagar, " Sa of the Stone," so called 
from the remains of the old town; 
which are now confined to a few 
broken blocks, some ruins of houses, 
and a large enclosure surrounded by 
massive crude-brick walls. These last 
are about 70 ft. thick, and of very 
solid construction. Between the 
courses of bricks are layers of reels, 
intended to serve as binders ; and 
hieroglyphics are said to have been 
met with on some of the bricks, which 
may perhaps contain the name of the 
place, or of the king by whom the 
walls were built. 



These walls enclose a space mea- 
suring 2325 by I960 ft.; the N. side 
of which is occupied by the lake men- 
tioned by Herodotus, where certain 
mysterious ceremonies were performed 
in honour of Osiris. As he says it 
was of circular form, and it is now long 
and irregular, we may conclude that 
it has since encroached on part of the 
temenos or sacred enclosures, where 
the temple of Minerva and the tombs 
of the Sa'ite kings stood. The site of 
the temple appears to have been in the 
low open space to the W., and parts of 
the wall of its temenos may be traced 
on two sides, which was about 720 it. 
in breadth, or a little more than that 
around the temple of Tanis. To the 
E. of it are mounds, with remains of 
crude-brick houses, the walls of which 
are partially standing, and here and 
there bear evident signs of having been 
burnt. This part has received the 
name of "el Kala," "the Citadel,' 
from its being higher than the rest, 
and from the appearance of two mas- 
sive buildings at the upper and lower 
end, which seem to have been intended 
for defence. It is not impossible that 
this was the royal palace. Below it to 
the S. is a low space, now cultivated, 
and nearly on the same level as the 
area where probably the temple stood. 

The water of the lake is used for 
irrigating this spot, but it is generally 
dried up from the end of May until 
the next inundation fills the canals. 
On its banks, particularly at the 
western extremity, grow numerous 
reeds, and when full of water it is 
frequented by wild ducks and other 
water-fowl, now the only inhabitants 
of ancient Sais. 

Some low mounds, and the ruins 
of houses about KJ00 ft. from the 
walls of the large enclosure, mark 
probably the site of the ancient town, 
the S. extremity of which is occupied 
"by the modern village. 

There are no remains of sculpture 
amidst the modem or ancient houses, 
except fragments in the two mosks 
and at the door of a house ; which last 
has the name of King Psammitichus I., 
the goddess Neith, and the town of 
Ssa, or Sais. 



108 



ROUTE 5. ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO. 



Sect. I. 



Sa'is was a city of great importance, 
particularly during the reigns of the 
Sa'ite dynasty, who ruled Egypt about 
150 years (b.c. 687 to b.c. 524), until 
the Persian invasion under Cambyses ; 
and some claim for it the honour of 
having been the parent of a colony 
which founded the city of Athens in 
1556 B.C., and introduced the worship 
of Minerva on the shores of Greece. 

At Sais were the sepulchres of all 
the kings of Egypt, natives of the 
Sa'ite nome. They stood in the 
temenos, or sacred enclosure, of the 
temple of Minerva ; and it was here 
that the unfortunate Apries and his 
rival Amasis were both buried. The 
tomb of Apries was near the temple, 
on the 1. entering the temenos ; that of 
Amasis stood farther from the temple 
than those of Apries and his prede- 
cessors, in the vestibule of this enclo- 
sure. It consisted of a large stone 
chamber, adorned with columns in 
imitation of palm-trees, and other 
ornaments, within which was an (iso- 
lated) stone receptacle, with double 
doors (at each end), containing the 
sarcophagus. It was from this tomb 
that Cambyses is said to have taken 
the body of Amasis ; which, after he 
had scourged and insulted it, he 
ordered to be burnt ; though the 
Egyptians assured Herodotus that 
the body of some other person had 
been substituted instead of the king's. 
This last appears to have been added 
to give a greater air of probability to 
a story against the Persians, which 
there is great reason to doubt, from the 
indulgent conduct of Cambyses to the 
Egyptians when he first conquered 
the country, and from the respect paid 
to kings by the Persians ; and Cam- 
byses only had recourse to severity 
after they had rebelled against him. 
" They also show," continues the his- 
torian, " the sepulchre of him (Osiris) 
whom I do not think it right here to 
mention. It stands in the sacred 
enclosure, behind the temple of Mi- 
nerva, reaching along the whole 
extent of its wall. In this temenos are 
several large stone obelisks ; and near 
it a lake cased with stone, of a circular 
form, and about the size of that at 



Delos, called Trocho'ides. On this 
lake are represented at night the suf- 
ferings of him, concerning whom, 
though much is known to me, I shall 
preserve strict silence, except as far as 
it may be right for me to speak. The 
Egyptians call them mysteries. I shall 
observe the same caution with regard 
to the institutions of Ceres, called 
Thesmophoria, which were brought 
from Egypt by the daughters of Da- 
n'aus, and afterwards taught by them 
to the Pelasgic women." Sa'is was 
the place where the " fete of burning 
lamps " was particularly " celebrated 
during a certain night, when every 
one lighted lamps in the open air 
arrund his house. They were small 
cups full of salt (and water ?) and oil, 
with a floating wick which lasted all 
night. Strangers went to Sa'is from 
different parts of Egypt to assist at 
this ceremony ; but those who could 
not be present lighted lamps at their 
own homes, so that the festival was 
kept, not only at Sa'is, but throughout 
the country." 

From the accounts given of it the 
temple of Minerva appears to have 
been of great splendour. "Amasis 
added to it some very beautiful propy- 
Ixa, exceeding all others both in height 
and extent, as well as in the dimen- 
sions of the stones and in othe r 
respects. He also placed there several 
large colossi and androsphinxes, and 
brought numerous blocks of extraor- 
dinary size to repair the temple, some 
from the quarries near Memphis, and 
the largest from Elephantine, a dis- 
tance of 20 days' sail from Sa'is." 

" But," adds Herodotus, " what I 
admire most is an edifice of a single 
block brought from the latter place: 
2000 men, all boatmen, were employed 
three years in its transport to Sais. It 
is 21 cubits long externally, 14 broad, 
8 high : and its measurements within 
are 16 cubits 20 digits long, 12 broad, 
and 5 high. It stands at the en- 
trance of the sacred enclosure; and 
the reason given by the Egyptians for 
its not having been admitted is, that 
Amasis, hearing the architect utter a 
sigh, as if fatigued by the length of 
time employed and the labour he had 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 5. — SAIS. 



109 



undergone, considered it so bad an 
omen, that he would not allow it to 
be taken any further; though others 
affirm that it was in consequence of a 
man having been crushed while moving 
it with levers." At Sa'is was also a 
colossus dedicated by Amasis, 75 ft. 
long, similar in size and proportion 
to one he placed before the temple of 
Pthah at Memphis, which was lying 
on its back ; and the grand palace of 
the kings in the same city, which 
Apries left to? attack Amasis, and to 
which he afterwards returned a pri- 
soner, is another of the interesting 
monuments mentioned at Sa'is. 

Recent excavations by M. Mariette 
at the site of Sa'is have served only to 
reveal its utter state of ruin, and it is 
impossible to fix the position, or ascer- 
tain the plan, of any of the splendid 
monuments mentioned by the his- 
torian. 

The Egyptian name of this city was 
written Ssa, which is retained in the 
modern Sa ; and the Sa'is of ancient 
authors was the same, with a Greek 
termination. It is about a mile from 
the Nile, on the rt. bank, and in order 
to save time, if the Nile is low, the 
traveller may land when in a line with 
the mounds, and send his boat to wait 
for him at the bend of the river near 
Kodabeh, about If mile higher up. 
During the inundation the plain is 
partly flooded and intersected with 
canals, which are not forded without 
inconvenience before November. 

Seven or eight miles inland to the W. 
from Dahreeah, between Nikleh and 
Shabdor, is Ramse'es, on the Daman- 
hoor canal. This Ramse'es, or rather 
its predecessor, is unnoticed by profane 
writers, and it is too far from the spot 
where the Israelites lived to have any 
claim to the title of one of the two 
treasure-cities, Pithom and Rameses, 
mentioned in Exodus. And, indeed, 
Rameses is expressly stated to have 
been the place whence the Israelites 
took their departure for Succoth aud 
Etham at the edge of the Wilderness, 
on their way to the Red Sea. 

At a point where the river takes a 
considerable bend to the E.,it is crossed 
by the Alexandria and Cairo Railway, 



and immediately on the E. bank are 
the village and station of Kafr-ez-Zyat. 
(See Rte. 6.) 

Traces of an old canal, running to 
the N.N.W., by some supposed to be 
the Canopic branch of the Nile, may 
be seen above Nigeeleh, which is 
traditionally called the Bahr Yoosef. 
Not far from this should be the site of 
Gyntecopolis and Andropolis, by some 
supposed to be the same city. 

About two or three miles to the 
westward of Kom-Shereek are the 
mounds of an ancient town, on the 
canal. The mounds are called Tel el 
Odameh ("of the bones"), from the 
bodies found buried amidst them. A 
little higher up is Tareeh, near which 
are other mounds and the branch of 
a canal, which follows the course of 
the ancient Lycus canalis, that ran 
towards the lake Mareotis. Some 
supposed Momemphis to have stood 
here ; but as it was near the road to 
the Natron Lakes, it is more likely to 
have been at El Booragat, or Kafr 
Daoot, near the former of which are 
the mounds of an old town of consi- 
derable size. At Aboo-l-khawee and 
Shabdor are the shallowest parts of 
the Rosetta branch, which in summer 
are barely passable for large boats. 
About Nader, on the E. bank, are 
many wild boars, which are found in 
many other parts of the Delta, par- 
ticularly in the low marshlands to the 
N., and about the lake Menzaleh. 
They are also found in the Fyoom. 

Teraneh is the successor of Tere- 
nuthis. About 1J mile to the W., be- 
yond the canal, are mounds of con- 
siderable extent, which probably mark 
its ancient site : and it is from this 
place that the road leads from the Nile 
to the Natron Lakes. The inhabitants 
of Teraneh are principally employed 
in bringing the natron from the desert, 
which often is farmed from the Pasha 
by some rich merchant ; and to this is 
attributable the prosperous condition 
of the village. The lakes are distant 
from Teraneh about 12 hours' journey. 
(See Rte. 11, Sect. II.) 

Near Lekhraas are other mounds, 
perhaps of the city of Menelaus, so 
called, not from the Greek hero, but 



110 



EOUTE 5. ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO. 



Sect. I. 



from the brother of the first Ptolemy; 
and between Aboo-Nishabee aud Beni- 
Salameh is the entrance of the canal, 
cut by Mohammed Ali in 1820, which, 
as before stated, carries the water to 
that of Alexandria. 

In going up the river the Pyramids 
are perceived for the first time from 
the shore a little above Werdan, when 
about due W. of Ashmoon ; and here- 
abouts the desert has invaded the soil 
on the W. bank, and even poured its 
drifted sand into the Nile. At Ash- 
moon or Oshmoun are lofty mounds, 
but no sculptured remains. A little 
beyond Aboo-Ghaleb the pyramids are 
seen from the river, and continue in 
sight the remainder of the voyage to 
Cairo. About 2 m. below, or N.W. 
of Om-ed deenar, is what is called the 
Barrage of the Nile ; and about the 
same distance above that village is the 
southern point or apex of the Delta. 
Here the Nile divides itself into the 
two branches of Kosetta and Damietta, 
though the actual commencement of 
of the Delta may be placed about two 
m. further S., a little above the village 
of Menasheh, at the upper end of the 
Isle of Skelekan. 

The object of the Barrage was to 
retain the water of the Nile, in order 
that it might be used for irrigating the 
lands when the inundation had re- 
tired : one dam crossing the Kosetta, 
another the Damietta branch. After 
the sacrifice of an enormous sum of 
money, the project has been dtfiu - 
tively abandoned, and the Barrage 
remains a striking but useless monu- 
ment of engineering enterprise. 

In former times the point of the 
Delta was much more to the south 
than at present. Cercasora, in the 
] .etopolite nome, which was just above 
it on the west bank, stood, according 
to Strabo, nearly opposite, or west of, 
Heliopolis, close to the observatory 
of Eudoxus. In Herodotus's time 
the river had one channel as far as 
Cercasora ; but below that town it 
divided itself into three branches, 
which took different directions, one, 
the Pelusiac, going to the east ; an- 
other, the Canopic, turning off to the 
west ; and the third going straight for- 



ward, in the direction of its previous 
course through Egypt to the point of 
the Delta, which it divided in twain 
as it ran to the sea. It was not less 
considerable in the volume of its 
water, nor less celebrated, than the 
other two, and was called the Seben- 
nytic branch : and from it two others, 
the Saitic and Mendesian, were de- 
rived, emptying themselves into the 
sea by two distinct mouths. 

This old Sebennytic branch has 
been renewed in a fine wide canal, 
which starts from the point of the 
Delta midway between the two modern 
branches corresponding to the old 
Pelusiac and Canopic, and continues 
as far as Tantah. 

After passing the palace of Shoobra, 
the numerous minarets of Cairo may 
be seen from the river ; and a shady 
avenue of trees leads from Shoobra to 
the N.W. entrance of the city. 

Embabeh (Bte. 4) is on the right, 
and on the left are some palaces and 
country houses in the plain between 
Shoobra and Boolak. 

Boolak may be called the port of 
Cairo. It formerly stood on an island, 
where Macrisi says sugar-cane was 
cultivated ; and the old channel which 
passed between it and Cairo may still 
be traced in parts, particularly to the 
northward, about half-way from the 
Shoobra road. The filling up of this 
channel removed Cairo farther from 
the Nile, and gave to Boolak the rank 
and advantages of a port. 

Owing to the improvements that 
have taken place in the land lying 
between Boolak and Cairo, and the 
rapid extension of the city in the 
direction of the river, the open space 
formerly existing between the two 
will soon be covered wilh houses. 
The norihern extremity of Boolak. at 
which the traveller's dahabeeah will 
probably anchor, is called Bamleh. 
A grt at collection of these boats for 
hire will be seen moored to the bank : 
and the process of building and re- 
pairing them is carried on with great 
vigour and activity. 



Egypt. ROUTE 6. — ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO. Ill 



"ROUTE 6. 

ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO BY RAILWAY. 
131 MILES. 

Three trains daily: one express in 
4 1 hours, and two ordinary in 6 hrs. 

The railway between Alexandria 
and Cairo was the first ever made in 
the East. It was constructed in 1855, 
and, with the continuation from Cairo 
to Suez now done away with, was the 
alternative proposed by Stephenson 
for the Maritime Canal across the 
Isthmus of Suez. Owing to the ex- 
treme flatness of the country the cost 
was comparatively small, there being 
no engiueerrng difficulties in the shape 
of tunnels, viaducts, &c. The bridges 
over the two branches of the Nile 
(and these were not built till a later 
date) are, in fact, the only structures 
of importance. Except at these 
bridges, there is a double line of rails 
the whole way. They are laid on 
cast-iron chairs, which look like 
huge saucers, these chairs being con- 
nected by transverse round iron bars 
to keep them parallel. This same 
method of construction has been em- 
ployed throughout all the railways in 
Egypt. The chairs lie on an embank- 
ment of earth thrown up to the height 
of a few feet above the level of the 
soil. English engineers were em- 
ployed in the making of this line, and 
for a long time the engine-drivers, 
&c, were mostly Englishmen ; but 
now the employes are nearly all 
natives. The guards and station- 
masters can generally speak English 
and French. The daily express runs 



at a very fair rate of speed, and keeps 
time with a regularity that might put 
to shame many an English company. 
So much cannot always be said for 
the local stopping trains. The first- 
class carriages are good, and the per- 
manent way being well kept, they run 
smoothly and easily. 

The station is at the extreme west 
of the town beyond the canal. On 
leaving the station the line skirts on 
the right the Lake Mareotis, stretch- 
ing far away out of sight. In winter, 
after the rising of the Nile, the water 
reaches in many places to the embank- 
ment, but in the late spring and 
summer there is a wide expanse of 
swampy marsh, as treacherous to the 
foot as it is disagreeable to the eye 
and unpleasant to the nose. Numbers 
of aquatic birds may often be seen 
feeding close to the railway, but 
should the traveller, encouraged by 
their apparent tameness as he looks 
at them from the carriage window, 
attempt on some other occasion to try 
his chances with the gun, he will find 
them very wary and unapproachable. 
On the left is the Mnhmoodeeah Canal, 
with its pretty villas and gardens 
backed by high ground, on which 
stands Pompey's Pillar. A little fur- 
ther on is seen the Viceroy's palace at 
Pamleh. The line now quits for a 
time the canal and the cultivated land, 
and runs across the open lake, rejoin- 
ing the canal just before reaching 

17 \. Kafr Douar Stat., a favourite 
rendezvous of Alexandrian sportsmen. 
Wild boar are often found in the 
neighbourhood. Bordered by cotton- 
fields on one side and marshes on the 
other, the line reaches 

11 \. Aboo Hommoos Stat. The Mad- 
moodeeah Canal here turns eastward 
till it joins the Eosetta branch of the 
Nile at Atfeh. 

10. Damanhnor Stat, (line projected 
to Dessook, 12 miles). First station at 
which express stops, 45 min. from Alex- 
andria. A large village, capital of the 
richly cultivated province of Beheyrah. 
It lias several cotton manufactories, 
and a few respectable-looking houses, 
but otherwise presents the usual ap- 
pearance of an Arab village ; shape- 



112 



ROUTE 6. ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO. 



Sect. I. 



less huts and houses of crude mud- 
bricks, relieved sometimes in their 
bare monotony by the graceful outline 
of a few minarets, and the dome-like 
cupolas of a Mussulman cemetery ; 
but only really picturesque when 
nestled in a grove of palms, like the 
hamlet on the right immediately after 
leaving the station. It was close to 
Damanhoor that Napoleon was nearly 
taken prisoner by the Memlooks in 
1798. On being expostulated with 
for exposing himself to such a risk, he 
replied, "JZ n'est point ecrit la haul 
que je doive jamais etre prisonnier des 
MamelouJcs — prisonnier des Anglais, a 
la bonne heure." From Damanhoor 
the railway passes through a richly 
cultivated plain, unbroken by the 
slightest elevation, to 

16. Tel-el-Baroot Stat; and a few 
miles further on reaches the Kosetta 
branch of the Nile, 65 m. from Alex- 
andria. The river is crossed by a fine 
iron bridge of 12 spans, resting on hol- 
low iron piles. It opens for the passage 
of large vessels in a very ingenious 
manner. A part of the roadway, two 
spans in length, turns on a pivot on 
the piers supporting it until it is 
brought at right angles to the bridge, 
thus leaving two passages : the single 
pillars above and below the bridge 
serve to support the two ends of the 
part thus moved, and protect it from 
being injured by vessels driven against 
it. The cost of this bridge, which has 
only a single line of rails, with a foot- 
path alongside, was 400,000Z. Before 
its construction, trains were ferried 
over. It was here that Achmet Pasha, 
elder brother of the present Viceroy, 
and at the time of his death heir to 
the throne, was drowned in 1856. He 
was returning from Alexandria one 
night, when the driver, not seeing in 
the darkness that the ferry boat was 
not in its place, ran the train over the 
bank into the river. Immediately on 
the S. side of the bridge is the station 
of 

lOf m. Kafr-ez-Zyat Stat. 2 hrs. 
5 min. by express from Alexandiia. 
Trains stop here 15 min. There is a 
buffet and restaurant, and a very fair 
lunch may be had fur 5 francs. 15 m. 



to the S. of Kafr-ez-Zyat, on the right 
bank of the river, are the ruins of Sai's 
(see Rte. 5). We have now entered the 
Delta, and the traveller cannot fail to 
be struck with the amazing fertility of 
the vast plain stretched out on either 
side of him, divided not by hedges, 
but by innumerable canals and raised 
dykes, and varied in its flat monotony 
only by the brown mound-like vil- 
lages. 

11m. Tantah Junct. Stat. [Branch 
lines to Talkah (opposite Mansoorah), 
and thence to Damietta, passing by 
Semanood, Mahallet Rokh, Mahallet- 
el-Kebeer, and Shirbeen, 75 miles ; 
to Zifte, via Mahallet Rokh, 33} miles ; 
Dessook, 46| miles ; and to Shibeen-el- 
Kom, 18 J miles. 1 train daily each way 
on all these lines.] Tantah is a large 
and important town, capital of the pro- 
vince of Gharbeeah. It boasts of a 
handsome well-built station (the best 
on the line), and a palace buDt by the 
present Viceroy for his visit to the 
annual fairs or festivals. 

These festivals, which are cele- 
brated three times a year — in Janu- 
ary, April, and August — are held in 
honour of the Seyyid Ahmed-el-Be- 
dawee, a Moslem saint of great renown. 
He was born at Fez in a.h. 596 (a.d. 
1200), and having passed through 
Tantah with all his family on his way 
to Mecca, established himself in that 
place on his return, and was buried 
there at his death. He seems to have 
succeeded to the god of Sebennytus, 
the Eg)'ptian Hercules, whose attri- 
butes have been given him by popular 
fancy or tradition. It is the Seyyid 
whose aid is invoked when any one is 
in need of strength to resist a sudden 
calamity; the effects of a &torm, or 
any frightful accident, are thought to 
be averted by calling out " Ya seyyid, 
ya Bedawee;" and the song of "Gab 
el Yoosara,"' "he brought back the cap- 
tives," records the might and prowess 
of this powerful hero. In the second 
call to prayer chanted by the muezzin 
an hour before daybreak, he is in- 
voked under the name of Aboo Farrag, 
Sheykh of the Arabs, and coupled with 
El Hasan and El Hoseyn, and "all 
the favourites of God." 



Egypt. 



EOUTE 6. — TANTAH — BENHA. 



113 



Each of the fetes lasts S days, and 
those in the spring and summer are 
attended by an immense concourse 
of people, as many as 200,000 being 
sometimes collected together. The 
open space round the town is covered 
with tents of all sorts and sizes : the 
great, square, gaudy coloured tent of 
the rich Sheykh el beled (village 
chief), with horses, camels, and 
. donkeys picketed all about it, and 
flanked on both sides by the smaller 
tents of his followers and dependents ; 
the deep, oblong, equally gaudy 
booths of the singing and the dancing 
girls, the jugglers, the romance re- 
citers, and the story tellers; round 
tents of various sizes and conditions, 
from the blue-lined one of the well-to- 
do fellah down to the ragged bell of 
his poorer neighbour ; and, most pic- 
turesque of all, the " black tents of 
Kedar," — the long, low, flat-topped 
tent of camel's-hair blanket that 
marks now, as of old, the temporary 
resting-place of the wandering Be- 
daween. 

Although a religious festival, plea- 
sure is the chief object of the pilgrims, 
and a few fdfhahs at the tomb of the 
saint are sufficient to satisfy every 
pious requirement, and to induce the 
hope of obtaining his blessing. Busi- 
ness, however, is not neglected. The 
cattle and horse fairs held during 
these festivals are the most important 
in Egypt. Formerly a brisk trade in 
slaves was carried on, and the slave 
market was one of the sights of the 
fair ; but that is now done away with, 
and whatever traffic there is has to be 
done in secret. 

The evening is the time at which 
to see the fete at its height ; and a 
walk through the streets and booths 
will afford many a curious and sug- 
gestive sight. As at the festival of 
Bubastis, in old times, a greater quan- 
tity of wine was consumed than at any 
other period of the year, so at Tantah, 
greater excesses are committed by the 
modern Egyptians than on any other 
occasion. The traveller who finds him- 
self in Egypt at the time of either of 
these fetes will do well to pay Tantah 
a visit. He will have a good oppor- 



tunity of seeing national manners and 
customs. A bed may be obtained 
in the town. England, France, and 
America have consular agents at 
Tantah. 

Still the same rich country to 

11 J m. Birket-es-Sab Stat. 20 min. 
from this the line crosses the Damietta 
branch of the Nile by a similar bridge 
to that of Kafr-ez-Zyat. Passing on 
the left a handsome palace built by 
Abbas Pasha, and the ruins of the old 
town of Athribis. 

14 m. Benha Janet. Stat, is reached. 
[Branch line via Zagazig and Ismailia 
to Suez, 122f miles ; and via Zagazig 
to Mansoorah, 70| miles, ] Benha- 
el-Assal, " Benha of Honey," is an un- 
important town on the right bank of 
the Damietta branch. It was at one 
time the centre of the cotton trade in 
that part of the Delta, but Zagazig 
has now taken its place, and no vestiges 
of its former occupation remain save 
some ruined and deserted cotton 
manufactories : nor does it any longer 
produce the honey from which it 
derived its name. It is recorded by 
the Arab historian that, at the time of 
Amer's invasion, the presents sent to 
Mohammed by John Mekaukes, a 
rich and noble Copt, included among 
other things a jar of honey from Benha- 
el-Assal. Its chief article of trade now 
is oranges, of which the groves all 
around its neighbourhood supply large 
quantities to the Cairo market ; and 
the Yoosef Effendi oranges, large 
juicy mandarins from Benha, are con- 
sidered the best in Egypt. 

The ruins of the old town of Ath- 
ribis lie to the N.E. of the modern 
village. They present somewhat the 
appearance of a huge deserted brick- 
field, with here and there heaps of 
red cinders. The town appears to 
have been of considerable extent, 
nearly a mile in length E. and W., 
and f m. N. and S. It was inter- 
sected by two main streets crossing 
each other nearly at right angles ; and 
there was probably a square at the 
spot where they met. A little beyond 
this quadrivium, or crossway, to the 
W., is another open space, apparently 
the site of the principal temple, anil 



114 



ROUTE 6. ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO. 



Sect. I. 



traces may perhaps be discovered of 
the sacred enclosure on the outer side. 
Of the granite columns and other 
remains that existed here a few years 
ago no trace is left. 

Most of the objects found at Athri- 
bis have been of Eoman or Greek 
date ; but that Athribis possessed 
buildings of older time is certain, not 
only from the antiquity of the place, 
but from a monument found there, 
which has been brought to Europe. 
It is a granite lion, bearing the name 
of Rameses the Great, who did more 
towards the embellishment of the cities 
of the Delta than any other Pharaoh. 

To the N. of the town is a double 
row of low mounds resembling the 
banks of a canal, or the remains of 
walls ; but they extend only to a cer- 
tain distance, about 2000 ft., and are 
closed at the eastern end, so that they 
suit neither of these two. 

Many of the houses of the town 
have been burnt, as is frequently the 
case in Egyptian towns ; and parts of 
the mounds have been used for tombs, 
doubtless in after times, when the 
limits of the inhabited part were con- 
tracted. They may, therefore, be re- 
ferred to a late Roman or Christian 
epoch, like those at Bubastis and 
other towns ; and thus the occurrence 
of tombs in the midst of houses, which 
is at first perplexing, may be accounted 
for. 

The mounds are constantly de- 
creasing in. size, owing to the crude- 
brick dust, of which they are chiefly 
composed, being taken away for 
repairing embankments, manuring the 
land, &c" During this process objects 
of value are occasionally found. 

2J miles to the 1ST. of Benha is the 
Moez Canal. 



The express does not stop again 
before reaching Cairo, but passes 

7f m. Tookh Stat., a short way be- 
yond, which the Pyramids may be seen 
in the distance to the S.W. ; and 

llf m. Kalioob Junct. Stat., whence 
branch off direct lines from Cairo to 
Suez via Zagazig, and to Mansoorah 
via Zagazig. The short line from 
Cairo to the Barrage also strikes 
off here. The towers of the Barrage 
may be seen to the W. The Libyan 
chain of hills now comes into view 
behind the Pyramids to the W. ; 
while on the E. appear the Mokattam 
hills, and the rocky promontory on 
which stands the Citadel, conspicuous 
by the tall slender minarets of the 
Mosk of Mohammed Ali. 

After passing Kalioob the country 
becomes much more wooded, and villas 
with pretty gardens and well-grown 
plantations offer a pleasant relief to 
the eye after the unbroken monotony 
of the country hitherto traversed. On 
the left may be seen in the distance 
the mounds of Heliopolis, the gardens 
of Matareeah, the plantations of Kooba, 
the vast buildings of the Abbasseeah, 
and the racecourse. On the right is 
the palace of Shoobra, and the mag- 
nificent avenue leading from it to 
Cairo. A few minutes more, and the 
train enters the station of 

10 m. Cairo Terminus. — Omni- 
busses, carriages, and donkeys await 
the traveller. If he already has a dra- 
goman he need take no trouble about 
anything ; but if not so provided, he 
had better put himself into the hands 
of the commissionaire of the hotel to 
which he intends going. 



Egypt 



( H5 ) 



SECTION II. 



CAIRO. 



General Information. 



1. Hotels. — 2. Lodgings. Houses. — 3. Cafe's. Restaurants. — 4. Post Office. — 
5. Bankers. — 6. Consulates. — 7. Physicians. — 8. Sltops. Tradespeople. — 
9. Agents for forwarding Goods. — 10. Churches. — 11. Conveyances. — 12. 
Railways. — 13. Telegraphs.— 14. Servants. — 15. Boats for Nile Voyage. 



1. Hotels. Shepheard's Hotel, kept 
by Philip Zech. This hotel is the one 
most frequented by English and Ame- 
rican families ; it has been much im- 
proved in every way of late, and now that 
it is no longer subject to the incursion 
en masse of Indian travellers on their 
way out and home, is fairly quiet and 
comfortable. Mr. Gross, the manager, 
is unwearied in his endeavours to 
attend to, and satisfy, everybody's 
wants and requirements ; but the 
cuisine is capable of improvement, and 
it would be well if travellers were 
allowed the option of paying separately 
for their rooms and whatever meals 
they need, instead of being subject to 
a hard and fast tariff of so much a 
day for board and lodging. The 
terms are 16s. a day for a bedroom and 
three meals. Sitting-rooms 10s. to 11. 
extra. Arrangements for sets of 
rooms and separate attendance can be 
made by families intending to spend 
the winter at Cairo. The situation of 
this hotel is very pleasant, overlooking 
the Esbekeeyah, and there are small 
gardens both inside and outside the 
quadrangle which it forms. 

The New Hotel, a large building 
very well situated in the best part of 
the Esbekeeyah, immediately opposite 
the new public garden and the opera- 
house. It was built by the Oriental 
Hotel Company, but has been bought 
by the Khedive, and is managed for 



him by Pantalini, the proprietor of 
the Hotel d' Europe at Alexandria. 
The terms are the same as at Shep- 
heard's. Arrangements can be made 
for a lengthened stay. 

Hotel des Ambassadeurs in the 
Esbekeeyah ; cuisine good, but rooms 
small and badly situated. 

Hotel d' Orient, in the Esbekeeyeh. 

Hotel du Nil, rather inconveniently 
situated in a street leading out of the 
Mooskee, but nice and pleasant-look- 
ing when reached. It is very highly 
recommended for the goodness of the 
food and the general accommodation 
combined with cheapness, the terms 
being only 12s. a day fur board and 
lodging. 

Hotel Auric. 

2. Lodgings, Houses. There are 
some good furnished flats to be let in 
Cairo, but they must be taken for the 
season, and the rents are very high. 
As houses are springing up in all di- 
! rections to the north and west of the 
j city, rents may probably in a few years 
I be lower. Furnished lodgings of an 
i inferior kind may be found in the 
I Mooskee, and the streets leading from 
it, and on the N.E. side of the Es- 
bekeeyah. Nearly all the new houses 
that are building are for letting in 
flats unfurnished, but very high rents 
are asked at present. Part of an old 
Arab house may often be hired at a 



Egypt. 



CAFES ; POST OFFICE ; BANKERS, ETC. 



117 



moderate sum, but the approach as 
a rule will be disagreeable, and the 
rooms will require a good deal doing 
to them to make them habitable. If 
things continue to progress as at 
present, Cairo in a few years will no 
doubt offer as many facilities for a 
winter residence, in the way of fur- 
nished apartments and houses, as the 
usual places of resort in France and 
Italy; but at present peop'e going to 
Egypt for the first time, if they intend 
remaining the winter at Cairo, had 
better make arrangements at one of 
the hotels, as the expense of lodgings 
and servants will certainly be no less, 
and the trouble considerably greater. 
Information as to lodgings and houses 
may be obtained from D. Robertson 
and Co. 

3. Cafes, Restaurants. Auric's, 
near the Egyptian Post Office, is a 
very excellent restaurant. Set "de- 
jeuner a la fourchette, 4 francs ; dinner 
5 francs. Breakfasts and dinners may 
also be had d la carte in private rooms. 
The Cafe Shoobra, in the Shoobra 
Road, has a restaurant attached. 
There are several cafes in the Es- 
bekeeyah, of which that called the 
Cercle is the most frequented. Beer- 
shops also abound, Vienna beer being 
a favourite beverage of the European 
element at Cairo. 

4. Post Office. The British Post 
Office for the receipt and despatch of 
letters direct from, and to, England, 
Malta, Gibraltar, and America, is at the 
British Consulate in the Esbekeeyah. 
The mails, via Southampton and 
Brindisi, are made up the day before 
the steamers leave Alexandria. Let- 
ters from England and America are 
sent up from Alexandria by the first 
train after the arrival of the steam- 
ers. Letters may also be re- 
ceived from, and sent to, England or 
America through the French Post 
Office, at the Office of the Messageries 
in the Esbekeeyah. A bag for the 
French steamer is made up at the 
British Post Office. Letters may be 
received from, or sent to, India, China, 
Australia, &c, either through the 



British or French Post Offices. The 
Egyptian Post Office, a new and well- 
arranged building, forming part of a 
large block of houses at the S.E. corner 
of the Esbekeeyah is for the receipt 
and despatch of letters from, and to, 
any part the Egyptian dominions daily, 
and all European countries, except 
France and England. People who in- 
tend spending the winter in Egypt had 
better have letters addressed either to 
the Poste Restante, the hotel to which 
they intend going, or their banker's. 
Arrangements can be made at the 
hotels, the bankers, and the consulates 
for the sending of letters to Upper 
Egypt, and letters from Upper Egypt 
can be forwarded through the same 
means ; it should be mentioned, how- 
ever, that very little reliance can be 
placed on the postal arrangements 
south of Cairo, notwithstanding the 
facilities recently afforded by the ex- 
tension of the railway beyond Minieh. 
Thebes, where there is a British and 
American consular agent, is the safest 
point. 

5. Bankers. Bank of Egypt, in the 
Mooskee; H. Oppenheim, Neveu, and 
Co., in the Esbekeeyah near the Opera- 
house ; Tod, Rathbone and Co., Ro- 
setti Gardens. Most of the banks of 
Alexandria have agencies at Cairo. 

6. Consulates. English. — Col. 
Stanton, R.E., C.B., H. B. M's. Agent 
and Consul-General resides during the 
winter months at Cairo ; Consul, E. T. 
Rogers, Esq. ; office in the Esbekeeyah 
attached to the house of the Consul- 
General : hours 10 to 4. American. — 



7. Physicians. Dr. Grant, of Aber- 
deen, for many years resident at Cairo, 
and well acquainted with the ailments 
incidental to the country, and the 
peculiarities of the climate ; he resides 
in the Esbekeeyah. Dr. Reil, German, 
speaking English and French, long 
resident in Egypt. Dr. Sachs, of 
Vienna. Mr. Broadway, dentist ; and 
Mr. Waller, dentist; both in the 
Mooskee. 



118 



CAIRO : SHOPS ; CHURCHES ; CONVEYANCES ; Sect. I. 



8. Shops, Tradespeople. The Eu- 
ropean shops at Cairo are not as a rule 
to be recommended ; the things are 
dear and generally inferior ; but new 
shops are constantly being opened, 
and some improvement may be looked 
for. 

Booksellers. D. Robertson and Co., in 
the Esbekeeyah, between Shepheard's 
Hotel and the English Consulate. 
This is a branch of. the shop at Alex- 
andria, and is well supplied with 
books, stationery, photographs, &c. 
There is a reading-room attached 
with English and American newspa- 
pers. Messrs. D. R. and Co. have 
the superintendence of the voyages up 
the Nile that are made during the 
winter by the steamers of the Azizieh 
Company, and application for places 
should be made to them. A list of 
dragomen is kept, and contracts ar- 
ranged. Kauffman, in the Mooskee, 
for German and French books. Some 
very excellent photographs of Egypt, 
by a Constantinople artist called 
Sebah, may be obtained here. 

Photographers. — Schseft, Rosetti 
Gardens, is a first-rate artist for cartes- 
de-visite and groups ; Delie, Mooskee, 
is also good. The best views of Egypt 
are those of Frith (small), to be ob- 
tained at Robertson's, and Sebah's 
(large), at Kauffmann's. 

Chemists. — Nardi, Mooskee; Rouyer, 
Esbekeeyah ; Voss, Esbekeeyah. 

General Outfitters. — Grima, Moos- 
kee ; Paschal, Esbekeeyah ; and Cecil e, 
Mooskee, for articles of clothing. 
Flags for a dahabeeah may be ob- 
tained at Grima's and Cecile's. 

Provision and Wine Merchants. — 
Ablett, Mooskee : Grima, Mooskee ; 
Raduan, Station Road. 

Jeweller— Ricci, Esbekeeyah. 

Hairdressers. — Lauze, Mooskee ; 
Gravil, Esbekeeyah. 

For native shops see Bazaars. 

9. Agents for forwarding Goods. 
— D. Robertson & Co. will undertake 
the sending of things to England. It 
should be borne in mind that the 
exportation of all objects of antiquity, 



either old Egyptian or Arabic, is 
strictly forbidden by the Egyptian 
Government. 



10. Churches. — The service of the 
Church of England is performed every 
Sunday during the winter season in a 
room at, the New Hotel. Subscriptions 
have for some time past been collected 
for building an English church, and 
the Khedive has given a capital piece 
of ground near the Esbekeeyah for the 
site. It is greatly to be hoped that 
means will soon be taken to profit by 
this liberal gift, and that sufficient 
funds will be collected, not only for 
building a church, but also for pro- 
viding a salary for a permanent chap- 
lain, at least during six months of the 
year. Service according to the forms 
of the Presbyterian Church is held 
every Sunday at 11 a.m., and 3 p.m., 
at the American Mission Schools in 
the Esbekeeyah. German Lutheran 
Church : the foundation-stone of the 
new building, near the Boolak Road, 
was laid by the Prince Imperial of 
Germany in . 1867. Roman Catholic 
Church, in the Frank quaiter, to the 
left of the Mooskee. Coptic Cathedral 
in the Copt quarter, near the Esbe- 
keeyah. Greek Church ; &c. 



11. Conveyances. — Carriages now 
abound in Cairo ; there is a regular 
tariff, as at Alexandria, but it is of 
little practical use, and a bargain had 
better be made beforehand. Inside 
the town 2s. an hour is a fair pay- 
ment ; short courses, Is. ; for the whole 
day, 16s. to 11. More is expected 
after dark, and on Sundays, Fridays, 
and holydays. The continually in- 
creasing number of broad roads and 
streets makes it possible to get about * 
in carriages in a way that a few years 
ago was quite impossible ; but for the 
Oriental parts of the city a donkey 
will still be found to be the plea- 
santest means of conveyance. Donkeys 
may be hired for from 2s. to 3s. a day ; 
short courses, 6d. ; excursions for the 
whole day outside the town, 5s. : but 
Loth carriage-drivers and donkey-boys 



Egypt. 

are a race very difficult to satisfy, and 
a demand for more will always be 
preferred, as also a request fur bak- 
sheesh. 

12. Railways. — The terminus of 
the Alexandria and Cairo line, and its 
branches to the different parts of the 
Delta, and of the Isthmus of Suez 
line, is on the N. side of the city, 
beyond the great canal. There are 
3 trains daily to Alexandria, in con- 
nection with the daily train on each 
branch ; and 2 daily to Suez, via Za- 
gazig and Ismailia. The terminus of 
the Upper Egypt line is at Embabeh, 
on the left bank of the river below 
Boolak, but the most convenient sta- 
tion for Ca ; ro is Geezeh, opposite Old 
Cairo : 1 train daily, early in the 
morning. The daily express train 
between Cairo and Alexandria might 
be taken as a model of punctuality by 
any country, but so much cannot be 
said for the local trains on any of the 
lines. 

13. Telegraphs. — English Tele- 
graph Co., in the same block of 
buildings as the Egyptian Post-office. 
Messages to all parts of the world, and 
some places in Egypt. Twenty words 
to London, via Malta and Falmouth, 
addresses included, 1Z. 14s.; to any 
other part of England, Is. more. 
Egyptian Government Telegraph — To 
all parts of Europe, via Syria and 
Constantinople, and throughout the 
whole of the Egyptian dominions. 

14. Servants. — The monthly pay of 
servants is much the same at Cairo 
and Alexandria. 

The following may be taken as a 
fair scale of monthly payment for 
different kinds of servants, when hired 
for the Nile voyage : — 

£ 

Good dragoman of any national- 
ity, speaking English, French, 
or Italian, with canteen .. 15-20 
The same, without canteen .. 8-12 
Under servant, or waiter, speak- 



119 

ing a little of some European ^ 

language 4-6 

Good man-cook of any nation- 
ality 10-12 

Ordinary man-cook 6-8 

The traveller, however, who visits 
Egypt for the first time, will have 
little need to trouble himself about 
servants' wages, as he will find it 
much more convenient and satisfactory 
to adopt what is now the usual plan, 
and pay a dragoman a fixed sum for 
providing him with boat, servants, 
food, &c. 

There are dragomen of every sort 
and kind, good, bad, and indifferent ; 
and the traveller, who has to choose 
from among the numbers who present 
themselves at Alexandria and Cairo, 
must take his chance. But it is seldom 
that the really good ones, who con- 
fessedly are at the head of their pro- 
fession, fail to give satisfaction. Their 
charges, however, are very extrava- 
gant; and travellers who are not so 
particular as to comfort and luxuries, 
may find a very fair dragoman who 
will do everything at a lower rate. 

All who can should, before leaving 
England, get a dragoman recommended 
to them by friends who have had ex- 
perience of him : it will save them a 
great deal of trouble, and they will 
feel more sure of the sort of man they 
have to deal with. 

Of course it is possible to do with- 
out a dragoman for the Nile voyage, 
and look after everything for oneself ; 
but whoever tries it should be gifted 
with an abnormal amount of patience. 
More on this subject will be found in 
the Introduction to Sect. III. 

Persons intending to remain the 
winter at Cairo, may hire servants at 
a lower rate than that given in the 
above scale. Native servants, par- 
ticularly such as are more especially 
needed for a residence in the town, such 
as porters (bowab), grooms (syce), &c, 
should be hired through the medium 
of the Sheykh of the guild to which 
they belong, as that functionary will 
settle what wages they ought to re- 
ceive, and be responsible for their 
conduct and behaviour. 



RAILWAYS ; TELEGEAPHS ; SERVANTS. 



120 



CAIEO: NILE VOYAGE. 



Sect. II. 



15. Boats for the Nile Voyage, 
Steamees. — There are various kinds 
of boats, all more or less similar in 
construction though differing in name, 
to be seen on the Nile, but the one 
which claims special attention, as that 
in which the traveller makes his 
voyage on the river, is called a " daha- 
beeah." Dahabeeahs vary much in size 
and method of arrangement, but the 
smallest have at least two or three 
cabins and a bath, and the largest have 
from six to eight single-bed cabins, 
with a saloon cabin in the centre, and 
another at the stern, which can also be 
used as a double or single bedroom ; 
bath, pantry, (fee. The usual sized 
dahabeeah contains three single-bed 
cabins, a centre saloon cabin, a stern 
cabin to be used either as double or 
single bedroom, or sitting-room, a 
bath, &c. The hire of these boats is 
always varying, and it is almost im- 
possible to set down any fixed sum ; 
but the following may be taken as a 
fair average rate per month : — 

£ 

A large, well fitted-up boat for 

6 or 8 persons 90-110 

A medium sized boat for 4 or 6 
persons 60-80 j 

A small boat for 2 or 3 persons 40-50 



The difference between those that will 
accommodate the same number of 
persons consists in the furniture and 
fittings-up. 

There are a few very large, well 
fitted-up dahabeeahs, for which as 
much as 170Z. to 200Z. a month have 
been asked and obtained. When the 
owner of the boat is a native, a reduc- 
tion can always be obtained in the 
price asked, and in every case much 
may be done by judicious bargaining. 
There is a smaller kind of boat also 
adapted for Nile travelling, called a 
cangia. but they are only to be recom- 
mended on the score of economy, having 
very scant accommodation, and. being 
badly fitted up. 

The government steamers belonging 
to the Azizieh Company generally leave 
Cairo for the first cataract at Assooan 
every three weeks from November to 
March ; but their times of departure 
are uncertain, and depend a good deal 
upon the number of travellers waiting 
to go. The time occupied in the trip 
to Assooan and back is 20 days, and 
the fare 421., table wine included. Full 
information can be obtained at D. 
Kobertson and Co.'s shop in the Es- 
bekeeyah. 



Sect. II. 



CAIKO : HISTORY AND TOPOGRAPHY. 



.121 



Description of Cairo. 

L History and Topography. — 2. Oriental Character of the Town. — 3. Climate 
4. Population, — 5. Local Government. — 6. Manufactures and Industry. — 
7. Gates. Walls. — 8. Canals. Lakes. — 9. Citadel. — 10. Moslcs. Churches. 
— 11. Tombs. — 12. Sebeels or Public Fountains. — 13. Streets. Public Places. 
— 14. Baths. — 15. Bazaars. — 16. Palaces. — 17. Schools. Libraries. Mu- 
seum. — 18. Hospitals. Benevolent Societies. — 19. Theatres. Amusements. 
— 20. Beligious Festivals. — 21. Modes of seeing Cairo and Neighbourhood. 
— 22. Drives. Excursions : I. Shoobra. — II. Heliopolis. — III. The " Petri- 
fied Forest." — IV. The Barrage. — V. Old Cairo and the Nilometer. — 
VI. The Pyramids. — VII. Sakkdrah. 



1. HlSTOEY AND TOPOGRAPHY. — 

Masr el Kaherah, called by the 
natives Masr, and by Europeans Cairo, 
is situated in latitude 30° 6 and longi- 
tude 31° 26', on the right or E. bank of 
the Nile, in the sloping plain lying be- 
tween that river and a projecting 
angle of the Mokattam Hills. It was 
founded by Gowher, a general of El 
Moez, or Aboo Tummim, the first of 
thel Fowatem or Fatemite dynasty 
who ruled in Egypt. He was sent in 
the year 358 of the Hegira, a.d. 969. 
with a powerful army from Kayrawan 
(in the modern Regency of Tunis), 
the capital of the Fowatem, to invade 
Egypt : and having succeeded in con- 
quering the country, he founded a 
new city, under the name of Masr el 
Kaherah. It is probable that an old 
Egyptian town called Loui-Tkeshrdmi 
had formerly occupied some part of 
the site chosen, though the exact spot 
is unknown ; but we learn from Arab 
writers that two villages existed there 
before the time of Gowher, once called 
El Maks, where the Copt quarter now 
stands, and the other El Kuttneea. 
In 362 (a.d. 973) the new city became 
the capital instead of Fostat; which 
then, by way of distinction, received 
the name of Masr el Atee'kah (old 
Masr, called by Europeans Old Cairo). 
El Moez soon afterwards arrived with 
the whole of his court, and the Fowa- 
tem, bringing with them the bones of 
{.Egypt.-] 



their ancestors, for ever relinquished 
the country whose sovereignty they 
had also usurped, and which they still 
retained, by leaving a viceroy in the 
name of their monarch. 

The epithet Kaherah (Cairo) is de- 
rived from Kaher, and signifies " vic- 
torious." 

The firr-t part of the city erected by 
Gowher was what is still called el 
Kasrayn or "the two palaces," one of 
which, formerly the residence of Sala- 
din and other kings, has been long 
occupied by the Mahkemeh, or Cadi's 
Court. 

The walls of Cairo were built of 
brick, and continued in the same state 
till the?reign of Yoosef Salah-ed-deen, 
the founder of the Eiyoobite dynasty 
in Egypt, and well known in the his- 
tory of the Crusades under the name 
of Saladin. Shortly before his arrival, 
and during the troubles that obscured 
the latter end of the reign of the Fo- 
watem, whom he expelled, Cairo had 
been attacked by the Franks, and 
partly burnt on their approach, about 
the year 1176. Their designs against 
the city were unsuccessful; but in 
order to place it effectually beyond 
the reach of similar attempts, Saladin 
raised around it a stronger wall of 
stone masonry; and observing that 
the elevated rock to the south of the 
city offered a convenient position for 
the construction of a fortress, to com- 
G 



122 



CAIRO : HISTORY AND TOPOGRAPHY : 



Sect. II. 



mand and protect it, he cleared the 
spot, and erected on it the citadel. At 
the same time the extent of the city 
was considerably increased, the new 
walls including within their circuit 
all that part lying between the Bab 
Zuweyleh and the citadel. Since that 
period, the city has very much ex- 
tended itself, principally to the W. 
and N., and many of the old gates are 
now found in the interior. 

Cairo was the residence of the caliph, 
and capital of his dominions, until the 
overthrow of the Memlook sovereignty 
in Egypt by Sultan Selim in 1517, 
and the abolition of the nominal Abba- 
seeyah caliphate. It then became the 
capital of the Turkish province of 
Egypt, and continued so until its cap- 
ture by the French after the so-called 
battle of the Pyramids in 1798. Their 
occupation lasted three years, when 
the city was again taken by the Turks 
and English in 1801. In 1811 Mo- 
hammed Ali, by his massacre of the 
Memlooks in the citadel, attained 
almost absolute power in Egypt, and 
Cairo became once more the capital 
of a virtually independent kingdom. 
Many improvements in the state of 
the city were made, in his reign, but 
the greatest changes have taken place 
since the accession of the present 
Khedive in 1863. New streets have 
been opened through the centre of 
the city, new quarters laid out and 
designed, and the general aspect in 
many parts completely changed. 

In shape, Cairo is an irregular ob- 
long, about 3 m. in length and 2 m. in 
breadth, and occupies an area of more 
than 3 sq. m., an extent which will be 
considerably increased when the new 
quarter of Ismaileeyah is completed, 
and all the ground lying between the 
city and its suburb Boolak covered 
with houses. " The capital of Egypt 
is seated like a bird on a hill, the 
whole of which it covers with out- 
spread wings .... High above all 
stretches upwards the citadel, with the 
dome and minarets of its magnificent 
mosque. The grand site has been 
most happily occupied, and suddenly 
seen as the city was by us, with the 
last rays of the evening light flitting 



over the buildings, and every line of 
the architecture clearly and sharply 
defined against the darkening sky, it 
appeared more like a dream of fairy- 
land, or a &cene in a play, or a picture 
of Turner's, than a real and living 
town. In addition also to the per- 
fection of its own site, Cairo possesses 
with London, with Paris, Vienna, and 
many a capital, the advantage of being 
placed amid some of the prettiest 
scenery in the country over which it 
rules." — Fred. Eden. 

The whole of the Oriental part of 
the city is divided into quarters, sepa- 
rated from each other by gates, which 
are closed at night. A porter is ap- 
pointed to each, who is obliged to open 
the door to all who wish to pass 
through, unless there is sufficient 
reason to believe them to be improper 
persons, or not furnished with a lamp, 
which every one is obliged to carry 
after the E'sher. The majority of 
these quarters consist of dwelling- 
houses, and are known by a name 
taken from some public building, from 
some individual to whom the property 
once belonged, or from some class of 
persons who live there : as the Hart 
es Suggain, " Quarter of the Water- 
carriers ; " the Hart en Nassara, or 
Hart el Kobt, "the Christian," or 
" Copt, quarter ; " the Hart el Yahoorl, 
"Jews' quarter;" the Hart el Frang, 
"Frank quarter:" and the like. 

The Copt quarter occupies one side 
of the Esbekeeyah. It is built much 
on the same principle as the rest of 
the town ; but some of the houses are 
very comfortably fitted up, and present 
a better appearance than is indicated 
by their exterior. It has a gate at 
each end, and others in the centre, 
two of which open on the Esbekeeyah. 
The. Copt quarter stands on the site 
of the old village of El Maks. 

The Jews' quarter consists of nar- 
row dirty streets or lanes, while many 
of the houses of the two opposite sides 
actually touch each other at the upper 
stories. The principal reasons of their 
being made so narrow are to afford 
protection in case of the quarter being 
attacked, and to make both the streets 
and houses cooler in summer. 



Egypt- 



OEIENTAL CHAKACTEK OF THE TOWN. 



123 



The old Frank quarter is usually 
known to Europeans by the name of 
the Mooskee, supposed to be corrupted 
from Miskawee. This last is said to 
have been given it in very early times 
(according to some, in the reign of 
Moez, the founder of the city), in con- 
sequence of its being the abode of the 
water-carriers ; and, according to the 
same authority, when the city was en- 
larged, and their huts were removed 
to make way for better houses, the 
streets which extended through this 
quarter (from what is now the Darb 
el Barabra to the Hamzowee) still re- 
tained the name of Darb al Miskawee. 
This, however, appears not to have been 
the real origin of the name ; and some 
derive it from mi-k, " musk," but for 
what reason does not appear. Others, 
again, suppose it to have been the 
street of the Mo^kee or Russians. The 

name is written in Arabic ^SL^^moj 

and Macrizi says the bridge or Kan- 
tarat el Moskee, was built by the Ameer 
Ghazaleh, who died in Syria 530 a.h. 
(a.d. 1136.) It was here that the first 
Franks who opened shops in Cairo were 
permitted to reside, in the reign of 
Yoosef Salah-ed-deen (Saladin). But 
the number of houses occupied by them 
in later times having greatly increased, 
the Frank quarter has extended far 
beyond its original limits, and the 
Mooskee now includes several of the 
adjacent streets. This quarter is some- 
times called by the natives the " Hart 
el Frang." 

The Esbekeeyah is now considered 
as a separate quarter, and the ground 
to the W. of it, in which houses are 
rapidly springing up, is called Is- 
maileeyah. To the S. is the 
quarter of Abdeen. These three are 
now the fashionable quarters. The 
whole of the Esbekeeyah and of the 
Ismaileeyah, and part of Abdeen, are 
provided with good roads and pave- 
ments, and lighted with gas. This 
last improvement renders the carrying 
of a lantern (fandos) at night no 
longer necessary nor obligatory in 
these quarters. 

For administrative purposes Cairo is 
now divided into 10 quarters or Kooms : 



Esbekeeyah, Bab esh Shareeyah, Ab- 
deen, Darb el Gammameez, Darb el Ah- 
mar, Gemeleeyah, Shessoon, Kaleefa, 
Boolak, and Old Cairo. 

2. Okiental Chaeactee of the 
Town. — The narrowness of the streets 
of Cairo, and their great irregularity, 
may strike an European as imper- 
fections in a large city ; but their 
Oriental character fully compensates 
for this objection, and of all Eastern 
towns none is so interesting in this 
respect as the Egyptian capital. Nor 
is this character confined to the 
bazaars, to the mosks, or to the pecu- 
liarities of the exterior of the houses ; 
the interiors are of the same original 
Arab style, and no one can visit the 
hareems and courts of the private 
dwellings of the Caiienes without re- 
calling the impressions he received 
on reading the ' Arabian Nights.' The 
disposition of the different parts of the 
interior of the house is, to an European 
eye, singularly confused, without the 
appearance of plan or systematic 
arrangement ; but the picturesque style 
of the courts, the inlaid marble, the 
open fonts, the mandarah with a facade 
of two arches supported on a single 
column, the elaborate fretwork of wood 
forming the mushrebeeyah, or projecting 
window, and the principal room with 
its lantern (a sort of covered implu- 
vium), its divans, deep window-stats, 
and stained-glass windows, have a 
pleasing effect, and remind us of the 
descriptions of old Saracenic mansions. 
In Lane's ' Modern Egyptians ' will 
be found a full and minute description 
of an Egyptian house. The traveller 
may not have the opportunity of 
seeing any good specimen of an Arab 
house inhabited and kept in repair ; 
but he will be able to obtain some 
idea of the richness of the interior 
decorations by a visit to two very 
interesting old houses, one opposite 
the Hotel du Sphinx in a street lead- 
ing from the right-hand side of the 
Mooskee, and the other in the 
slipper bazaar in the Darb es 
Zaahdeh, opposite the house of 
Fuad Effendee. The new streets and 
other improvements are playing sad 
havoc with the old buildings of Cairo, 
G 2 



124 



CAIRO : ORIENTAL CHARACTER OP THE TOWN ; Sect. II, 



and many an interior has been 
destroyed without any care being 
taken to preserve the beautiful wood- 
work and encaustic tiles which are 
especially remarkable, the latter for 
their pattern and colours, and the 
former for their delicacy of carv- 
ing and inlaying. Notwithstanding 
Western encroachments, however, 
Cairo has not quite lost its thoroughly 
Oriental character, and the stranger, 
if he wishes it, may still, as Miss 
Martineau said more than 20 years 
ago, "surrender himself to the most 
wonderful and romantic dream that 
can ever meet his waking senses." 

" It has been said that Alexandria 
has nothing of an Eastern town but 
its filth. This cannot be said of Cairo. 
It may be doubted whether Baghdad 
itself is more absolutely Oriental in 
its appurtenances. When once the 
Englishman has removed himself 400 
yards from Shepheard's Hotel, he be- 
gins to feel that he is really in the East. 
Within that circle .... he is still in 
Great Britain. The donkey-boys curse 
in English instead of Arabic. The men 
go much sauntering about ; though 
they do wear red caps, have cheeks 
as red ; and the road is broad and 
Macadamised and Britannic. Cairo 
is a beautiful city. It is full of 
romance, of picturesque Oriental won- 
ders, of strange sights, strange noises, 
and strange smells. When one is well 
in the town, every little narrow lane, 
every turn (and the turns are inces- 
sant), every mosque, and every shop, 
creates fresh surprise." — Ant Trollope, 

" To our new eyes everything was pic- 
ture. Vainly the hard road was crowded 
with Moslem artizans, home returniug 
from their work. To the mere Moslem 
observer, they were carpenters, masons, 
labourers, and tradesmen of all kinds. 
We passed many a meditating Cai- 
rene, to whom there was nothing but 
the monotony of an old story in that 
evening and in that road. But we 
saw all the pageantry of Oriental ro- 
mance quietly donkey ing into Cairo. 

" I saw Fadladeen with a gorgeous 
turban, and a long lash. His chi- 
bouque, bound with coloured silk and 
gold threads, was borne behind him 



by a black slave. Fat and fuming 
was Fadladeen as of old ; and though 
Fermouz was not by, it was clear to 
see in the languid droop of his eye 
that choice Arabian verses were sung 
by the twilight in his mind. 

" Yet was Venus still the evening 
star ; for behind him, closely veiled, 
came Lalla Kookh. She was wrapped 
in a vast black silken bag, that bulged 
like a balloon over her donkey. But 
a star-suffused evening cloud was that 
bulky blackness, as her twin eyes 
shone forth liquidly lustrous. 

" Abou Hassan sat by the city gate, 
and I saw Haroun Alrashid quietly 
come up in that disguise of a Mosul 
merchant. I could not but wink at 
Abou, for I knew him so long ago in 
the ' Arabian Nights.' But he rather 
stared than saluted, as friends may in 
a masquerade. There was Sinbad the 
Porter, too, hurrying to Sinbad the 
Sailor. I turned and watched his form 
fade in the twilight, yet I doubt if he 
reached Bagdad in time for the Eighth 
History. 

" Scarce had he passed when a long 
string of donkeys ambled by, bearing 
each one of the inflated balloons. It 
was a hareem taking the evening air. 
A large eunuch was the captain, and 
rode before. The ladies came gaily 
after, in single file, chatting together ; 
and although Araby's daughters are 
still ' born to blush unseen,' they 
looked earnestly upon the staring 
strangers. Did those strangers long 
to behold that hidden beauty ? Could 
they help it, if all the softness and 
sweetness of hidden faces radiated 
from melting eyes ? 

" Then came Sakkas, men with hog- 
skins slung over their backs, full of 
water. I remembered the land and 
the time of putting wine into old 
bottles, and was shoved back beyond 
glass. Pedlars — swarthy fatalists, in 
lovely lengths of robe and turban — 
cried their wares. To our Frank ears 
it was nothing but Babel jargon. Yet 
had erudite Mr. Lane accompanied us 
— Mr. Lane, the Eastern Englishman, 
who has given us so many golden 
glimpses into the silence and mystery 
of Oriental life, like a good genius 



Egypt 



climate; population. 



125 



revealing to ardent lovers the very 
hallowed heart of the hareem — we 
should have understood those cries. 

" We should have heard, ' Sycamore 
figs — grapes ! ' meaning that said 
figs were offered, and the sweetness 
of sound that ' grapes ' hath was only 
bait for the attention ; or, ' Odours of 
Paradise, flowers of the henna ! ' 
causing Moslem maidens to tingle to 
then- very nails' ends ; or, indeed, these 
pedlar poets, vending water-melons, 
sang, ' Consoler of the embarrassed, 
O Pips ! 5 Were they not poets there, 
these pedlars, and full of all Oriental 
extravagance? For the sweet asso- 
ciation of poetic names shed silvery 
sheen over the actual article offered. 
The unwary philosopher might fancy 
that he was buying comfort in a green 
water-melon, and the pietist dream of 
mementoes of heaven in the mere 
earthly vanity of henna. But the 
philanthropic merchant of sour limes 
cries, ' God made them light — limes ! ' 
meaning not the fruit, nor the stomach 
of the purchaser, but his purse. Will 
they never have done with hiero- 
glyphics and sphinxes, these Egyp- 
tians '? Here a man, rose-embowered, 
chants, ' The rose is a thorn, from the 
sweat of the prophet it bloomed ! ' 
meaning simply, ' Fresh roses.' 

" These are masquerade manners, 
but they are pleasant. The maiden 
buys not henna only, but a thought of 
heaven. The poet not water-melons 
only, but a dream of consolation which 
truly will he need."— G. W. Curtis. 

3. Climate. — Nothing can be plea- 
santer nor more salubrious than the 
climate of Cairo during the winter 
months ; the days are warm and 
bright, and the nights are cool and 
refreshing. The thermometer seldom 
falls lower than 40° Fahr., or rises | 
above 70° Fahr. in the shade during j 
the months of December, January, and ! 
February, except during a Khamseen j 
wind. The air is dry, pure, and ex- i 
hilarating : occasionally there is a j 
slight damp fog in the evening and 
early morning, but it soon passes off. 
In the spring months, though the heat 
of the sun increases considerably 
during the day, the nights are still 



comparatively cool. Even in the 
hottest part of the summer, except 
when a Khamseen wind is blowing, 
the early mornings are fresh and plea- 
sant, and after the Nile has well begun 
to rise in July, the increasing water 
and north winds help to cool the 
air; but damp exhalations from the 
river are prevalent during the months 
of September, October, and November, 
especially after the inundation has be- 
gun to subside. Eain seldom falls : 
now and then in the early part of the 
year there are three or four showers, 
and occasionally, perhaps once in five 
years, a severe storm passes over the 
city. The new part of the Esbekeeyah 
quarter, and the Abbasseeyah road, 
are the healthiest places for a resi- 
dence. The neighbourhood of the 
Shoobra Koad, being under water 
during the inundation, is damp and 
unhealthy in the autumn and early 
winter. In the remarks on the climate 
of Egypt in Sect. I. will be found 
further information applicable to 
Cairo. 

4. Population. — At the time of 
the French expedition in 1797, the 
population of Cairo was estimated at 
260,000. Since then it has been 
gradually increasing, and according 
to the last returns it now amounts, 
including the suburbs of Boolak and 
Old Cairo, to about 37,000, which 
may be roughly divided thus : — 

Native Muslims .... 260,000 

Native Copts 25,OuO 

Abyssinians, Nubians, &c. . 25,000 

Turks 10,000 

Jews, Levantines, &c. . . 30,000 

Europeans 20,000 

The native of Cairo is very proud of the 
appellation of "Masree," or Cairene, 
by which he is always distinguished 
among his fellows, and considers him- 
self immensely superior to his brethren 
of the Delta and Saeed ; and indeed 
there are marked mental and physical 
differences between them. The town- 
bred Cairene is much quicker and 
more intelligent than his country 
cousin, and he may generally be dis- 
tinguished by certain outward signs, 
such as a peculiar tint of tawny com- 
plexion, large big mouth, with thick 



126 



CAIEO : LOCAL GOVERNMENT ; 



Sect. II. 



well-formed lips, fat broad nose, enor- 
mous legs, and a general look of sturdi- 
ness. The native population of Cairo 
were formerly exempt from the con- 
scription, and enjoyed other privileges 
and immunities, but these are being 
gradually withdrawn. 

5. Local Government. Cairo, like 
Alexandria, forms a government dis- 
tinct from the province in which it is 
situated. It has its own governor, 
who is assisted by a deputy. Police 
cases are decided by the Zabit, or pre- 
fect of police, whose office is at the 
Zaptieh, close to the street leading to 
the palace of Abdeen. An attempt 
has been made to establish a muni- 
cipal police, but with no great success. 
But the same rule holds good here as 
at Alexandria : if the defendant is a 
foreigner he must be taken before his 
own consular court. Commercial cases 
between natives and foreigners are 
decided by a mixed tribunal, half 
Egyptian and half European. 

Questions of property and family 
disputes are settled at the "Mali- 
kemeh" (Place of Judgment), or Cadi's 
court, which has its head-quarters 
in Cairo. This court occupies a portion 
of the old palace of the Sultans, which 
succeeded to one of the Kasrayn or 
" two palaces," built by Gowher 
el Kaed, the founder of Cairo ; and 
close to it is a fine vaulted chamber, 
one part of the abode of Saladin. This 
last, as well as its adjoining com- 
panion, is now a ruin, and occupied 
by mills ; its large pointed arches 
have lost all their ornaments except 
the Arabic inscriptions at the pro- 
jection of their horseshoe base ; and 
the devices of its once richly-gilded 
ceiling can scarcely be distinguished. 
At the end is a lofty mahrdb, or ara- 
besque niche for prayer, similar to 
those in the mosks, which are some- 
times admitted into large houses for 
the same purpose. This chamber has 
now been destroyed, or enclosed, and 
can no longer be seen. The Cadi 
(Kadee) is appointed by the Sultan, and 
is sent from Constantinople. His 
tenure of office lasts only a year. 

The crowded state of the Mahkemeh 



sufficiently shows how fond the 
Cairenes are of litigation, every petty 
grievance or family quarrel being 
referred to the Cadi's Court. 

The fees of the Cadi are four-fifths 
of all that is paid for cases at the 
court, the remaining fifth going to the 
bash-kateb and other scribes under 
him. 

Minor cases, as disputes between 
husband and wife, if they cannot be re- 
conciled below in the hall by the advice 
of a Mteb (scribe), are taken up to the 
effendee. When settled in the hall, 
a small fee is demanded for the chari- 
table intervention of the scribe » which 
is his perquisite, for not troubling his 
superiors with a small case. Deci- 
sions respecting murder, robbery, the 
property of rich individuals, and other 
important matters, are pronounced 
by the Cadi himself. In cases of 
murder, or wounding or maiming, if 
the friends of the deceased or the 
injured party consent to an adjust- 
ment, certain fines are paid by way 
of requital. These are fixed by law, 
regulated, however, by the quality 
of the persons. Eansom for murder 
(deeah el KuteeT) is rated at 50 purses 
(about 250Z.) ; an eye put out in an 
affray, half that cleeali ; a tooth one 
tenth, and so on. 

The rank of a plaintiff or defendant, 
or a bribe from either, often influences 
the decision of the judge. In fact, 
bribery and the testimony of false 
witnesses is carried to an incredible 
extent in Muslim courts of law. 

The markets are under the inspec- 
tion of an officer called the Mohtesib. 

Every quarter in the metropolis has 
its sheykh, whose permission must be 
obtained for living in that quarter, 
and who maintains order amongst its 
inhabitants. 

All the various trades and manu- 
factures have their respective sheykhs, 
to whom all disputes in connexion 
with their trades must be referred. 
And the different classes of servants 
are also under the authority of par- 
ticular sheykhs, who are responsible 
for the good conduct of those they 
recommend. 

The octroi duty has lately been re- 



Egypt 



HAXUTACTUEES ; GATES, WALLS. 



127 



established in Cairo, and every article 
of consumption brought in from the 
country is taxed before entering the 
<:ity. 

6. Manbfactuebs and Ixdustky. 
— The chief native manufactures of 
Cairo are gold and silver jewellery, 
silk and cotton stuffs, embroidery, 
native saddles, &c. Many European 
industries have lately been intro- 
duced. A return published in 1871 
gives the number of people employed 
in different recognized occupations at 
150,066, and divides them into 64 
different categories. The most nume- 
rous corporation are the porters, 
14.037 ; then come tbe vendors of eat- 
ables, 11.793: glaziers, 10.000; boat- 
men of the Xile. 9116: donkey and 
camel drivers, 7112 ; and so on, inclu- 
ding among others, 3876 water-car- 
riers; 3297 coffee-house keepers; 3111 
barbers ; 2630 goldsmiths ; 1160 
chicken rearers ; 1012 hotel keepers ; 
831 potters ; 288 coffee and tobacco 
cutters, down to 35 plumbers. This 
list is probably more curious than 
accurate, but it will serve to give 
some idea of the principal occupations 
followed. 

The occupations most likely to 
strike the attention of the stranger 
are what may be called the itinerant 
ones, such as that of the " sakkah " 
or water-carrier, who sells water from 
house to house, carrying it in skins, 
sometimes on the back of a camel or 
donkey, and sometimes on his own 
back. The water company, which 
has begun its operations in Cairo, will 
sadly interfere with this branch of 
trade. A variation of the " sakkah " 
proper are the " sakkah sharbeh " and 
the " hemalee," who supply passengers 
with water in the streets, the former 
pouring the water into a brass cup 
from a skin with a brass spout, the 
latter having a huge porous earthen- 
ware vessel, with a sprig of orange 
stuck in its mouth. There is also the 
" sharbetlee," who sells an infusion 
of raisins, or liquorice, or some other 
sweet substance. Another itinerant 
occupation is that of the "muselli- 
katee," or pipe cleaner, who goes about 



1 with a bundle of long wires, and a 
bag of tow, his implements for 
cleaning the shibiik or long pipe, 
j A favourite occupation at Cairo is 
! that of a beggar. Very little food 
| and raiment are necessary in this 
: climate, and starvation is a thing 
almost unheard of. Blind people, and 
; those on whom nature has bestowed 
j some disfigurement of person, are 
certain of gaining a subsistence by 
begging. 

I The hatching of eggs by artificial 
heat has been carried on in Egypt 

j since the time of the Pharaohs. One 
of the principal egg-hatching ovens, 
called in Arabic "maamal el ferakh," 
is at Cairo. A full description of 
them, and the process of incubation, 
is given in Lane's ' Modern Egyp- 
tians.' The season during which 
they are in operation is two or three 
months in the spring. The peasants 
supply the eggs, and generally receive 
one chicken for every two eggs. 
Chicken's eggs require 20 days, 
turkeys' 30. The temperature required 
is about 100° Fakr. 

7. Gates, Walls. — It has been al- 
ready stated that the walls of Cairo 
were rebuilt by Saladin, and the cir- 
cuit of the city considerably extended 
on the south beyond the Bab Zuwey- 
leh, and on the north as far as the 
Bdb el Radeed (" Gate of Iron "). 
This gate, the site of which is near 
the N.W. corner of the Esbekeeyah, 
has been taken down, and the city 
has extended some distance beyond it 
in the direction of the Abbasseeyah 
road. The old walls may still be 
seen along the N.E. side of the city, 
beginning from the northern end 
of the new street leading from the 
station to the Esbekeeyah. In this 
part are two of the most remark- 
able gates, the Bdb el Fotooli and the 
Bdb en Xasr, the latter a very hand- 
some and imposing structure. A 
staircase beneath the gateway gives 
admission to the walls, which can be 
easily traversed on foot as far as the 
Bab el Fotooh. At the time of 
the French occupation this part of the 
wall was utilised for the purposes of 



128 



CAIKO : CANALS, LAKES ; CITADEL ; 



Sect. il 



defence, and the names given to the 
different towers may still be seen 
"written up. The line of defence was 
continued by some small stone forts 
on the E. side of the city, erected on 
mounds that cover a part of the old 
walls. The only other gate worthy of 
mention is the Bdb Zuweyleh in the 
interior of the town. Its massive 
towers, surmounted by the elegant 
minaret of the adjacent mosk, make it 
a conspicuous and picturesque object. 
It was at this gate that Toman Bey, 
the last of the Memlook sultans, was 
executed by Sultan Selim in 1517. 
On the W. side of the town, near the 
road leading to Old Cairo, is the Bdb 
el Look. 

8. Canals, Lakes. — The narrow 
ditch which, beginning at old Cairo, 
passes through the centre of the city, 
and thence continues on to Heliopolis, 
is called emphatically El Khaleeg, 
" The Canal ;" and it is the cutting of 
this which is attended with so much 
ceremony in the month of August, 
and gives the signal for the opening 
of the other canals in Egypt. It is 
the successor of the so-called Amnis 
Trajanus, which joined at some un- 
known spot the great canal from 
Zagazig, then on the Pelusiac branch 
of the Nile, to Suez. It has long 
since ceased to do more than convey 
water to the city ; and it is probable 
that, were it not for an old prestige in 
its favour, the Government would 
close the latter altogether, and make 
of its bed a cmvenient street; which 
would have the additional advantage 
of freeing the houses on its banks 
from the noxious vapours that rise 
when the water has retired and left a 
bed of liquid mud. 

A broad navigable canal, called the 
Ismaileeyah Canal, has been begun, 
starting from Boolak, near Kasr en 
Nil, which is intended to join the 
modern Fresh-Water Canal from Zag- 
azig to Suez, and so give water-com- 
munication between Cairo and the 
Eecl Sea. It passes near the railway 
station, the road from which into the 
town crosses it over a neat bridge ; 
and there is a similar bridge over it 
on the road to Boolak. 



Most of the small lakes which for- 
merly existed in the interior of Cairo 
nt the period of the inundation have 
been filled up. 

9. Citadel.— The Citadel (El Ka- 
lah) whs built by Saladin, in 1166, 
of stone brought from small pyra- 
mids at Geezeh, and formed part of 
his general plan for strengthening 
the town, and protecting it from 
assault ; but it can hardly be said to 
have been well chosen for this object, 
as it is completely commanded by 
Mount Mokattam; and it was by 
erecting a battery in the fort, on the 
projecting point called Gebel ej Joo- 
ahee, immediately behind it, that 
Mohammed Ali compelled the sur- 
render of the citadel, then in the 
possession of Khoorshid Pasha. Ac- 
cording to the Arab historian of the 
day, however, Saladin is said to 
have fixed upon the spot because it 
was found that meat kept fresh there 
twice as long as anywhere else in 
Cairo. The city side is well defended 
by the natural abruptness of the 
rocks, and is also strongly armed and 
regularly fortified. A good carriage- 
road leads up from the open square 
called Er Rumeyleh to the principal 
outer entrance-gate, and continues on 
through another gate into the interior 
of the citadel. Another way in is by 
the Bab el Azab, a fine massive gate- 
way flanked by two enormous towers. 
It was in the narrow and tortuous 
lane leading from this gate that the 
massacre of the Memlooks took place 
by order of Mohammed Ali, on the 
1st of March, 1811. As soon as they 
had passed through the Bab el Azab, 
it and the upper gate were shut, and 
they were thus caught in a trap. All 
were shot except one, Emin Bey, who 
escaped by leaping his horse over a 
gap in the then dilapitated wall. The 
spot is shown a little to the north of 
the Bab el Azab. There was probably 
a large accumulation of rubbish be- 
low the gap which broke the fall. 

The citadel is in itself a small town, 
and contains many objects worth see- 
ing. 

The palace built by Mohammed 



Egypt- 



MOSK OP MOHAMMED ALL 



129 



Ali, which has taken the place of the 
old palace of Saladin, contains some 
very handsome rooms, especially a 
bath-room all of alabaster. The view 
from some of the rooms is very fine. 
It is now, with the exception of a 
part occupied by the Prince Here- 
ditary, only used for state receptions. 
The ministerial divans, which used 
to have their offices in it, have now 
been removed to the west end of the 
city. 

The old palace of Saladin, com- 
monly called Joseph's Hall, was 
pulled down in 1829 to make room for 
the new Mosk of Mohammed Ali. 
The most remarkable object in this 
palace was a vast hall supported on 
32 columns of rose granite taken from 
ancient temples; but these columns 
were broken when the building was 
pulled down. The two minarets still 
standing to the E. of the mosk formed 
part of the old mosk of Kalaoon, 
which stood in the centre of the 
palace court. 

The Mosk of Mohammed Ali was 
commenced by that prince, but not 
finished till after his death. It con- 
sists of an open square, surrounded 
by a single row of columns, 10 on the 
N. and S., 13 on the W., and 12 on 
the E., where a door leads to the 
inner part, or house of prayer ; as in 
the Tooloon, and other mosks of a 
similar plan. The columns have 
a fancy capital supporting round 
arches, and the whole, with the ex- 
ception of the outer walls, is of 
Oriental alabaster. But it has not 
the pure Oriental character of other 
works in Cairo ; and it excites ad- 
miration for the materials rather than 
for the style of its architecture. Its 
minarets, too, which are of the Turk- 
ish extinguisher-order, are painfully 
elongated, in defiance of all propor- 
tion ; they interfere with the very 
appearance of all around them, and 
that too in a city remarkable for so 
many elegant models of Saracenic 
time. The decoration of the interior 
is in very bad taste, and the large 
European lustre hanging from the 
roof, and the wretched lanterns strung 
about in every direction, help to 



offend the eye. The vast size and the 
richness of the materials produce, 
however, on the whole, a fine effect ; 
and it is well worth seeing when 
lighted up in the evening during the 
month of Eamadan. Immediately on 
the right on entering is the tomb of 
the founder. 

From the platform on the S. side of 
the mosk is a grand and commanding 
view of the city and the surrounding 
country, taking in the arsenal im- 
mediately below, — theKumeyleh, and 
the fine mosk of Sultan Hassan, just 
outside the gates of the citadel, — 
the numerous minarets of Cairo, — 
and, in the distance, the Pyramids, — 
with the valley of the Nile, to Sak- 
karah on the south, and to the point of 
the Delta on the north. Miss Marti- 
neau says : "I would entreat any 
stranger to see this view first in the 
evening — before sunset. I saw it 
three times or more. In the morning- 
there was much haze in the distance, 
and a tameness of colour which hurts 
the eye. At noon there was no colour 
at all : all colour being discharged in 
the middle of the day in Egypt, ex- 
cept in shady places. In the evening 
the beauty is beyond description. 
The vastness of the city, as it lies 
stretched below, surprises every one. 
It looks a perfect wilderness of flat 
roofs, cupolas, minarets, and palm- 
tops, with an open space here and 
there presenting the complete front 
of a mosque, and gay groups of people, 
and moving camels, — a relief to the 
eye, though so diminished by distance. 
The aqueduct is a most striking 
feature, running off for miles. The 
city of tombs was beautiful and 
wonderful, its fawn - colour domes 
rising against the somewhat darker 
sand of the desert. The river 
gleamed and wound away from the 
dim south into the blue distance of 
the north, the green strips of culti- 
vation on its banks delighting the 
eye amidst the yellow sands. Even 
to the west the Pyramids looked their 
full height and their full distance, 
which is not the case from below. 
The platform of the Great Pyramid is 
here seen to be a considerable hill of 
g 3 



130 



cairo : Joseph's 



WELL; MOSKS. 



Sect. II. 



itself; and the fields and causeways 
which intervene between it and the 
river lie as in a map, and indicate the 
true distance and elevation of these 
mighty monuments. The Lybian 
hills, dreary as possible, close in the 
view behind them, as the Mokattam 
range does above and behind the 
citadel. This view is the great sight 
of Cairo, and that which the stranger 
contrives to bring into his plan for 
almost every day." 

On the E side of the citadel hill 
is Joseph's Well, so-called probably, 
like Joseph's Hall, from the other 
name of Saladin (Yoosef), who, when 
the site for his fortress was being 
cleared, discovering a well that had 
been cut by the ancients, ordered it to 
be cleared of the sand that then filled 
it. It is probable that the original 
well was hewn in the rock by the 
ancient Egyptians, like the tanks on 
the hill behind the citadel, near the 
Kobbet el Hawa; and this is ren- 
dered more probable from there having 
been, as has been said, an old town 
called Loui-Tkeshromi on the site of 
the modern city. The well is com- 
posed of two parts, of which the upper 
is about 160 feet deep, and the lower 
130, making a total depth of 290 feet. 
The descent is by a gently-sloping 
staircase, and a wide landing-place 
marks the division between the two 
parts of the well, which, it may be 
remarked, are not in a direct vertical 
line. The bottom of the well is sup- 
posed to correspond with the level of 
the Nile. The water is raised by 
bullocks or donkeys to the first stage, 
and thence by the same means to the 
top. Water is also brought to the 
citadel by the aqueduct direct from 
the Nile at Old Cairo. 

10. Mosks, Chueches. — Cairo is 
said to contain about 400 mosks. They 
are called Gdma (or Jama, pi. Gowd- 
ma), " a place of meeting," or " syna- 
gogue ;" the other name Musged being 
from seged, "to bow down," whence 
segddee, " a prayer-carpet." Many of 
them are in ruins, but the great num- 
ber of those that are still in repair, 
and used for the daily prayers, must 



be apparent to any one who passes 
through the streets, or sees their 
numerous minarets from without. 

" The mosques of Cairo are so nume- 
rous, that none of them is inconve- 
niently crowded on Friday ; and some 
of them are so large as to occupy spaces 
three or four hundred feet square. 
They are mostly built of stone, the 
alternate courses of which are gene- 
rally coloured externally red and white. 
Most commonly a large mosque con- 
sists of porticoes surrounding a square 
open court, in the centre of which is a 
tank or fountain for ablution. One 
side of the building faces the direc- 
tion of Mekkek, and the portico on 
this side, being the principal place of 
prayer, is more spacious than those 
on the three other sides of the court : 
it generally has two or more rows 
of columns, forming so many aisles, 
parallel with the exterior walls. In 
some cases this portico, like the other 
three, is open to the court; in other 
cases it is separated from the court 
by partitions of wood, connecting the 
front row of columns. In the centre 
of its exterior wall is the 'Mehrab' 
(or niche), which marks the direction 
of Mekkeh ; and to the right of this 
is the ' Mimbar ' (or pulpitj. Opposite 
the Mehrab, in the fore part of the 
portico, or in its central part, there is 
generally a platform called ' dikkeh,' 
surrounded by a parapet, and sup- 
ported by small columns; and by it, 
or before it, are one or two seats, hav- 
ing a kind of desk to bear a volume of 
the Kur-an, from which a chapter is 
read to the congregation. The walls 
are generally quite plain, being simply 
whitewashed ; but in some mosques 
the lower part of the wall of the 
place of prayer is lined with coloured 
marbles, and. the other part orna- 
mented with various devices executed 
in stucco, but mostly with texts from 
the Kur-an (which form long friezes, 
having a pleasing effect), and never 
with the representation of any thing 
that has life. The pavement is covered 
with matting, and rich and poor pray 
side by side ; the man of rank or 
wealth enjoying no peculiar distinc- 
tion or comfort, unless (which is some 



Egypt- 



CAIRO : 



MOSKS. 



131 



times the case) he has a prayer-carpet 
brought by his servant and spread for 
him. 

The large mosques are open from 
daybreak till a little after the 'eshe, 
or till nearly two hours after sunset. 
The others are closed between the 
hours of morning and noon prayers; 
and most mosques are also closed in 
rainy weather (except at the times 
of prayer), lest persons who have 
no shoes should enter, and dirt the 
pavement and matting. Such per- 
i sons always enter by the door nearest 
the tank or fountain (if there be more 
than one door), that they may wash 
before they pass into the place of 
prayer ; and generally this door alone 
is left open in dirty weather. The 
mosque El-Azhar remains open all 
night, with the exception of the prin- 
cipal place of prayer, which is called 
the ' maksoorah,' being partitioned off 
from the rest of the building. In 
many of the large mosques, particu- 
larly in the afternoon, persons are 
seen lounging, chatting together, eat- 
ing, sleeping, and sometimes spinning 
or sewing, or engaged in some other 
simple craft ; but notwithstanding 
such practices, which are contrary 
to precepts of their prophet, the Mus- 
lims very highly respect their mosques. 
There are several mosques in Cairo 
( as the Azhar, Hassaneyn, &c.) before 
which no Frank, nor any other Chris- 
tian, nor a Jew, were allowed to pass, 
till of late years, since the French in- 
vasion." — E. W. Lane. 

" The mosques are extremely inter- 
esting ; partly from their architectural 
beauty ; more so from their purposes, 
and the pleasure of seeing these pur- 
poses fulfilled. Nothing charmed me 
so much about them as the spectacle 
of the houseless poor, who find a refuge 
there. In the mosque of Sultan Has- 
san, when we had mounted a long 
flight of steps from the street, and 
more stairs which led to the barrier 
where Ave must put on slippers, we 
entered a vast court, sacred to all who 
have hearts, whether they be heathens, 
Mohammedans, or Christians, for the 
solace and peace which are to be found 



there. The greater part of this court 
was once open to the sky; its floor 
was of inlaid marble ; and in the 
centre was the tank where the wor- 
shippers perform their ablution before 
praying. The steps to the roofed plat- 
form at the upper end were matted ; 
and on these steps some men were at 
prayer. On the platform sat a man 
making a garment — spreading out his 
cloth upon the mat, and running the 
seams as much at his ease as if lie 
had been in a home of his own. This 
was a homeless man, and here he was 
welcome. Several poor people were 
sitting talking cheerfully ; and under 
this roof, and on this mat, they were 
welcome to sleep, if they had no other 
place of rest. Some children were at 
play quietly on the marble pavement. 
We are accustomed to say that there 
is no respect of persons, and that all 
men are equal within the walls of our 
churches ; but I never felt this so 
strongly in any Christian place of 
worship as in this Mohammedan one, 
with its air of freedom, peace, and 
welcome to all the faithful. I felt 
myself an intruder there, in a retreat, 
which should be kept sacred for those 
who go to it not as a church, but as a 
religious home." — Harriet Martineau. 

Miss Martineau afterwards quotes 
Lord Houghton's poem of The Mosque,. 
which may appropriately be inserted 
here : — 

" A simple unpartittoned room, — 
Surmounted by an ample dome, 
Or, in some lands that favoured lie, 
With centre open to the sky, 
But roofed with arched cloisters round, 
That mark the consecrated bound, 
And shade the niche to Mekkeh turned, 
By which two massive lights are burned ; 
With pulpit whence the sacred word 
Expounded on great days is heard ; 
With fountains fresh, where, ere they pray, 
Men wash the soil of earth away ; 
With shining minaret, thin and high, 
From whose fine trellised balcony, 
Announcement of the hours of prayer 
Is uttered to the silent air. 
Such is the Mo?que— the holy place, 
Where faithful men of every race, 
Meet at their ease, and face to face. 

" Not that the power of God is here 
More manifest, or more to fear ; 
Not that the glory of His face 
Is circumscribed by any space ; 



132 



CA1E0 : MOSK 



OF TOOLOON. 



Sect. II. 



But that, as men are wont to meet 
In court or chamber, mart or street, 
For purposes of gain or plpa^ure, 
In friendliness or social leisure, — 
So for the greatest of all ends 
To which intelligence extends, 
The worship of the Lord, whose will 
Created and sustains us still, 
And honour to the Prophet's name. 
By whom the saving message came, 
Believers meet together here, 
And hold this precinct very dear. 

" The floor is spread wiih matting neat, 
Unstained by touch of shodden feet, — 
A decent and delightful seat ! 
Where, after due devotions paid, 
And legal ordinance obeyed, 
Men may in happy parlance join, 
And gay with serious thought combine ; 
May ask the news from far away ; 
May fix the business of to-day ; 
Or, with 1 God willing,' at the close 
To-morrow's hopes ami deeds dispose. 

" Children are running in and out, 
With silver-sounding laugh and shout; 
No more disturbed in their sweet play, 
No more disturbing those who pray, 
Than the poor birds that fluttering fly 
Among the rafters there on high, 
Or seek at times, with grateful hop, 
The corn fresh sprinkled on the top. 

" So, lest the stranger's scornful eye 
Should hurt this sacn-d family — 
Lest inconsiderate word should wound 
Devout adorers with their sound — 
Lest careless feet should stain the floor 
With dirt and dust from out the door, — 
Tis well that custom should protect 
The place with prudence circumspect, 
And let no unbeliever pass 
The threshold of the faithful mass; 
That as each Muslim his hareem 
Guards ever from a jealous dream, 
So should no alien feeling scathe 
This common home of public faith ; 
So should its very name dispel 
The presence of the infidel." 

A visit to the principal rnosks of 
Cairo, such, as those of Tooloon, Sultan 
Hassan, &c, is attended with no 
difficulty now, and it is seldom that 
the traveller is refused admittance to 
any of those most usually visited; 
but if he should desire to see some 
of the less well-known ones, he had 
better get an order from the Consu- 
late, which will procure him the 
attendance of a cawass from the Zup- 
tieh, or police-station, to accompany 
the traveller, and ensure his admit- 
tance and freedom from insult. This 
cawass will expect a fee, and small 
sums must be given to the guardians 



of the mosks. It is always, however, 
open to the guardian of a mosk to 
refuse admittance if he so chooses; 
but it is seldom done now. It is con- 
venient to take a large pair of woollen 
socks to draw over the shoes on enter- 
ing, as it is much less trouble than 
changing the shoes for slippers. And 
ladies should certainly never neglect 
to wear a thin veil when they visit 
any of the mosks. 

The first in point of antiquity is 
the mosk of Ahmed ebn Tooloon, ge- 
nerally known as the Jama (Gama) 
Tooloon. It is said to be built on the 
plan of the Kaaba, at Mecca, which 
seems to have been that of all the 
oldest mosks founded by the Mus- 
lims. It was three years in building, 
and cost 72,000Z. At one time it 
was a university, and was endowed 
with nine professorial chairs. The 
centre is an extensive open court, 
about 100 paces square, surrounded 
by colonnades ; those on three of the 
sides consisting of two rows of co- 
lumns, 25 paces deep, and that on the 
eastern end of five rows, all. support- 
ing pointed arches. These arches are 
of a very graceful shape, retaining a 
little of the horseshoe form at the 
base of the archivolt, as it rises from 
the pier ; and in a wall added after- 
wards to connect the mosk with the 
base of the principal minaret is one 
round horseshoe arch, which is rarely 
met with in Egypt. Around the 
mosk is an outer wall, now encum- 
bered in part by houses, at each angle 
of which rose one of the minarets ; 
that on the N.W. corner being the one 
used for the call to prayer. This mosk 
is the oldest in Cairo, having been 
founded 90 years before any other 
part of the city, in the year 879 a.d., 
or 265 of the Hegira, as is attested by 
two Cufic inscriptions on the walls of 
the court, a date which accords with 
the era of that prince, who ruled in 
Egypt from 868 to 884. If not re- 
markable for beauty, it is a monument 
of the highest interest in the history 
of architecture, as it proves the exist- 
ence of the pointed arch about three 
hundred years before its introduction 
into Ed gland, where that style of 



Egypt- 



CAIRO : MOSK 



OF TOOLOON. 



133 



building was not in common use until 
the beginning of 1200, and was scarcely- 
known before the year 1170. 

There is reason to believe that the 
pointed arch was used in some parts 
of Europe as early as the beginning 
of 1100 ; but it was then evidently a 
novel introduction, generally mixed 
with the older round-headed arch, and 
not exclusively adopted throughout 
any building. And since we here find 
a mosk presenting the pointed style in 
all its numerous arches, we may con- 
clude not only that the Saracens em- 
ployed it long before its introduction 
into Europe, but that we were in- 
debted to them for the invention. 
The mosk of Tooloon is not the oldest 
Muslim building in Egypt in which 
this style of architecture is found. 
The Mloraeter at Eoda presents a 
still earlier instance ; and it may in- 
deed be reasonably concluded that in 
the East the pointed arch is much 
older than has been generally sup- 
posed. That it should have been in- 
troduced from thence into Europe is 
not at all improbable ; and the time of 
its first appearance naturally leads to 
the conclusion that the Crusaders 
made us acquainted with the style of 
building they had seen during their 
wars against the Saracens. 

Along the cornice, above the arches 
within the colonnades, are Cufic in- 
scriptions on wood, many of which 
have long since fallen. The style of 
the letters is of the same ancient cha- 
racter as in the stone tablets before 
mentioned ; and, indeed, were the date 
not present to determine the period of 
its erection, the style of the Cufic 
alone would suffice to fix it within 
a very few years, that character hav- 
ing undergone very marked changes 
in different periods of its use; and 
what is singular, the oldest, which is 
the most simple and least ornamented, 
has a nearer resemblance to the Arabic 
than that in vogue about the time 
when the modern form of letters was 
introduced. The Arabic character 
was first adopted about 950 a.d., but 
Cufic continued in use till the end of 
the Fowatem or Fatemite dynasty ; 
and on buildings, Arabic and Cufic 



were both employed, even to the reign 
of Sultan el Ghoree, a.d. 1508. 

The wooden pulpit, and the dome 
over the front in the centre of the 
quadrangle, are of the Melek Mun- 
soor Hesam ed deen Lageen. and bear 
the date 696 of the Heg'ira, in Arabic 
characters. 

The minaret of the Tooloon, which' 
rises from the exterior wall of circuit, 
has a singular appearance, owing to 
the staircase winding round the out- 
side. Its novel form is said to have 
originated in the absent habits of its 
founder, and an observation of his 
Wizeer. He had observed him uncon- 
sciously rolling up a piece of parch- 
ment into a spiral form ; and having 
remarked, " It was a pity his majesty 
had no better employment," the King, 
in order to excuse himself, replied, 
" So far from trifling, I have been 
thinking that a minaret erected on 
this principle would have many ad- 
vantages ; I could even ride up it on 
horseback : and I wish that of my 
new mosk to be built of the same 
form." The cornice of this staircase 
appears to have been of amber. 

From its summit is one of the finest 
views of the town ; and though in- 
ferior in extent, it possesses an advan- 
tage over that from the platform of 
Joseph's Hall, in having the citadel 
as one of its principal features. Un- 
fortunately the staircase is so broken 
down that no one is now allowed to 
ascend. The hill on which the mosk 
stands was formerly called el Kuttaeea, 
and was chosen by Ahmed ebn et 
Tooloon as a place of residence for 
himself and his troops : but it was not 
till long after the foundation of Cairo 
that this hill was enclosed within the 
walls, and became part of the capital 
of Egypt. Its modern name is Kalat- 
el-Kebsh, "the Citadel of the Earn';" 
and tradition pretends that it records 
the spot where the ram was sacrificed 
by Abraham. Nor is this the only 
fanciful tradition connected with the 
hill, or the site of the mosk of Too- 
loon. Noah's ark is reported to have 
rested at the very spot where a Nebk 
tree still grows, within a ruined en- 
closure in the court of the mosk ; and 



134 



CAIEO : MOSK OF AZHAR. 



Sect. II. 



the name of Gebel O'skoor is believed 
to have been given it, iu consequence 
of the thanksgiving he there offered 
to the Deity for his rescue from the 
perils of the flood. Here too is what 
is called the Mustabat Pharaoon, 
''Pharaoh's bench" (or "seat";: a 
name which probably records the 
existence of an ancieut town on this 
rocky height. Here too once stood 
the old stone sarcophagus which had 
the name of ''the Lovers' Fountain." 

The Az'har, or " splendid " mosk, 
was originally founded by G-owher 
el Kaed, the general of Moez, about 
the year 970 ; but that which is 
now seen is of a later date, having 
been subsequently rebuilt and consi- 
derably enlarged, principally by Sul- 
tan Beybars, Kaid Bey, and Sultan 
Ghdree. Each part bears an inscrip- 
tion relative to the era, and authors, 
of its successive restorations, to the 
year 1762. It is of considerable size, 
and ornamented with more than 400 
columns of granite, porphyry, and 
marble taken from old Egyptian 
temples. It is not only the College 
of Cairo, but the principal University 
of the East. On one side, towards 
Mecca, of the large square court, is 
the place of prayer, a spacious portico ; 
on the other three sides are smaller 
porticoes, divided into apartments for 
the use of natives from different parts 
of Egypt and the entire East ; each 
province or country having its sepa- 
rate apartment. In each apartment 
is a library for the students. The 
University formerly possessed large 
properties, which were taken from it 
by Mohammed Ali. The professors 
now receive no salaries, nor do the 
students pay for instruction. The 
former teach privately and copy books, 
and sometimes receive presents. The 
students, who are generally poor, live 
by the same means. In a chapel 
adjacent, 300 blind men are main- 
tained from funds bequeathed for that 
purpose. The number of students 
registered in Feb. 1872 was 944-1, and 
of professors 314. As in the ancient 
temple of Jerusalem and the modern 
Beyt Allah at Mecca, idlers of all de- 
scriptions resort here to buy and sell, 



read and sleep, and enjoy the coolness 
of its shady and extensive colonnades. 

Close to the so nth-west angle is 
another handsome mosk ; and a little 
farther to the north is the small but 
celebrated Hassaneyn, dedicated to 
the two sons of Ali, El Hasan and El 
Hoseyn, whose relics it contains. It 
is said that the head of Hoseyn, and 
the hand of Hasan, are preserved 
there. Like the Azhar, it was built 
or restored at different periods, the 
last addition dating in 1762, and bear- 
ing the name of Abd er Bahman kehia; 
but none of the earliest part is now 
visible. It has again quite recently 
been restored. The mooled or birth- 
day of the Hassaneyn is one of the 
principal fetes of Cairo, when a grand 
illumination, with the usual amuse- 
ments of Eastern fairs, continues for 
eight, and sometimes more days, in 
this quarter of the town. The tomb 
of the patron saint on such occasions 
is always covered with the Kisweh, or 
sacred envelope of embroidered cloth 
or velvet; which calls to mind the 
clothing of the statues with the lepov 
Koo-fAov, in the temples of ancient 
Egypt. Another great occasion at 
this mosk is the " Ydm ashoorah " — 
the tenth day of the month Mohar- 
ram, being the anniversary of the day 
on which El Hoseyn was slain at the 
battle of Karbala. The shrines of 
El Hasan and El Hoseyn are on the 
Mecca side of the mosk ; they cannot 
be entered by Christians. In conse- 
quence of the double dedication, there 
are two " kibleks " in this mosk. 

Of the early mosks, that have re- 
tained their original style of architec- 
ture from the period of their founda- 
tion, the oldest, next to the Tooloon, 
is that of Sultan el HdJtem, near the 
Bab en Nasr, one of the principal 
gates of Cairo. 

The arches are all pointed, with a 
slight horseshoe curve at the base ; 
and as the date of its erection is nearly 
200 years before that style of archi- 
tecture became general in Engand, it 
offers, as already stated, another im- 
portant proof of its early adoption 
in Saracenic buildings. Sultan el 
Hakem, or El Hakem be-omr-Illak, 



Egypt 



CAIRO : MOSK OF SULTAN HASSAN. 



135 



the third caliph of the Fatemite dy- 
nasty, reigned from 996 to 1024 a.d. 
This eccentric and immoral prince 
was the founder of the sect of Druses, 
still- extant in Syria. He pretended 
to be vested with a divine mission, 
and. aided by Hamzeh. and by Derari. 
another Ismaelian. succeeded, in ob- 
taining many proselytes, by whom he 



was looked upon as a prophet, or even 
as an incarnation of the Deity him- 
self; and it is worthy of remark, that, 
in an inscription over the western 
door of the mosk, his name is followed 
by the same expressions that usually 
accompany that of the founder of 
Islam.* In Arabic letters it is as 
follows : — 



\ {S\A\ .... 

"El Haketn bs-omr-Illah,"Prince of the Faithful, the blessings of God he unto him and 

to bis ancestors, the pure. In the month Eegeb, the year a.h. 393," or a.d. 1003. 



Both the minarets of this mosk \ 
were fortified by the French during 
their possession of Egypt, a square | 
tower having been built round them 
to about two-thirds of their height. | 
On the one nearest the Bab el Fotooh, 
facing the walk along the ramparts, 
is the name given it by the French, j 
"Fort Yaille." The whole building 
has now become a complete ruin. 

The finest mosk in Cairo is unques- 
tionably die "Jdma-t-esSoltdn Hassan," j 
commonly called Sultan Hassan, im- 
mediately below the citadel, between j 
the Bumeyleh and the Soog es Sxtllah. j 
Its lofty and beautifully ornamented 
porch, the rich cornice of its towering 
walls, its minaret, and the arches of ; 
its spaeious court, must delight every ! 
admirer of architecture. And so im- 
pressed are the Cairenes with its supe- | 
riority over other mosks, that they j 
believe the king ordered the hand of | 
the architect to be cut off. in order to j 
prevent his building any other that j 
should vie with it ; absurdly ascribing 
to his hand what was due to his head. 
The same story is applied to other J 
fine buildings, of which they wish to 
express their admiration, as lo the two 
minarets of Samalood and Asyoot, in 
Upper Egypt. The building of this i 
mosk was begun in 1357, and took j 
three years to complete, at a cost of i 
6001 a day. Its total length is 490 
feet, and the height of the great 
minaret 260 feet. 

The interior is of a different form 



from the mosks of early times, and from 
the generality of those at Cairo : con- 
sisting of an hypasthral court, with 
a square recess on each side, covered 
by a noble and majestic arch; that on 
the east being much more spacious 
than the other three, and measuring 
69 ft. 5 in. in span. At the inner end 
of it are the niche of the imam, who 
prays before the congregation on 
Friday, and the mimbar or pulpit ; 
and two rows of handsome coloured 
glass vases of Syrian manufacture, 
bearing the name of the sultan, are 
suspended from the side walls. Be- 
hind, and forming the same part of 
building, is the tomb, which bears the 
date of 764 of the Hegira (a.d. 1363), 
two years later than his death, which 
happened in the mouth of Jumad el 
owel, a.h. 762. It is surmounted by 
a large dome, like many others, of 
wood and plaster, on a basement and 
walls of stone, and the ornamental 
details are of the same materials. On 
the tomb itself is a large copy of the 
Koran, written in beautiful distinct 
characters, and over it are suspended 
three of the coloured lamps. 

The blocks used in the erection of 
this noble edifice were brought from 
the pyramids ; and though we regret 
that one monument should have been 
defaced in order to supply materials 
for another, we must confess that few 

* They were also applied to Ali, and to some 
of the most reverend companions of the Prophet, 
but not to persons of later times. 



136 



CAIRO : MOSK OF 



SULTAN KALAOON. 



Sect. II. 



buildings conlcl summon to their aid 
greater beauty to plead an excuse, 
while we regret that it is not likely 
to be as durable as those ancient 
structures. The mosk of el Ghoree, 
the Morostan, the citadel, and other 
buildings, were indebted for stone to 
the same monuments, which were 
to them the same convenient quarry 
as the Coliseum to the palaces at 
Eome. The unsightly huts which 
clung, barnacle-like, to this splendid 
monument, have been removed, and 
it is now completely isolated. In the 
clearance of houses which has taken 
place all round, four handsome mosks 
have been brought to light, the domes 
of two of which, Mahmoodeeyah and 
Emeer Akher, are extremely elegant; 
and the minaret of the third, Mar- 
danee, is a model of grace and light- 
ness. 

The mosk of Sultan Kalaoon is near 
the bazaar of the Khan Khaleel, and 
was attached to the Morostan or mad- 
house, founded by that philanthropic 
prince in a.h. 684, or 1287 a.d. In 
the Morostan itself is another mosk 
built by the same king, whose name is 
found at the E. end, "mowlana oo 
seedna es Soltan el Melek el Munsoor 
Sayf ed dooneea oo ed deen Kalaoon 
es Salehee," in an inscription of four 
lines, with the date of ' s 684 a.h., 
in the month of Jumad el owel ; " 
and over the door of the main en- 
trance of the building another in- 
scription says the whole was begun 
in the month of Reebeh el akher 683, 
and finished in Jumad el owel 684; 
being only 13 months. It is said that 
the king offered a large reward to the 
architect and builders if finished 
within the year. This, however, they 
failed in doing ; but it was completed 
in the short space of time mentioned in 
the inscription, only one month over the 
period prescribed ; which fully refutes 
the notion that Sultan Kalaoon only 
laid the foundations, and that the 
Morostan was finished by his son Naser 
Mohammed. 

The first Morostan in Egypt is said 
to have been built by Aboolgaysh 
Khamaraweeh, the son and successor 
of Ahmed ebn Tooloon, about the 



year 890 a.d. ; or, according to some, 
by Ahmed ebn Tooloon himself. The 
following story is related as the 
cause of its foundation. A lady of 
distinction, having become obnoxious 
to her husband, was put away on the 
plea of insanity, and given in charge 
to persons who took care of mad 
people ; but having escaped from her 
place of confinement at the moment 
the king happened to be passing by, she 
threw herself at his feet, and implored 
his protection. The injustice of her 
detention, and the many cases of mis- 
management detected on this occasion, 
determined the king to found a public 
institution, where similar practices 
could not take place ; and he therefore 
made two Morostans or madhouses, one 
near the Kara Meydan (where this 
scene took place), the other between 
the Kalat el Kebsh and the island 
of Boolak. Little less than 400 
years after, was founded the present 
Morostan, which, though con- 
ducted in a disgraceful manner in 
late times, speaks highly for the 
humane intentions of its founder. 
By his orders, the patients, whatever 
might be the nature of their com- 
plaints, were regularly attended by 
medical men, and by nurses attached 
to the establishment ; and their minds 
were relieved by the introduction of a 
band of music, which played at inter- 
vals on a platform (that still exists; in 
the court of the interior. 

The lunatics are now located in a 
hospital at Boolak. 

, • In the mosk is the tomb of its 
founder, who was the first of the Kala- 
ooneeyah, or Salaheeyah, a division of 
the Baharite dynasty. He died in the 
year 1290 a.d. The tomb of his son 
Naser Mohammed forms part of the 
same mass of buildings. That of 
Sultan Kalaoon is handsome ; it is on 
the right, as the mosk is on the left, 
of the passage, as you enter the princi- 
pal door of the Morostan ; and, like the 
mosk, it is supported on large columns 
surmounted by arches, which in the 
latter are of elongated shape, and in 
the former slightly partaking of the 
horseshoe form. Their spandrils, and 
the windows above, are ornamented 



Egypt- 



CAIRO! MOSK OF EL GHOREE. 



137 



with light tracery; and the Mehrab, or 
niche for prayer, inlaid with mother- 
of-pearl and mosaic work, not unlike 
the Byzantine taste, with rows of small 
columns dividing it into compartments, 
has a rich and curious effect. 

After passing the mosk-tomb of 
Kalaoon, you come to that of Sultan 
Berkook; which, like others of that 
time, consists of an open court, with 
large arches at each side, one of which, 
larger and deeper than the other three, 
is the eastern or Mecca end. Attached 
to it is the tomb of his wife and 
daughter, where a fine illuminated copy 
of the Koran is shown, said to be all 
written by the latter, who was called 
the Princess Fatima (Fatmeh). Sultan 
Berkook himself was buried in one of 
the tombs of the Memlook kings, out- 
side the city. 

The Shdrdwee is another celebrated 
mosk, dedicated to one of the principal 
saints of Cairo. 

The Modiud, founded between the 
years 1412 and 1420 a.d., is a hand- 
some mosk with pointed arches, having 
slight traces of the horseshoe form, at 
the base of the archivolt, like many 
others of the pointed style at Cairo. 
The court-yard of this mosk has a 
rather pretty appearance, the fountain 
being overshadowed by several well- 
grown palm and lebbekh trees. 
Bound three sides runs a double row 
of columns, while there are three 
rows on the fourth side, which forms 
the sanctuary, and to the right and 
left of which are the tombs. The 
decorations of this mosk are very rich. 
It is commonly known at Cairo as the 
*■ Gama el Ahmar," or red mosk, from 
the colour of its exterior. It is close 
to the gate called Bab Zuweyleh; 
which, with the two elegant minarets 
that rise above it, is a noble specimen 
of eastern architecture. This gate 
was formerly the entrance of the city 
on the south side, before the quarter 
now connecting it with the citadel was 
added. 

The mosk of El Ghoree stands at the 
extremity of the bazaar, called after him 
El Ghoreeyah, and from its position 
is one of the most picturesque build- 
ings in Cairo. On approaching it by 



the Ghoreeyah, which is of more than 
ordinary breadth, you perceive the 
grand effect of its lofty walls; and 
the open space in which it stands, 
together with the variety of costumes 
in the groups that throng that spot, 
and the grand doorway of the tomb 
on the opposite side, offer a beautiful 
subject for the pencil of an artist. 
The interior of this mosk is worth 
seeing for the beautiful inlaid work 
in marbles and other stones with 
which it is decorated : the reredos, if 
one may so call it, is especially hand- 
some. The tomb of El Ghoree stands 
on the other side of the street : there 
are also two other tombs of the same 
king, one at El Kaitbay, and the other 
on the road to Heliopolis, called 
Kobbet el Ghoree ; as if the number 
of tombs were intended to compensate 
him for not having been buried in 
Egypt ; though the Cairenes affirm 
that his body was really brought from 
Syria, and deposited in that of the 
Ghoreeyah. He was killed in 1517 near 
Aleppo, in a conflict with the Turks 
under Sultan Selim, who then -ad- 
vanced into Egypt ; and Toman Bay, 
who was elected by the Memlooks as 
his successor, having been defeated 
near Heliopolis, was the last of the 
Memlook monarchs of the country. 
This mosk has therefore an addi- 
tional interest in being the last reli- 
gious edifice erected by the Memlook 
Sultans of Egypt. 

The mosk of the Sitteh or Seyyideli 
Zeyneb, the grand-daughter of the 
Prophet, is situated in the south- 
western quarter of the city. It is of 
comparatively recent construction, 
having been built at the end of the 
last century, and though elaborately 
ornamented is not very handsome. 
The clock-tower is remarkable ; and a 
new wall on the western side, with 
richly carved windows and ornaments 
has lately been added, but is not com- 
pleted. The tomb is in a small but 
lofty apartment of the mosk, crowned 
with a dome. It is an oblong monu- 
ment, covered with silk, and sur- 
rounded by a bronze screen, with a 
wooden canopy. Only women are 
allowed to enter the bronze enclosure. 



138 



caiko : 



TOMBS : 



Sect. II. 



The festival of the " Seyyideh," which 
lasts for about a fortnight, takes place 
in the 7th month Eegeb. 

The oldest mosk in Egypt — that 
of Amer or Amrou — will be found 
described in the Excursion to Old 
Cairo. 

Under the same heading will also 
be found a description of the in- 
teresting Coptic churches at Old 
Cairo. In Cairo itself there are no 
churches worth a visit for their own 
sake. 

11. Tombs, Cemeteries. — The old 
historical tombs at Cairo may be di- 
vided into three classes. a. The 
tombs of the Caliphs. /3. The tombs 
of the Baharite Memlook Sultans. 
7. The tombs of the Circassian Mem- 
look Sultans. 

a. The tombs of the Caliphs occupied 
the site of what is now the Bazaar of 
Khan-Khale'el, but they were all de- 
stroyed when the bazaar was built by 
El Ashraf Salah ed deen Khaleel in 
1292 a.d., with the exception of that 
of Es Saleh Eiyoob. This monarch was 
the seventh caliph of the Eiyoobite 
dynasty, and died in 1250 a.d., or 647 
of the Hegira, as is stated by the Cufic 
inscription over the door. It was during 
his reign that the rash attempt was 
made by St. Louis to surprise Cairo, 
in 1249 ; which ended in the defeat 
of the Crusaders, the death of the 
Count d'Artois, and the capture of the 
French king. On the death of Es Saleh, 
his Memlooks conspired and killed 
his son ; and after the short reigns of 
his widow and the Melek el Ashraf 
Moosa, who was deposed in his 4th 
year, the first Memlook dynasty was 
established in Egypt under the name 
of " Dowlet el Memaleek el Bahreeyah," 
or " Toorkeeyah," known to us as 
the Baharite dynasty. Among them 
were several of the Memlooks of 
Es Saleh. 

j8.' The tombs of the Baharite Mem- 
look Sultans are also inside the town, 
near the Khan-Khaleel. Those of 
Sultan Beybars, Naser Mohammed, 
and some others, are worthy of a visit. 
Beybars, or Ez Zaher Beybars el Ben- 



dukdaree, was the fourth prince of 
this dynastv, and reigned from 1260 
to 1277. That of En Naser Moham- 
med, the son of Sultan Kalaoon, stands 
dose to the Morostan and the mosk of 
his father, and is remarkable for an 
elegant doorway, with clustered pillars 
in the European or Gothic style, such 
as might be found in one of our 
churches, and therefore differing in 
character from Saracenic architecture. 
Over this door is an inscription pur- 
porting that the building was erected 
by the Sultan Mohammed, son of the 
Sultan el Melek el Munsoor ed deen 
Kalaoon es Salehee. The date on the 
lintel is 698 a.h. (or a.d. 1299), and 
on the body of the building 695. 
The minaret which stands above this 
Gothic entrance is remarkable fur its 
lace-like fretwork, uncommon in Cairo, 
but which calls to mind the style of 
the Alhambra, and of the Al Cazar at 
Seville. 

7. The tombs of the Circassian or 
Borghite Memlook Sultans. — The 
greater part of these tombs stand out- 
side the town, a short distance to the 
E. of the Bab en Nasr. They are fre- 
quently erroneously called by Euro- 
peans " of the Caliphs," but are better 
known to the Cairenes as El Kaitbey 
(Kaedbai), a name taken from that of 
the principal building, which is of El 
Ashraf Aboo-l-Nusr Kaedbai es Za- 
heree, the 19th sultan of this dynasty, 
who died and was buried there in 
1496 a.d. The minaret and dome of 
his mosk are very elegant, and claim 
for it the first place among these 
splendid monuments, though some 
others may be said to fall little short 
of it in beauty ; and those of El Ber- 
kook and El Ashraf have each their 
respective merits. El Berkook. or 
Ez Zaher Berkook, was the first sultan 
of this dynasty, and was renowned for 
having . twice repulsed the Tartars 
under Tamerlane in 1393-4. 

To each of these tombs a mosk is 
attached, as to the others already men- 
tioned in Cairo; and in the latter place 
it may often be doubted whether the 
tomb has been attached to the mosk, 
or the mosk to the tomb. 

It is much to be regretted that these 



Egypt 



CEMETERIES ; FOUNTAINS. 



139 



interesting monuments are suffered to 
full to decay : the stones have some- 
times even been carried away to serve 
for the construction of other buildings ; 
and there is reason to fear that in 
another fifty years they will be a heap 
of ruins. In their architecture they 
resemble some of the mosks of Cairo ; 
and the same alternate black and white, 
or white and red, courses of stones 
occur, as in those within the city, 
which call to mind the same peculiarity 
in some of the churches of Italy. The 
stone of which they are principally 
built is the common stone of the neigh- 
bouring hills. The black limestone 
is brought from the vicinity of the 
convent of St. Antony, in the eastern 
desert ; but the red bands in the mosks 
of Cairo are merely painted on the 
originally white surface. 

There are other tombs called "of 
the Memlooks," to the south of the 
city, usually designated by the Cai- 
renes as the Imam esli Sliafe'ee, from 
the chief of that branch of Muslims 
whose tomb there forms a conspicuous 
object. It is easily recognised by its 
large dome, surmounted by a weather- 
cock in the form of a boat. It is said 
to have been built by Yoosef Salah ed 
deen (Saladin), from which it received, 
according to Pococke, the name of es 
Salaheeyah. Near this is the sepulchre 
of Mohammed Ali and his family, 
consisting of a long corridor and two 
chambers, each covered by a dome, in 
the inner one of which is the tomb of 
the Pasha himself. The others are 
of Toossoom and Ismail Pasha, his 
sons : of Mohammed Bey Defterdar ; 
of Zohra Pasha, his sister; of his first 
wife ; of Mustafa Bey Delli Pasha, his 
wife's brother ; of Ali Bey Saloniklee, 
and his wife, a cousin of the Pasha ; of 
Toossoom Bey, Shereef Pasha's bro- 
ther, and his wife; of Hoseyn Bey, 
the nephew ; of the younger children 
of the Pasha : and of ibraheem Pasha's 
sister, Tafe'edeh Hanem, the wife of 
Moharrem Bey. Many of the tombs 
near to the city on this side are also 
curious, and offer interesting subjects 
for the pencil of an artist. 

The large burial-grounds of Cairo 
are situated outside the walls. Of 



these, that just mentioned of Imam esh 
Shafe'ee, otherwise called Toorab el 
Korafah, is the most extensive. There 
is also one near the citadel, and 
another just outside the Bab en Nasr. 
If the traveller is in Cairo at the 
season of Bairam, it is worth his while 
to pay a visit to these cemeteries, as 
the people all turn out to spend the 
day with their dead relatives, and 
prayers and feasting, tears and merry- 
making combined, produce a varied 
and curious effect. 

The European cemeteries are close to 
Old Cairo. But the most distinguished 
name among those who have their 
last resting-place in the capital of 
Egypt must not be looked for there ; 
Burekkardt, the celebrated traveller, 
who died in Cairo in 1817, a pro- 
fessing and professed Muslim, better 
known in the East by the name of 
" Sheykh Ibraheem," was buried in 
the cemetery outside the Bab en Nasr. 
For a long time the grave remained 
unmarked; but, thanks to the pious 
care of the English Consul, Mr. Rogers, 
it has been rescued from oblivion, 
and a handsome tombstone, in the 
Mohammedan style, now marks the 
spot. 

12. " Sebeels," or Public Foun- 
tains. — These are for the purpose 
of providing water for the poor 
gratuitously. They are supplied 
with water brought from the Nile 
on the backs of camels. Some of 
those of older date in the centre 
of the city merit admiration as 
curious specimens of the peculiarities 
of Oriental taste, abounding in great 
luxuriance of ornament. Two of the 
most remarkable of these are near the 
Mosk of Sultan Hassan; and many 
are to be seen in the street which 
follows the course of the Canal 
(Khaleeg), towards the gate of Seyyi- 
deh Zeyneb. Of the more modern 
fountains, built according to Constan- 
tinople taste, those of Toossoon Pasha 
and of Ismail Pasha, sons of Moham- 
med Ali, and that near the station 
built by the present Khedive's mother, 
are the best specimens. 

There is generally a room immedi- 



140 



CAIRO : STREETS, 



PUBLIC PLACES ; 



Sect. II. 



ately above the fountain devoted to 
the purposes of a free day-school, 
maintained by the same charitable 
foundation as the fountain. 

The drinking - places for cattle 
(J]6d) are also kept up by the same 
means, and often have schools attached 
to them. 

There are more than 300 public 
fountains in Cairo. 

13. Streets, Public Places. — In 
all the quarters of the interior of 
the city, the streets are very narrow ; 
and in consequence of the Cairene 
mode of building houses, each story 
projecting beyond that immediately 
below it, two persons may shake hands 
across the street from the upper win- 
dows. This narrowness of the streets 
is common to many towns in hot 
climates, having for its object greater 
coolness ; and so small a portion of 
blue sky is sometimes seen between 
the projecting meshrebeeyahs, or the ap- 
proaching tops of the houses, that they 
might give a very suitable answer to 
the lines in Virgil, — 

" Die quibus in terris, et eris mini magnus 
Apollo, 

Tres pateat cceli spatium non amplius 
ulnas." 

" The streets of Cairo," says Dr. 
Russell, " wind in and out at discre- 
tion, through a mass of houses, mosks, 
and bazaars, very much as mites 
march through a cheese. The word 
' street ' gives no conception of the 
lane which scarcely ever yields a view 
of 100 yards in front or behind, and 
which at times seems to end abruptly 
in the cordial greeting of two houses 
at opposite sides." 

To indicate by name any of these 
streets would be useless, but the prin- 
cipal and most frequented ones are in 
the neighbourhood of the different 
bazaars, through which they in most 
cases pass. 

Before the accession of the present 
Khedive, the only tolerably broad 
street in Cairo was the Mooskee, run- 
ning from the S.E. comer of the 
Esbekeeyah to the street leading from 
the Ghoreeyah to the Khan Khaleel, 



and this has a narrow tortuous bit in it 
nearly as bad as any of the worst lanes. 
In this street are some of the principal 
European shops, and in the upper 
part of it are some good Syrian and 
Levantine shops. It is now prolonged 
to the Bab el Ghoreeyah, at the extreme 
eastern limit of the city. 

Several new broad streets have been 
opened in the neighbourhood of the 
Esbekeeyah, among which may be 
mentioned two leading to the Palace 
of Abdeen, the one from the S.E. 
corner, near the Ministries of Finance 
and the Interior, and the other from 
the S.W. corner near the Opera House ; 
and that leading from the N.E. corner, 
through the Copt quarter, to the rail- 
way station. Other new ones are 
projected through some of the crowded 
quarters. 

The Esbekeeyah is the largest and 
the best known public place in Cairo. 
Before Mohammed Ali's time it used 
to be one large sheet of water during 
the inundation. He cut a canal 
round it in order to keep the water 
from the centre, and laid it out as a 
garden, with trees planted on the 
bank of the canal. In Said Pasha's 
time it became the favourite locale 
of low European coffee-shops and beer- 
houses. In 1867 the present Khedive 
began transforming it into its present 
state. The trees were cut down, and 
the whole of the area filled up to the 
level of the surrounding ground: a 
part was then cut up into building- 
plots, and the remainder enclosed 
within high iron railings, and, after 
many changes of plan, finally laid out 
as a sort of public garden, after the 
Continental fashion, with cafes, al 
fresco theatres, grottoes, ornamental 
water, &c. The cost of making this 
garden was totally disproportionate to 
its size and appearance, and so must 
be the money spent in keeping 
it up. Turf is an exotic in Egypt 
that can only be made to look even 
decently green by keeping it sodden 
with water ; and the only idea of a 
garden in a country where the sun 
shines so powerfully should be shady 
trees and thick shrubberies,— a com- 
bination which, as this garden is laid 



Egypt. 



BATHS, BAZAAES. 



141 



out, can never be realized. It may \ 
prove, however, useful in the early 
morning for children and nurses, and 
an agreeable lounge in the afternoon 
when the sun is low and a good band 
is playing. 

Most of the principal hotels are in i 
the Esbekeeyah. Shepheard's and the | 
New Hotel occupy the greater part of j 
the W. side. On the N. side are shops i 
and houses. The E. side is irregular 
in form : the two principal buildings 
are the palace serving for the Mi- 
nistry of Foreign Affairs, and that 
occupied by the Ministries of Fin- j 
ance and the Interior ; between these \ 
are shops and houses. On the S. 
side are the Opera-house and the 
French Theatre. At the entrances to | 
the N. and S. ends are large and 
handsome fountains. The roads all 
round are broad, well kept, and well 
lighted with gas ; the foot pavements 
are wide, and planted with trees. 
Besides the streets already mentioned 
as issuing from the Esbekeeyah, there 
are two or three roads on the W. side, 
one a splendid chaussee, leading to 
Booltik. 

The Bumeyleh is a large open space 
at the foot of the citadel, lying 
between it and the Mosk of Sultan 
Hassan. It has been cleared of the 
hovels that formerly surrounded it, 
and turned into a clean and neatly 
kept public square. 

Close to it is the Kara Meyddn, a 
parallelogram about 600 yards long 
and 100 broad. It is used as a market- 
place for horses, donkeys, camels, &c. 

Some of the bazaars are covered 
over to protect those seated in the 
shops below from the sun ; and where 
the coverings are of wood, the appear- 
ance of the street is not injured by the 
effect; but when of mats, or linen 
awnings, their tattered condition, and 
the quantity of dust they shower down, 
during a strong wind, upon those below, 
tend little to the beauty of the street 
or to the comfort of the people for 
whose benefit they are intended. 

14. Baths. — There are many baths 
in Cairo, but none remarkable for size | 
or splendonr. They are all vapour 



baths ; and their heat, the system of 
shampooing, and the operation of rub- 
bing with horse-hair gloves, contribute 
not a little to cleanliness and comfort, 
though it is by no means agreeable to 
have to undergo the operation of being 
shampooed by the bathing-men. The 
largest bath is the Tumbdlee, near the 
gate called Bab esh Shareeyah, but 
it is less clean and comfortable than 
many others. One person, or a party, 
may take a whole bath to themselves 
alone, if they send beforehand and 
make an agreement with the master. 
In that case care should be taken to 
see that the whole is well cleaned 
out, and fresh water put into the tank 
or maglitas. You had always better 
use your own towels, or promise an 
extra fee for clean ones, which you 
cannot be too particular in rejecting 
if at all of doubtful appearance. The 
baths at Cairo are on the same prin- 
ciple as those of Constantinople, 
though inferior in size. 

15. Bazaaks. — The principal ba- 
zaars are the Ghoreeyah and Khan 
Khaleel. The former is called from 
Sultan el Ghdree, whose mosk and 
tomb terminate and embellish one of 
its extremities. There cottons and 
other stuffs, silks, Fez caps, and various 
articles are sold ; and in the Khan 
Khaleel cloth, dresses, swords, silks, 
slippers, and embroidered stuffs are the 
principal articles. The two market- 
days at the latter bazaar are Monday 
and. Thursday, the- sale continuing 
from about 9 till 11. Various goods are 
sold by auction, the appraisers or del- 
Idls (dellaleen) carrying them through 
the market, and calling the price bid 
for them. Many things may be 
bought at very reasonable prices on 
these occasions ; and it is an amusing 
scene to witness from a shop, where, 
if in the habit of dealing with the 
owner, a stranger is always welcome, 
even though in a Frank costume. 
Crowds of people throng the bazaar, 
while the delldls wade through the 
crowd, carrying drawn swords, fly- 
flaps, silk dresses, chain armour, amber 
mouth-pieces, guns, and various hete- 
rogeneous substances. 



142 



CAIEO : MARKETS J 



Sect, n. 



Within this khan is a square occu- 
pied by dealers in copper and some 
other commodities ; and in a part called 
"within the chains" are silks and 
other Constantinople goods ; these, 
as well as most of the other shops, 
being kept by Turks. There is also 
another small square, in which carpets 
are sold. The shops are open in 
front, and might be mistaken for cup- 
boards. 

The Khan Khaleel (or Khan Kha- 
leelee) was built in 691 a.h. (a.d. 
1292), by one of the officers of the 
reigning sultan, whose name, Khaleel, 
it bears. This man, under the pre- 
tence of removing the bones of the 
caliphs to a more suitable place of 
interment, is said to have thrown them 
carelessly on the mounds of rubbish 
outside the walls ; to which profane 
conduct they ascribe his miserable end, 
having been killed in battle in Syria, 
and his body having been eaten by 
dogs. This, like many other Arab 
stories, was probably made for the 
occasion. 

The Hamzdwee is a sort of khan or 
okaleh, where crape, silks, cloth, and 
other goods, mostly of European ma- 
nufacture, are sold. The dealers are 
all Christians, and it is therefore closed 
on a Sunday. 

In the Terbeea, which is between 
the Hamzdwee and the Ghoreeyah, 
otto of rose and various perfumes, silk 
thread, and a few other things are 
sold ; and near this is the Fahameen, 
the abode of the Moghrebins, or Moors, 
who sell blankets, Fez caps (tarabeesh), 
bornooses (baranees), and other articles 
from the Barbary coast. 

After passing the Ghoreeyah and 
the Fahameen (going towards the Bab 
Zuweyleh), is the Akkadeen, where 
silk-cord and gold-lace are bought; 
behind which is the market of the 
Moumd, where cotton, wools, cushions, 
and beds of a common kind, woollen 
shawls, and other coarse stuffs worn 
by the lower orders, are sold daily, 
both in the shops and by auction. 
Beyond the Sebe'el, or fountain of 
Toosboom Pasha, is the Suokereyn, 
where sugar, almonds, and dried fruit 
are purchased ; and this, like many 



other names, indicates the trade of the 
dealers. 

In the Soog es Sullah, close to the 
mosk of Sultan Hassan, swords, guns, 
and other arms may be bought, as 
the name ("arms-market") implies. 
Every day but Monday and Thursday 
an auction is held there early in the 
morning. 

Kassobet Badwan, outside the Bab 
Zuweyleh, is a broad, well-built mar- 
ket, where shoes only are sold. 

The Mergdosh and the Gemaleeyah , 
are also well-known markets, at the 
former of which cotton cloths called 
bufteh are kept, and at the latter coffee 
and tobacco, soap, and different goods 
imported from Syria ; and at the Bab 
esh Shareeyah are found fruits, candles, 
and a few other things. 

There are also markets held in some 
parts of the town independent of the 
shops in their neighbourhood, as the 
Soog ej Juma, held on a "Friday" (on 
the way to the Bab el Hadeed, at 
what is called the Soog ez Zullut), 
where fowls, pigeons, rags, and any 
old goods are sold ; the Soog es Sem- 
mak, or Soog el Fooateeyah, near the 
same spot, where "fish" is sold every 
afternoon ; and the Soog el Asser, 
close to the Bab en Nasr, where 
secondhand clothes are sold by auction 
every afternoon. 

Several parts of the town are set 
apart for, and called after, certain 
trades, or particular goods sold there ; 
as the Sookereeyah before mentioned ; 
the Nabhaseen, occupied by copper- 
smiths, near the Morostan ; the Khur- 
dageeyah, in the same street, where 
hardware, cups, knives, and coffee- 
pots are sold ; the Seeoofeeyah, occu- 
pied by those who mount swords : the 
Sagha, by gold and silver workers; 
and the Gohergeeyah, by jewellers. 

To introduce a list of the prices of 
different articles sold in the bazaars 
of Cairo, as they are so continually 
changing, would only mislead ; and 
in proportion as the numbers of travel- 
lers increase, everything becomes 
dearer, whether it be a luxury or a 
necessary of life. 

The traveller who is ignorant of 
Arabic must trust entirely to his 



Egypt. 



PALACES ; 



SCHOOLS. 



143 



dragoman or donkey boy to take him 
to the shop where he can procure 
what he wants, and to make the bar- 
gain for him. As a rule offer half 
what is asked, and an agreement will 
probably be arrived at midway be- 
tween the two extremes. In the upper 
part of the Mooskee there is a shop 
kept by Syrians, named Melook, one 
of whom speaks English and French 
very well. Most of the ordinary native 
things purchased by strangers will be 
found there, and of good quality. 

16. Palaces. — There is no old 
palace at Cairo, all are of modern 
date. The principal ones belonging 
to the reigning family are : the Palace 
of Abdeen, generally inhabited by the 
Khedive during the winter, situated 
not far from the Esbekeeyah : the 
Palace of the Citadel already men- 
tioned, occupied by the hereditary 
prince : the Palace of Gezeereh, built 
by the present Khedive, on the left 
bank of the river opposite Boolak: 
the Palace of Kasr-en-Nil, just above 
Boolak ; these two last are also winter 
and spring residences : the Palace of 
Geezeh, built by the present Khedive, 
near the village of that name, opposite 
the island of Roda, a favourite abode 
in the late spring and summer : the 
Palace of Kasr-el-Ain, belonging 
to the Khedive's mother : and the 
Palace of Shoobra, formerly belonging 
to Haleem Pasha. Of these the only 
two that can be visited are those of 
Gezeereh and Shoobra. 

The Palace of Gezeereh was built 
by the present Khedive, Ismail 
Pasha. Gezeereh in Arabic means 
" island," and the whole of the ground 
occupied by the palace and for some 
distance round it was formerly an 
island between two branches of the 
Nile. In 1867 the west branch was 
dammed up, and the whole stream 
diverted into the Boolak channel, the 
other channel being merely filled at 
the time of the inundation, and so 
converted into a sort of canal. As, 
however, the force of the river thus 
confined to one channel has begun to 
menace the existence of Boolak, it is 
probable that it will be again allowed 



to choose its own course. The out- 
side of the palace presents no re- 
markable feature, with the excep- 
tion of some handsome iron work. 
The entrance hall and staircase are 
very fine. The reception rooms and 
the ball room are magnificently fur- 
nished and decorated. Many of the 
articles of furniture are beautiful 
works of art, which were exhibited at 
the Paris Exhibition in 1867. The 
rooms are shown which were inhabited 
on the occasion of the opening of the 
Suez Canal, first by the Empress 
Eugenie, and then by the Emperor of 
Austria. The gardens are extremely 
pretty, and kept up with great care. 
In them is, a kiosk of remarkably 
pretty architecture, in the style of the 
Alhambra. Attached to, and forming 
part of the gardens is a capital col- 
lection of African birds and beasts, 
arranged with great taste and judg- 
ment. When none of the family are 
there, admission to the palace and gar- 
dens on certain days can be obtained 
by application at the Consulate, 
through which an order will be pro- 
cured from the Khedive's chamberlain. 

The same formality is necessary to 
procure admission to the palace and 
gardens of Shoobra, which will be 
found described under Excursion I. 

17. Schools, Libraries, Museum. 
— The University of El Azhar has 
already been mentioned in the notice 
of the mosk of that name. The educa- 
tion given there is both primary and 
secondary, and includes grammar, 
algebra, arithmethic, logic, philosophy, 
theology, and Mohammedan religion 
and law according to the four dif- 
ferent rites of the Sunnees— the Shaf- 
eite, the Malakite, the Hanafite, and 
the Hambalite. 

The Government Public Schools, 
founded by Mohammed Ali, though 
neglected by his immediate successors, 
have received a new impulse under the 
present sovereign. They are divided 
into civil and military schools. The 
civil schools again are divided into pri- 
mary, secondary, and special schools. 
In the primary schools are taught the 
reading and writing of Arabic, arith- 
metic, and French, or some other 



144 



CAIRO : LIBRARIES J MUSEUM OF 



Sect. II. 



foreign language. Two or three years 
are passed in these schools. In the 
secondary or preparatory schools, the 
subjects of study are the Arabic, 
Turkish, French, and English lan- 
guages, pure mathematics, drawing, 
history, and geography. Three years 
are spent in this school, and the duly 
qualified pupil then passes into one 
of the following schools : Land Sur- 
veying and Commercial School, two 
years ; Law School, four years ; Poly- 
technic School, four years ; the Arts et 
Me'tiers School, three years ; and the 
Medical School. The Preparatory 
School, the Polytechnic School, the | 
Law School, and the Commercial i 
School, are at the Darb el Gamameez, 
in a building attached to the Ministry 
of Eeligion and Public Instruction, 
the Arts et Metiers School at Boolak, 
and the Medical School at Kasr el 
Ain. Attached to this last is a school 
of midwifery for females, the only 
native institution for the instruction 
of girls in Egpyt. 

The Military Schools are at the Ab- 
basseeyah ; they include every branch 
of military education . The Free Schools 
attached in most . instances to the 
Sebeels have been already mentioned. 

Formerly the only libraries at 
Cairo were those belonging to the 
different mosks, containing little else 
than MS. copies of the Koran, and 
commentaries thereon ; but a Public 
Library has now been formed in a 
building close to the Ministry of 
Eeligion and Public Instruction above 
mentioned, at Darb el Gamameez, 
and in it have been collected together 
the principal treasures of the mosks, 
and many works in all languages 
have been added. It is open every 
day except Friday: admission free. 
Every facility is provided for studying 
and writing. It is to be hoped that 
this excellent institution, which has 
been so happily begun under the 
auspices of Ali Pasha Moobarek, 
Minister of Public Instruction, will 
not be suffered to languish and come 
to nothing, like so many other good 
"ideas" in Egypt. 

All the various Christian commu- 
nities, whether native or European, ! 



have schools belonging to them. 
Among them may be mentioned the 
Coptic Schools in the Copt quarter, 
near the cathedral : the schools of the 
Freres de l'Ecole Chre'tienne, close to 
the Franciscan Church; the Greek 
schools ; the Armenian schools ; the 
schools of the American Mission in 
the Esbekeeyah ; and, those which 
it will perhaps interest English 
readers the most to see, Miss Whate- 
ley's schools in the Copt quarter. 
The Coptic, the American, and Miss 
Whateley's, are well worth a visit ; 
and the last two. which are very much 
dependent on voluntary contributions, 
should receive support from all who 
can give it. 

The Museum of Egyptian Antiqui- 
ties contains, with the exception of 
Historical Papyri, of which it does 
not possess any at all equal to those 
in the British Museum, the most 
instructive and valuable collection of 
Egyptian antiquities in the world ; 
the result, with very few exceptions, 
of the indefatigable labours and re- 
searches of M. Mariette, who has 
speut more than 20 years in studying 
and excavating the old monuments 
and ruins of Egypt. At the accession 
of the present Khedive in 1863, every- 
thing connected with old Egyptian 
history was placed under his charge, 
and all digging and excavating by 
others forbidden ; and as a result, the 
objects of interest which formerly 
would have enriched foreign museums 
or private collections, are exhibited 
together in the most appropriate place 
for their study and examination, in 
the capital of the country whose an- 
cient history they illustrate, and close 
to those ruins whose former magni- 
ficence they attest, and which in their 
turn lend them an interest they would 
not otherwise possess. Apart from the 
richness and number of the articles 
it contains, one great superiority en- 
joyed by this museum over all others 
is that the place whence every object 
comes, from the most important down 
to the most insignificant, is accurately 
known ; and, moreover, any frag- 
ment, however small, which seemed 
to possess any historic or scientific 



Egypt. 



EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



145 



interest, has been preserved. Unfor- 
tunately, no suitable and permanent 
building has yet been erected for con- 
taining this magnificent collection. 
They have hitherto been housed in a 
temporary building at Boolak, close 
to the river ; but as the water is 
fast undermining that, they will pro- 
bably have to seek other shelter. 
Until their final arrangement in a 
proper edifice, it will be useless to give 
any catalogue of the contents. But a 
few remarks on the general character 
of the objects exhibited, and a short 
description of some of the more re- 
markable monuments, may be of ser- 
vice to the traveller. The substance 
of them is taken from the admirable 
and exhaustive catalogue written by 
M. Mariette in 1868. Every one who 
wishes to study and und^rst.md the 
collection should purchase this inte- 
resting volume. 

The objects in the museum may be 
classed under 5 heads, viz., religious 
monuments, funereal monuments, civil 
monuments, historical monuments, 
Greek and Boman monuments. 

Tlie religious monuments are found 
in private houses, tombs, and temples. 
Those found in private houses are 
very rare, they consist chiefly in 
statuettes of divinities worn as amu- 
lets, in symbols which served for 
female ornaments, and in ancestral 
statues. Those found in the tombs 
consist chiefly of stelse or inscribed 
tablets, and little statues of divinities 
taken from the breasts of mummies. 
Those found in the temples are the 
most numerous; the principal kinds 
among them are sacred boats, shrines, 
sacred utensils, tables of offerings, 
stelae, statues of divinities. 

The funereal monuments are found 
in the tombs. They consist of sar- 
cophagi, mummy cases, stelae, tables of 
offerings, statues of private individuals, 
canopic vases, scarabaei, and other 
objects found on the mummies ; fur- 
niture of various kinds, arms, articles 
of toilette, dress, food, &c. 

The civil monuments have also been 
found chiefly in the tombs, and there- 
fore belong rather to the funereal 
monuments; but, as they serve to 



illustrate the private life of the ancient 
Egyptians, it lias been thought con- 
venient to give them the above name. 
They consist of vases, arms, furniture, 
tools, articles of toilette, dress, &c. 

The historical monuments have been 
found in the temples and tombs. 
Those found in the temples are the 
statues of kings, and stelae. The tombs 
have furnished the papyri, scarabaei, 
stelae, vases, &c, bearing the name of 
some king by which a date might be 
fixed. 

The Greek, Boman, and Christian 
monuments. These are but poorly 
represented, and consist of a few 
statues, some Coptic papyri, and some 
church candlesticks. 

The following monuments will pro- 
bably attract the interest of every 
visitor. The numbers correspond with 
M. Mariette's catalogue of 1868, and 
the arrangement in the building at 
Boolak. 20. Bust, supposed to be a 
likeness of Tirhakah (2 K. xix. 9). 22. 
Bust, probably of Menephtah, the Bha- 
raoh who perished in the Bed Sea. 63. 
A celebrated stela from Karnak, of 
the time of Thothmes III. The lower 
part contains a poetical composition 
in true Oriental style, celebrating the 
victories of Thothmes. It is given in 
full in the French catalogue, and is 
a beautiful specimen of Egyptian 
literature of the 17th centy. B.C. 73. 
A model of the facades of mortuary 
chapels of the New Empire. On the 
fillet above the cornice are some ex- 
tracts from the ' Bitual of the Dead,' 
which deserve to be quoted : — " I 
have won for myself God by my love ; 
I have given bread to the hungry, 
water to the thirsty, clothes to the 
naked ; I have afforded refuge to the 

forsaken " These almost 

Scriptural words are often found on 
Egyptian monuments, and one is 
tempted to see in them a sort of, as it 
were, daily prayer. 85, 86. The top 
and bottom of a mummy coffin from 
Sakkarah. The hard green basalt is 
covered with engraving. The whole 
story has reference to the immortality 
of the soul. On the breast (No. 85) 
the soul of the occupant of the coffin, 
Hor-em-heb, is depicted as a hawk 



146 



CAIRO : MUSEUM OF 



Sect. II. 



with human head, holding in its claws 
the two rings symbolical of eternity. 
Above, imaging the new life which 
awaits the deceased, is seen the rising 
sun, assisted in its course by the god- 
desses Isis and Nepthys. The scene 
is crowned by a scarabseus, emblem 
of resurrection, from whose fore-claws 
issue the three signs of purity, stability, 
and divine life: close to it is again 
the ring of eternity, and the two long 
feathers, mysteriously significative of 
the victory gained by the soul over 
the spirits of evil before being admitted 
to the enjoyment of eternal light. 
The inside of both the upper and 
under part of the coffin is decorated 
with the figure of a woman : the one 
with her arms uplifted and floating in 
celestial space is an image of heaven ; 
the other with hanging arms in sign 
of repose, and the hieroglyphic of 
Amenti on her head, of what we call 
hell. When therefore Hor-em-heb was 
placed in his coffin, he was suspended 
between heaven and hell, or life and 
death, while his soul went through 
the appointed trials, after accomplish- 
ing which it would appear brilliant as 
the sun in the eastern sky, and com- 
mence a life which should have no 
death. 93, 94. These magnificent 
specimens were found near the large 
pyramid of Sakkarah : they are in- 
tended for the offering of funereal 
libations. A slight groove in the 
table on the back of the lions con- 
ducted the liquid into a vase encircled 
by their tails. 

The museum is especially rich in 
statuettes of the divinities composing 
the old Egyptian pantheon. The fol- 
lowing are among the best specimens 
of the principal gods and goddesses, 
most of which have been found at Sak- 
karah : 107, 108, 196, 197, 250, 254. 
Osiris, the chief divinity in Egyptian 
mythology, representing the principle 
of good. "He, with Isis, was worshipped 
throughout the whole of Egypt. 105. 
Osiris, with his two sisters Isis and 
Nephthys. Ill, 112, 113, 114, 208, 
209. Apis, the sacred bull worshipped 
at Memphis, and buried at Sakkarah. 
123. Typhon, the principle of evil, 
and so the natural enemy of Osiris. 



127, 232, 238. The young Horus, or 
the Harpocrates of the Greeks. 131, 
132, 257. Anubis, always represented 
with a jackal's head. He is the 
guardian of the tombs, and is con- 
stantly depicted watching over the 
mummied bodies. 133. Thoth, with 
the body of a man and the head of an 
ibis, is called the secretary of the 
gods, and is always present at the last 
judgment, to register the good and 
evil deeds of the deceased. 142, 143. 
Ammon, the principal divinity of the 
great Theban triad. 144. Maut, 
goddess, the second divinity in the 
Theban triad; her name signifies 
mother. 147, 304. Khons, the third 
in the Theban triad. 148. Kneph, 
with the head of a ram, the great god 
of the Cataracts, of Ethiopia, and of 
the Oases, was " the soul of the world," 
and is represented in some papyri as 
sailing on the waters of the unformed 
world (comp. Gen. i. 2). 149, 311. 
Phtah, the great god of Memphis, 
represented the divine creative wis- 
dom. 157-162, 322, 323. Pasht, 
goddess, sometimes with a lion's, and 
sometimes with a cat's head. 164- 

166. Ka, the sun-god par excellence. 

167. Athor, goddess, sometimes as a 
cow, sometimes as a woman with cow's 
head. 174. Mandoo, the god of 
battles. 175. Ma, or Thmei, the god- 
dess of truth and justice. 177. Neitb, 
goddess, the principal divinity of 
Sais : statue in lapis lazuli. 

There are other statuettes of divini- 
ties, of sacred animals emblematic of 
divinities, and various symbolical em- 
blems well worthy of notice, both for 
the value of the material of which they 
are composed and the fineness of the 
workmanship. Some of the mosaic 
work, composed of different coloured 
stones, is especially remarkable, and 
the empty grooves in some of the 
bronzes show the way in which the 
stones were let in. Among the animals 
may be seen a cow in red jasper, a dog 
in agate, a hippopotamus in lapis lazuli, 
and a variety of monkeys, fish, frogs, 
geese, &c. Among the symbolical 
emblems found in mummies are little 
columns in green feldspath for the 
rich, in porcelain for the poor, sym- 



Egypt, 



EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



147 



bolizing the renewing of the youth of 
the soul ; seals of lapis lazuli sym- 
bolizing the promise of eternity ; disks 
in red glass surmounting the hiero- 
glyph mountain are symbols of the 
rising sun, i.e. the arrival of the soul I 
in the regions of the blessed ; bound j 
oxen, of the sacrifices to be offered 
periodically to the manes of the dead ; 
angles, of mystery and adoration ; tri- ] 
angles, of equality ; pillows, of eternal 
rest for the just ; and the vafa or 
mystic eye, commonly called the eye 
of Oniris. 

385, 386, 387. These three beautiful j 
works of art were found in a tomb at I 
Sakkarah, together with the statuette j 
No. 560, which bearing the name of 
Nectanebo I. seems to prove them to 
belong to the XXXth dynasty (380 
B.C.). 385, in serpentine, represents 
Psammetichus, a high court function- 
ary protected, as it were, by Athor 
under the form of a cow ; 386, in basalt, 
Osiris; and 387, in serpentine, Isis. 
The extraordinary delicacy and beauty 
of the work in these statues, especially 
in 385, is the more wonderful, con- 
sidering the hard and stubborn 
material in which they are executed. 
388. A magnificent bronze of the god 
Nefer-Toom. 389. A papyrus from 
Thebes, with chapters from 'The 
Book of the Dead ' ; portions of which 
book were always buried with the 
mummy. The most complete copy of 
the 'Book of the Dead' is at Turin, 
and contains more than 165 chapters : 
it is an account of what the soul 
undergoes between leaving the body 
and reaching the heavenly sphere. 
390. A painted wooden stela, from 
Dayr el Bahree at Thebes, curious as 
showing a departure from the con- 
ventional mode of drawing, and an 
attempt at landscape and perspective. 
On the right of the picture, among 
acacias and palms whicli border the 
cultivated land, is a table covered with 
offerings ; on the left is a tomb on the 
edge of the desert, with a pylon in 
front surmounted by two small pyra- 
mids ; a little further off is the shrine 
covering the actual place of burial ; a 
relative of the deceased, on her knees 
and in the posture of weeping, occupies 



the centre. The result of this attempt 
at picturesque painting is not such as 
to cause a regret that specimens of it 
are so infrequent. 396. Four good 
specimens of the co-called Canopic 
vases, intended to contain those parts 
of the body, such as the heart, lungs, 
and liver, which were not included in 
the ordinary process of embalming. 
In the present instance all four have 
coverings in the shape of a human 
head ; but, as may be seen from other 
specimens, it was more usual for the 
coverings to be different, representing 
respectively the head of a man, a 
jackal, a hawk, and a cynocephalus. 
398. A magnificent specimen of a 
funereal scarabseus in green porphyry. 
This insect was regarded as the emblem 
of resurrection, and under the Pto- 
lemies the habit became general of 
placing one inside the mummied body 
in the place of the heart, as figuring 
forth the promise of a future life. 
There are many other fine ones in 
lapis lazuli and green feldspath. 399- 
407. Good examples of the mummy 
emblems called schwdbti in Egyptian, 
which are always found scattered 
about, or in boxes, in the mortuary 
chambers. Perhaps they were in- 
tended to act as assistants to the 
deceased in the labour, which, accord- 
ing to the ' Book of the Dead,' awaited 
all, of cultivating vast fields in the 
future world. The two hoes, or hoe 
and pickaxe, and the sack of grain, 
which many are represented carrying, 
(see esp. 404) favour this idea. The 
blue porcelain ones, which are very 
common, date from about 700 B.C. to 
300 B.C. 415. Cones, only found thickly 
scattered at the entrance of tombs at 
Drah-aboo-l-neggah at Thebes ; they 
were perhaps intended to distinguish 
the place where a burial-ground had 
been, after outward signs of it had 
disappeared — a precaution necessary 
at Thebes, which, from being bounded 
on the west by high mountains, could 
not extend its necropolis at pleasure 
like Memphis or Abydos. 425. Mum- 
mies of little crocodiles, emblems of 
the god Sebek, or Savak. 

458, 459, 463. Excellent specimens 
of old Egyptian art. 471. Curious 
h 2 



148 



CAIRO : MUSEUM OF 



Sect. II. 



handle of perfume-box, representing 
a woman swimming. 474. Draught 
or chess board. 475, 476. Looking- 
glasses. 477. Wooden toilet pin-cushion 
in the form of a tortoise, the pins of 
wood with carved dogs' heads. 478. 
Child's bell. 482-486. Five very hand- 
some vessels of massive silver, pro- 
bably used for religious purposes, found 
at Tel et Tmei, the ancient Thmuis 
in the Delta, not far from Mansoorah. 

492. A statue in wood found at Sak- 
karah, representing probably an old 
Egyptian sheyhh el beled, or village 
chief. This statue is remarkable for 
the spirit with which it is executed. 
Both the head and body are admirably 
true to nature, and constitute evidently 
a striking likeness of the person in- 
tended to be represented. The wood has 
been covered with a slight coating of 
stucco, painted red and white. The 
eyes are inserted within a closing cover- 
ing of bronze which serves for eyelids ; 
the eye itself consists of a piece of 
opaque white quartz, with a piece 
of rock crystal in the centre for pupil ; 
beneath this rock crystal is a glitter- 
ing point which gives the whole eye a 
sort of life-like look. The feet of this 
statue have been restored in order to 
place it upright. Its state of pre- 
servation after more than 6000 years 
is not the least wonderful thing about 
this unique specimen of Egyptian 
art 

507, 508, 513, 537, 541, 556, and 
many others, offer good examples of his- 
torical scarabsei, bearing in general the 
name of some king. It must not be 
inferred, however, that a scarabseus is 
always contemporary with the monarch 
whose name it bears, the custom being 
to perpetuate the memory of great kings 
in this way ; e.g. the name of Thoth- 
mes III., so often found on scaraba?i, 
continued to be engraved on them 
down to the time of the Ptolemies. 
507, which bears the name of Myce- 
rinus, the builder of the 3rd Pyramid 
of Geezeh, may be of his time. 556 
bears the name of Necho, the Pharaoh 
who, after defeating and killing Josiah 
at Megiddo, was himself vanquished 
at Carchemish by Nebuchadnezzar. 
532. A beautiful model in massive 



silver of a boat and its rowers, found 
at Thebes among the other precious 
objects on the mummy of Queen 
Aahhotep (see 839). The sculptures 
show that the old Egyptian boats very 
much resembled those of the present 
day, and were navigated in the same 
way ; they sailed up and rowed down 
the stream, but the sail instead of 
being pointed was square, though 
square sails of the old shape may still 
occasionally be seen, especially in the 
Delta. 539. Beautifully worked head 
of a lion bearing the name of Hat-a- 
soo, the famous queen, sister of Thoth- 
mes II. and III. 

578. A magnificent statue repre- 
senting, as proved by the inscription 
on the base, Chephren, or Shafra, the 
builder of the Second Pyramid of 
Geezeh. This in every way remark- 
able statue was found at the bottom 
of a well in the granite and alabaster 
temple to the S.E. of the Sphinx at 
Geezeh. The king is in the sitting 
posture prescribed by the religious 
laws of Egypt. Behind his head 
stands a hawk with outstretched wings 
in sign of protection. The left hand 
lies open on the thigh ; the right 
holds a folded papyrus roll. The de- 
tails of the chair are worth notice. 
The arms end in carved lions' heads : 
on the sides are figured in high relief 
the stems of the two plants (lotus 
and papyrus), which serve to represent 
Upper and Lower Egypt, twined 
around the hieroglyphic sign sam, 
or reunion. The beauty and finish 
of the sculpture, and the fidelity to 
nature observable in the details of 
this statue prove that Egyptian art 
had already reached a high degree of 
perfection even at that remote period. 
The hard nature of the stone, diorite 
of the closest texture, must increase 
one's admiration of the sculptor who 
could produce so evident a likeness 
in such a stubborn material. Eight 
other statues of smaller dimensions, 
all bearing the name of Chephren, 
were found in the same temple. One 
of them is in the Museum (792), the 
others were more or less in pieces. 

581. Monumental tablet of great 
historical importance found in a ruin 



Egypt. 



EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



149 



at the foot of the southernmost of the 
three smaller pyramids that border 
the big one : it appears to have been 
set in a wall. From the very inter- 
esting inscriptions on it we learn that 
u Shoofoo (Cheops) cleared out the 
temple of Isis . . . near the Sphinx ; " 
and that "the Sphinx of Hor-em-Khoo 
(Armachis) " was "to the south of the 
temple of Isis and to the north [of 
the temple] of Osiris." On the face 
of the stone are representations of all 
the principal divinities, including the 
Sphinx, with a short' description of 
the materials of which their respective 
statues and symbols were composed : 
e.g. the statue of Isis was to be of 
gold r.nd silver : that of Horus of wood 
with stone eyes : the " thrice beauti- 
ful " bark of Isis of gilded wood with 
precious stones. The historical im- 
portance of this stone is considerable ; 
for whether it be contemporaneous 
with Cheops, or belongs to a later 
epoch, it proves nevertheless certainly 
that the Sphinx existed before the 
time of Cheops (see further, Excur. 
vi., i.) ; and, which is even more im- 
portant, that the Egyptians at that 
remote period were a rich and civilised 
people, accustomed at any rate in 
things pertaining to their religious 
ceremonies to a great profusion of 
gold, silver, bronze, &c. 

582, 583, 584, 588. Good specimens 
of the sculptor's art under the old Em- 
pire. The large wigs so often depicted 
served in those days the purpose of the 
modern turban. 623-688. Various spe- 
cimens of the sculptor's art, from the 
crudest first attempts, such as 623, 
638, &c, to the most elaborately 
finished models, such as 637, a royal 
head. 652-654. Heads of a cyno- 
cephalus, a lion, and a lioness. 682- 
684. Earns. 691. Curious wooden box 
from a very old tomb at Sakkarah, full 
of miniature articles in bronze, wood, 
and alabaster. 694. Wooden box, with 
a drawer containing materials for a 
game resembling draughts. 699 is 
well worthy of attention as a sample 
of the state in which all the beautiful 
bronze statuettes in the Museum were 
when first found. The Egyptians con- 
sidered sand impure, and in order to 



purify it for the erection of any sacred 
edifice covered it with small images 
of divinities : such was the case with 
the Serapeum at Memphis, which has 
yielded up thousands of these images 
in the state here seen. 715-726 is a 
magnificent collection of stelse from 
Abydos, of the Xllth and XIHth 
dynasties. 

Many of the mummy cases and 
mummies are remarkable for the brilli- 
ancy of the colours and their complete 
state of preservation : 728 and 734 are 
good specimens of cases, and 741, 
742, and 743 of mummies. 791 com- 
prises a collection of weapons of war 
and of the chase, all of wood, the 
arrows tipped with bone. The assort- 
ment of comestibles, articles of furni- 
ture, &c, is very interesting : among 
them may be observed eggs (of the 
ibis and hawk), bread, raisins, corn 
of various kinds, chairs, stools, sandals 
made of papyrus leaves, &c. : experi- 
ments have been made in sowing the 
different seeds, but none have ever 
germinated. A great sensation was 
created in the scientific world about 
40 years ago by the announcement 
that some grains of wheat obtained by 
travellers from a mummy case at Kar- 
nak at Thebes, and which must have 
been lying there 4000 years, had been 
sown in England and France, and had 
sprouted. Other examples of extra- 
ordinary vitality in grain which had 
been so long deprived of light and air 
followed. Investigation proved, how- 
ever, that the wheat, previously stained 
with tobacco-juice, had been sys- 
tem Aically placed by the fellaheen 
of Karnak inside the mummy cases. 
Surgical instruments have also been 
found, but, to judge by the specimen 
exhibited of a broken thigh-bone which 
has been set with the two parts con- 
siderably overlapping one another, the 
Egyptian surgeons were not very skil- 
ful. Combs, rings, perfume boxes, 
needles, knives, scissors, weights, and 
many other objects of domestic and 
general use abound. It may be re- 
marked that nothing is made of iron, 
the Egyptians considering iron as a 
bone of Typhon, and so accursed. 
Especially worthy of attention is a 



150 



CAIRO : MUSEUM OF 



Sect. II. 



paint-box and palette with 5 divi- 
sions in which the colours are still to 
be seen. 

The collection of Eoman and Greek 
objects is comparatively small. Lamps 
chiefly from the Labyrinth in the 
Fyodm abound. There are curious bas- 
reliefs sculptured in bone. The articles 
of Christian origin, bronze church- 
lamps, were all found in the Fyoom. 

The magnificent collection of gold 
jewels will be remembered by every 
visitor to the Paris Exhibition in 1867. 
The greater part of them were taken 
from the mummy of a queen named 
Aah-hotep found at Drah-Aboo-l-neg- 
gah at Thebes. Who Aah-hotep was 
is a matter of dnubo even to M. Ma- 
riette, but from the kingly names en- 
graved on many of the jewels — Ea- 
ooat-kheper-Kames, and Ba-neb-pehti 
Ahmes-nukht — he is inclined to con- 
clude that she was the wife of Karnes, 
and the mother of Ahmes, better 
known a3 Amosis, the conqueror of 
the Hyksos, and first king of the 
XVIIIth dynasty. 

Among the most remarkable objects 
found on this queen may be specified 
— 810. A double-hinged bracelet with 
gold figures graven on blue glass, 
meant to imitate lapis lazuli. <sl3. 
A large bracelet in two parts joined 
by a hinge. On the outside a vulture, 
its wings composed of small pieces of 
lapis, cornelian, and green glass set 
in gold : the back is ornamented with 
lines of turquoises. 814. A splendid 
diadem formed by a royal signet 
flanked on each side by a sphinx. 

815. A gold chain with a scarabseus 
depending from it : the chain is nearly 
a yard long and of extreme flexibility, 
at each end is the head of a goose 
turned back ; the scarabaeus is a beau- 
tiful specimen of the goldsmith's art. 

816. An axe : the handle, of cedar co- 
vered with gold-leaf, is carved with 
hieroglyphs and set with lapis, cor- 
nelian, turquoise, and feldspath : the 
blade, of bronze covered with a thick 
coating of gold - leaf, is ornamented 
with designs on both sides, one repre- 
senting Amosis in the act of striking 
an enemy. 817. Dagger and case in 
gold, remarkable for the grace and 



elegance of its shape : four female 
heads stamped in gold-leaf on the 
wood form the pommel ; the handle 
is decorated with triangles of gold, 
lapis, cornelian, and feldspath ; a head 
of Apis conceals the joining of the 
handle and blade ; the blade is very 
remarkable, the outer part of gold, 
the centre of some hard dark-looking 
metal; on this centre band are da- 
mascened figures and inscriptions, 
among which may be remarked a lion 
springing on a bull. 823. A. necklace 
of the kind called in Egyptian oosekh, 
always placed on the breasts of mum- 
mies; tae ornamentation is very rich. 
824. A picture in the form of a small 
vaos, or chapel ; in the centre is Amo- 
sis standing in a boat, two divinities 
are pouring on his head the water of 
purification, above float two hawks. 
This with the bracelet (810), and the 
damascened poignaid (817), are the 
gems of the collection. 839. A boat 
of solid gold witli 12 rowers in silver, 
and mounted on a wooden truck with 
bronze wheels (v. 532). In the centre 
is an individual seated, holding an 
axe and a curved stick; at the prow 
another is standing in a kind of cabin ; 
at the stem is the helmsman, with 
another cabin behind him : these three 
personages are in gold. 

Besides the above jewels found with 
Queen Aah-hotep are a few others from 
different places : — 855, 856. A pair of 
magnificent gold ear-rings covered 
with a kind of red varnish, found on 
a mummy of the time of the Vlth or 
the Xllth dynasties. To a lens-shaped 
disk are attached five sun-crowned 
asps, from which again hang by small 
chains seven other similar asps. The 
weight of these ornaments precludes the 
idea of their ever having been hung 
from the ear ; they probably formed part 
of a head-dress. 858-865 are examples 
of jewellery of the Eoman period 
found at Sais. Their workmanship 
seems to indicate that the jeweller's 
art had lost rather than gained in the 
1700 years that had elapsed since 
the time of Queen Aah-hotep. 866. 
The alabaster statue of Queen Am- 
eneritis is a fitting companion to the 
collection of jewellery. It was found 



Egypt. 



EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES j HOSPITALS, &C. 



151 



at Karnak fixed to the granite base 
on which it now stands, and on which 
are carved the titles of the queen. 
She was probably the sister of Sabaco, 
and the mother-in-law of Pbammeti- 
chus I. (650 B.C.). 

Among the aids to a more accurate 
knowledge of Egyptian history none 
have been of more importance than 
the objects discovered by M. Mariette 
at San (Tanis), tending to clear up 
the obscure period known as the domi- 
nation of the Hyksos. Of these the 
most remarkable is 867, a black gra- 
nite sphinx. Its features, which are 
quite different from those of the true 
Egyptian sphinx, point to an Asiatic 
origin, but the writing on it is in 
Egyptian hieroglyphs, and from this 
fact it is argued that the Hyksos 
were not mere savage invaders, as 
Manetho relates, but that they settled 
in Egypt, adopted Egyptian manners 
and customs, aud worshipped Egyp- 
tian gods. According to M. Mariette, 
the features of the modern inhabitants 
of San and the shores of Lake Men- 
zaleh as exactly resemble those of this 
sphinx, as they differ from those of the 
regular Egyptian type. A number 
of colossal statues of various kings 
found at San serve to illustrate this 
position further. 

916 is the famous monument known 
as the Tablet of Sakkarah, on which 
are inscribed the names of 58 kings 
exactly corresponding to those in the 
list of Manetho. It was found at ! 
Sakkarah in the mortuary chapel of 
a priest who died in the reign of Ea- ' 
meses II. Its discovery has been a j 
great help towards the attempt to solve 
the difficult problem of the Egyptian I 
dynasties. Another important gain to j 
Egyptian history was tile discovery of ! 
five monumental tablets (stelae), 917- 
921, at, Gebel el Barkah, near Meroe, i 
in the Soodan. From these we learn 
that Ethiopia, after being a province 
of Egypt, became an independent 
kingdom under the XXIInd dynasty 
(cir. 800 B.C.), and that the Ethiopian 
king Piankhi i cir. 700 B.C.) ruled over 
the greater part of Egypt. 947 gives 
an account of Piankhi's accession to 
the double throne, and his conquests 



in Lower Egypt. 918, called by M. 
Mariette " la stele du songe " (of the 
dream), gives a somewhat similar ac- 
count of a king named Amu-meri- 
Nout. 914. "La stele de l'intronisa- 
tion " relates the election and crown- 
ing of a king whose name has been 
effaced. It may be inferred from these 
records, which are written in the 
Egyptian language, and have con- 
stant reference to matters connected 
with Egypt, that Ethiopia was no 
longer the child, but the rival of 
Egypt in religion and civilisation. 

970. A most perfect model of a 
sarcophagus in rose-coloured granite 
found near the Great Pyramid of 
Geezeh in the tomb of Khoofoo-ankh, 
a functionary conjectured to have 
lived cir. 3500 B.C. 

Last, but not least in this hasty 
resume, comes the famous trilingual 
stone discovered at San (Tanis), and 
called " the Stone of San," or " the 
Decree of Canopus." It records in 
hieroglyphic, Greek, and demotic cha- 
racters, a decree of the priests of Egypt 
assembled at Canopus in the ninth 
year of Ptolemy Euergetes (b.c. 254 , 
ordaining the deification of Berenice, a 
daughter of Ptolemy's, just dead, and 
creating a fifth order of priests, to be 
called Euergetae, for the better pay- 
ing of divine honours to the king and 
queen. The face of the stone bears 
the inscription in hieroglyphs and in 
Greek, the rendering in the demotic, 
character, or common Egyptian writ- 
ing, is on the sides. A plaster cast of 
this very important monument is in 
the British Museum. 

18. Hospitals and Benevolent 
Societies. — The Egyptian General 
Hospital is situated on the banks of 
the Nile, between Old Cairo and Boo- 
lak. It is very large, and has the 
advantage of a garden and open 
spaces. It is under the charge of 
native doctors educated abroad, or in 
the School of Medicine at Kasr el Ain. 
The European Hospital is under the 
patronage of the foreign consuls. The 
nursing is done by Sisters of Charity. 
Terms of admission : 1st class, 12 frs. ; 
2nd class, 6 frs. ; 3rd class, 3 frs. 



152 



CAIEO : THEATRES, AMUSEMENTS ; FESTIVALS, Sect. II. 



There are various charitable socie- 
ties, destined for the relief of indigent 
Europeans of different nationalites. 

19. Theatkes, Amusements, &c. 
■ — The Opera House, a handsome look- 
ing building in the Esbekeeyah, was 
erected in the short time of five months 
in the summer of 1869, in order to be 
ready for the fetes at the opening of 
the Suez Canal. The interior is well 
and comfortably arranged, and the 
foyer a remarkably large and well 
proportioned room for the size of the 
house. Italian opera is performed by 
a very good company from November 
to March. The expenses, which are 
by no means met by the receipts, are 
provided for out of the Khedive's 
private purse. The boxes in the first 
two tiers are always let for the season. 
Boxes in the 3rd tier, 60 frs. Stalls, 
which are very comfortable, 10 frs. 

At the French Theatre, a little fur- 
ther down on the same side of the Esbe- 
keeyah, are performed plays chiefly of 
the Palais Koyal type, with an occa- 
sional Theatre Francais piece, and 
Opera Bouffe. The representations 
are on alternate nights with the opera, 
but they commence a month earlier, 
and continue a month longer. Boxes : 
1st tier, 45 frs. ; 2nd tier, 75 frs. ; 
stalls, 5 frs. 

In the Hippodrome, a large oval- 
shaped building, open to the sky, 
opened in 1871, and capable of con- 
taining 8000 people, performances are 
given by a circus company on Sun- 
days and Fridays. 

There is an open-air theatre in the 
Esbekeeyah Gardens, and a band plays 
there in the afternoon. 

The Dancing Dervishes are to be 
seen every Friday about 2 p.m., at 
their convent in the interior of the 
city. The performers dance in a 
circle round an enclosed space in the 
centre of a room. Throwing their 
cloaks from them, and appearing in a 
long coloured cloth robe confined at 
the waist, they advance in turn to 
the sheykh who is seated on one side 
of the enclosure, and each, after he 
has made his bow with hands folded 
across his breast, raises them above 



his head, and begins pirouetting 
round ; the bottom of the robe being 
slightly weighted, it soon assumes a 
most perfect bell-like shape, and the 
best dancer is he who can keep it in 
this form without the slightest symp- 
tom of collapse. The dancing is ac- 
companied by hideous music. After 
they have whirled round in this way, 
sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, 
for some minutes, they suddenly stop, 
and, after repeating the how to the 
sheykh, sit down ; one, who has not 
joined in the dancing, going round 
and throwing their .cloaks over them, 
a precaution which the state of heat 
they have got into renders necessary. 
After a short rest they begin again, 
and the same thing is repeated. The 
whole performance lasts about an 
hour. 

The street jugglers are clever and 
amusing. 

20. Festivals and Religious Cere- 
monies. — -The principal annual cere- 
mony at Cairo is the departure of the 
pilgrims for Mecca, on the 25th of 
Showal. The Mahmal and the Kisweh 
are the chief objects in this procession. 
The former is a velvet canopy, borne on 
a camel richly caparisoned, and was 
originally intended for the travelling 
seat, or Garmcot, of the wives of the ca- 
liphs who went to the pilgrimage. This 
and the Mohub, or pomp that attends 
the pilgrims, were first suggested by 
Sheggeret ed-Durr, the queen of Sultan 
Saleh, who was anxious to add to the 
splendour of the hitherto simple pro- 
cession of the Faithful ; and the dan- 
gers of the journey were at the same 
time greatly decreased by an addi- 
tional reinforcement of guards. The 
Kiswet en Nebbee is the lining of the 
Kaaba, or temple of Mecca. It is of 
rich silk, adorned with Arabic sen- 
tences embroidered in gold, and is 
yearly supplied from Cairo; the old 
one being then returned and divided 
into small portions for the benefit, or 
satisfaction, of the credulous. 

The pilgrims, after staying two days 
at the edge of the desert, near Dirner- 
dash. proceed to the Birket el Hag, or 
" Lake of the Pilgrims," where they 



Egypt. 



AND RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES. 



153 



remain a day : from thence they go to 
El Harnra (now whitened and changed 
into the name of El Bayda), and, after 
a halt of a day there, they continue 
their journey as far as Agerood, where 
they stop one day ; and having seen the 
new moon of Zul-kadi, they leave the 
frontier of Egypt, cross the northern 
part of the peninsula of Mount Sinai to 
El Akaba, at the end of the Eastern 
Gulf, and then continue their march 
through Arabia, till they arrive at 
Mecca. After having performed the 
prescribed ceremonies there, having 
walked seven times at least round the 
Kaaba, and kissed the black stone, 
taken water from the holy well of 
Zernzem, visited the hill of Zafa, and 
the Omra, the 70.000 pilgrims proceed 
to the holy hill of Arafat. This is the 
number said to be collected annually 
at the pilgrimage from the various 
nations of Islam ; and so necessary is 
it that it should be completed on the 
occasion, that angels are supposed to 
come down to supply this deficiency, 
whenever the pilgrimage is thinly at- 
tended. Such is the effect of the 
magical number 7, and of the credulity 
of the East. 

The- day before the 'Eed, or 
Festival, the pilgrims ascend the 
holy hill of Arafat, which is thence 
called Xahr el Wakfek, "the day 
of the ascent," or " standing upon " 
(the hill) : there they remain all night, 
and nest day, which is the 'Eed, they 
sacrifice on the hill ; then, having gone 
down, they with closed eyes pick up 
seven-times-seven small stones, which 
they throw upon the tomb of the devil 
at even, and next day go to Mecca, 
where they remain 10 or 15 days. 
The period from leaving Cairo to the 
Wakfeh is 33 days, and the whole time, 
from the day of leaving the hill of 
Arafat to that of entering Cairo, is 67 
days. 

Their return to Cairo is also a day 
of great rejoicing, when the pilgrims 
enter in procession by the Bab en 
Na?r, about the end of the month 
Safier, generally the 25th or 27th. 
But this ceremony is neither so im- 
portant, nor so scrupulously observed, 
as the departure; each person being 



j more anxious to return to his friends 
than to perform a part in an unprofit- 
able pageant. 

The 'Eed es Sugheiyer, or "Lesser 
Festival," so called from being the 
minor of the two great general festi- 
vals of the Muslims, falls on the begin- 
ning of Showal, the month immedi- 
ately following the fast of Eamadan, 
and continues three days. The 'Eed 
el Kebeer, " the Greater Festival," or 
'Eed ed Daheeyer (" of the sacrifice "), 
also continues three davs, and is kept 
on the 10th, 11th, and 12th of Zul-hag. 
On the first of these days (it being 
the day on which the pilgrims per- 
form their sacrifice at Mecca) a victim 
is slain by all who can afford to pur- 
chase one. The Lesser Festival is 
observed with more rejoicing than the 
Greater. The two are called by the 
Turks respectively Eamadan Beiram, 
and Kurban Beiram. 

The three days of both the Festivals 
are celebrated at Cairo by amusements 
of various kinds ; the guns of the cita- 
del during that time being fired at 
every hour of prayer, 5 times each 
day. The 'Eed el Kebeer is intended 
to commemorate the sacrifice of Abra- 
ham when he offered a ram in lieu of 
his son ; though the Moslems believe 
that son to have been Ismail ; in 
which they differ from the Jews and 
Christians. 

The Festival of the Cutting of the 
Canal at Old Cairo is also a cere- 
mony of great importance, and looked 
upon with feelings of great rejoicing, 
as the harbinger of the blessings 
anuually bestowed upon the country 
by the Nile. The time fixed for 
cutting the dam depends of course 
on the height of the river, but is 
generally about the 10th of August. 

The ceremony is performed in the 
morning by the Governor of Cairo, or 
by the Pasha's deputy. The whole 
night before this, the booths on the 
shore and the boats on the river are 
crowded with people, who enjoy them- 
selves by witnessing or joining the 
numerous festive groups, while fire- 
works and various amusements enliven 
the scene. 

Towards morning the greater part 
h 3 



154 



CAIRO : FESTIVALS AND RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES ; Sect. II. 



either retire to some house to rest, or 
wrap themselves up in a cloak and 
sleep on board the boats, or upon the 
banks in the open air. About eight 
o'clock a.m. the Governor, accompa- 
nied by troops and his attendants, 
arrives ; and on giving a signal, seve- 
ral peasants cut the dam with hoes, 
and the water rushes into the bed of 
the canal. In the middle of the dam 
is a pillar of earth, called Arooset en 
Neel, " the Bride of the Nile," which 
a tradition pretends to have been sub- 
stituted by the humanity of Arner for 
the virgin previously sacrificed every 
year by the Christians to the river god ! 
NVhile the water is rushing into the 
canal, the Governor throws in a few 
para-pieces, to be scrambled for by 
boys, who stand in its bed expecting 
these proofs of Turkish munificence ; i 
which, though between 200 and 300 i 
go to an English shilling (and this is 
a far larger sum than is scrambled for 
on the occasion), are the only instanca 
of money given gratis by the Govern- 
ment to the people, from one end of 
the year to the other. It is amusing 
to see the clever way in which some 
of the boys carry off these little prizes, 
the tricks they play each other, and 
their quickness in diving into the 
muddy water, which threatens to 
carry them off as it rushes from the 
openings of the dam. As soon as 
sufficient water has entered it, boats 
full of people ascend the canal, and j 
the crowds gradually disperse, as the 
Governor and the troops withdraw 
from the busy scene. 

This was formerly a very pretty 
sight, and was kept up with a spirit | 
unknown in these days of increased j 
cares and diminished incomes. The 
old Turkish costume too, the variety 
in the dresses of the troops, and the 
Oriental character that pervaded the 
whole assemblage 30 or 40 years ago, 
tended not a little to increase the in- 
terest of the festival ; but the pomp of 
those days has ceased to be the same 
in this and other ceremonies of Cairo. 

The story of the virgin annually 
sacrificed to the river shows how much 
reliance is to be placed on tradition, 
or even on the authority of Arab 



writers ; for credulity revolts at the 
idea of a human sacrifice in a Chris- 
tian country so long under the go- 
vernment of the Romans. The inven- 
tion of a similar fable discovers the 
ignorance, as well as the maliciousness, 
of its authors, who probably lived long 
after the time of Amer, and who 
thought to establish the credit of their 
own nation by misrepresenting the 
conduct of their enemies. 

The Moolid en Nebbee, or "birthday 
of the Prophet " Moharnined, is a fete 
of rejoicing, and offers many an amus- 
ing scene. It was first instituted by 
Sultan Murad the son of Selfm, 
known to us as Amurath III., in the 
year 996 of the Hegira, a.d. 1588. It 
is held in the beginning of the month 
of Rebeea-el-Owwal, on the return of 
the pilgrims to Cairo ; and from the 
booths, swings, and other things 
erected on the occasion, has rather the 
appearance of a fair. It continues a 
whole week, beginning on the 3rd, 
and endiug on the 11th, or the night 
of the 12th, of the month, the last 
being always the great day ; the pre- 
vious night having the name of Lay- 
leh Mobarakeh, or " Blessed Night." 
On this day the Saadeeyah dervishes, 
the modern Psylli, go in procession 
and perform many juggling tricks 
with snakes, some of which are truly 
disgusting; these fanatics frequently 
tearing them to pieces with their teeth, 
and assuming all the character of ma- 
niacs. For the last two years, how- 
ever, this part of the performance has 
been omitted, being too gross for the 
public eye in these days of increasing 
civilisation ; but fanaticism is not 
wanting to induce them, as well as 
many bystanders, to degrade them- 
selves by other acts totally unworthy 
of rational beings, such as could only 
be expected amongst ignorant savages : 
and no European can witness the cere- 
mony of the Doseli, which takes place 
in the afternoon of the same day, 
without feelings of horror and disgust. 
On this occasion the sheykh of the Saa- 
deeyah, mounted on horseback, and ac- 
companied by the dervishes of various 
orders, with their banners, goes in 
procession to an open space near the 



MODES OF SEEING CAJRO AND NEIGHBOURHOOD, 



Egypt 



Esbekeeyah, where, between 200 and 
300 fanatics having thrown themselves 
prostrate on the ground, closely wedged 
together, the sheykh rides over their 
bodies, the assembled crowd frequently 
contending with each other to obtain 
one of these degrading posts, and 
giving proofs of wild fanaticism which 
those who have not witnessed it can- 
not easily imagine. 

The Moolid el Hassaneyn, the birth- 
day of the " two Hassans " (Hassan 
and Hosseyn), the sons of Ali, is cele- 
brated for 8 days about the 12th of 
Eebeeh-'l-akher, and is considered the 
greatest fete in Cairo next to that 
of the Propbet. The people go in 
crowds to visit their tomb, where 
grand Zikrs are performed in their 
honour; the mosk being brilliantly 
illuminated, as well as the quarters 
in the immediate neighbourhood ; 
while the people indulge in the usual 
amusements of Eastern fairs. 

The fetes of Seyyideb Zeyneb, the 
grand-daughter of the Prophet, and 
other male and female saints of Cairo, 
are kept much in the same way, by 
illuminating tbeir respective mosks; 
but are much less worth . seeing than 
the ordinary evening occupations of 
the Moslems during tbe whole month 
of Ramadan, which, to a person under- 
standing the language, offer many i 
attractions. The bazaars are then 1 
lighted up, and crowds of people sit at 
the shops, enjoying themselves after ■ 
the cruel fast of the day, by conversa- 
tion, and by listening to story-tellers, j 
who, with much animation, read or I 
relate the tales of the Tbousand-and- 
one Nights, or other of the numerous 
stories for which the Arabs have been 
always famed. 

21. Modes of seeing Cairo and 
Neighbourhood. — It will usually be I 
found most convenient to divide the i 
day into two parts, so as to return in ; 
the middle of the day to luncheon; 
but this of course will depend on the | 
inclination and convenience of the 
traveller. The excursion to Sakkarah | 
will in any case require a whole day, 
and many will not think that too much 
to devote to the Pyramids. For those 



15; 



who, without being too hurried, wish 
to see everything of interest in as short 
a time as possible, the following way 
of arranging their time may be recom- 
mended : — 

1st Day (Morn.). Drive about the 
town, and visit the different bazaars. 
This may be combined with any neces- 
sary shopping in view of the Nile 
voyage. (Aft.) Drive down the Shoo- 
bra road, and visit palace and gardens 
at the end of the avenue. A Sunday 
or Friday afternoon should be chosen 
for this excursion. 

2nd Day. Excursion to Old Cairo, 
visiting Mosk of Amer, Coptic 
Churches, Island of Eoda, and Nilo- 
meter. Eeturn by European Ceme- 
teries, Mosks of Seyyideh Zeyneb, 
Tooloon, and Hassan, Tombs of Imam 
Shaffe'eh, and Citadel. This will re- 
quire 5 or 6 hours. It will be better 
to arrange it so as to arrive at the 
citadel in time to see everything, and 
be on the platform outside the mosk 
for the view about half-an-hour before 
sunset. The day may be divided into 
two parts by returning straight from 
the Nilometer to the hotel, and then 
making a fresh start. 

3rd Day. Excursion to the Pyramids, 
starting early. On the way back see 
Palace of Gezeereh and Stables at 
Boolak ; though these last had better 
perhaps be reserved for a spare hour 
or two some other time. 

4th Day (Morn.). Museum of Egyp- 
tian Antiquities. (Aft.) Excursion to 
Heliopolis. 

5th Day. Excursion to Petrified. 
Forest and Tombs of the Caliphs (Kaid 
Bey). Go out by the Bab en Na*r 
and the Mosk of Hakem, and visit 
the Tomb of Burckhardt in the ceme- 
tery outside the Bab en Na^r, and take 
the Tombs of the Caliphs either on 
the way to or from the Petrified Forest. 
This will require about 6 hrs. in a 
carriage — more on donkeys. 

6th Day. Excursion to Safikdrah. 
This will occupy the whole day. If 
the traveller is going up the Nile if 
may be made with less trouble from 
his boat. 

Those who have the time may 
give a day, or part of one, to an 



156 



CAIRO : DltlVES AND EXCURSIONS : 



Sect. II. 



excursion to the Barrage. And there 
are many other mosks, such as those 
of Kalaoon, El Azhar, Hassaneyn, 
Ghoree, Moaiud, &c, well worth giving 
a morning or afternoon to. 

No mention has been made of hos- 
pitals, schools, &c, as each traveller 
will arrange for visits to them enter- 
ing into his plan, according as time 
permits and inclination leads him. 

To those who are very much pressed 
for time, the following method of em- 
ploying three days may be recom- 
mended:— 

1st Day (Morn.). Mosks, bazaars, 
&c, 3 hours or more. (Aft.). Shoobra 
Road and Palace, 2§ to 3 hours. 

2nd Day (Morn.). Pyramids, start- 
ing very early. 5 to 6 hours. (Aft.). 
Tombs of the Caliphs (^Kaid Bey), 
2J hours. 

"3rd Day (Morn.). IMiopolis, 4 hrs. 
(Aft.) Citadel, 2 hours. All who can 
afford a fourth day should devote it to 
the excursion to Sakkarah. 

22. Drives, Excursions. — There are 
three capital roads on which an after- 
noon drive may be enjoyed. The Shoo- 
bra road, the fashionable rendezvous, 
about an hour before sunset, especially 
on Sundays and Fridays. The Abbas- 
seeyah road, leading to Heliopolis, the 
best for invalids, as being close to the 
fresh pure air of the desert. And the 
road across the river to Geezeh and 
the Pyramids. The points of interest 
in these drives will be found described 
below :— 



Excursion I. — Shoobra. 

(For admission to Palace and Gar- 
dens apply to the Consulate.) — The 
road to Shoobra lies along a beautiful 
avenue composed of the sycamore fig, 
and the acacia known in Egypt as the 
" lebbekh," a tree of most rapid growth, 
and of great beauty when in blossom. 
The length of the avenue from the 
railway station to the palace is about 
4 miles : on either side are houses and 
villas, the most noticeable of which is 
the Khedive's palace of Kasr-en-Noossa 
on the left, a rather handsome-looking 



building, generally devoted to the en- 
tertainment of distinguished foreign- 
ers. The Shoobra road may most 
appropriately be called the "Rotten 
Row" of Cairo, and the scene on a 
Sunday or Friday afternoon in the 
season is very gay and amusing, but 
in order to thoroughly appreciate it 
the stranger should be accompanied 
by an habitue to point out to him 
" who is who." It is perhaps the most 
republican promenade in the world; 
no description of vehicle, nor manner 
of animal, biped or quadruped, is ex- 
cluded, and the Khedive and his out- 
riders are jostled and crossed in most 
unseemly fashion by files of bare-boned 
and sore-covered mules and donkeys, 
whipped in by a ragged urchin, who, 
with swaying legs and guttural ejacula- 
tions, is urging along his own wretched 
mount and the miserable team in front 
of him. Ministers, consuls, bankers, 
money-changers, speculators, singers, 
actors, actresses, ballet-dancers, ad- 
venturers and adventuresses of every 
sort and kind, and last, but not least 
conspicuous, the English-speaking 
tourist, all follow one another in curi- 
ous medley. Now and then a decent- 
looking turn-out may be seen, but the 
majority of vehicles would in a colder 
country be sold for firewood, and the 
horses could not be regarded by the 
most enthusiastic hippophagist as fit 
for food. 

Before reaching the palace, you 
pass the village of Shoobra, or, as it is 
called, Shoobra el Makkaseh, to dis- 
tinguish it from another place 14 m. 
lower down the river, Shoobra esh 
Shabeeyah, where the direct road 
to Alexandria crosses the Damietta 
branch. 

The palace and garden of Shoobra 
were the work of Mohammed Ali, 
whose favourite residence it was. 
They were left by him to his son Ha- 
leern Pasha ; but, in common with the 
other possessions of that prince in 
Egypt, they have now passed into the 
hands of his nephew, the present Khe- 
dive. The palace itself has nothing 
to recommend it but the view from 
the windows. 

The gardens of Shoobra, though for- 



Egypt 



shoobra; heliopolis. 



157 



mal, are pretty ; and the scent of roses, 
with the gay appearance of flowers, is 
an agreeable novelty in Egypt. The 
walks radiate from centres to different 
parts of the gardens, some covered 
with trellis- work, most comfortable in 
hot weather. 

There is no great variety of flowers ; 
-roses, geraniums, and a few other kinds 
are the most abundant. In one place 
are some sont trees (Acacia Nilotica), 
of unusual height, not less than 40 or 
45 ft. high. The great fountain is the 
lion of the garden. In the centre is 
an open space with an immense marble 
basin containing water, about 4 ft. 
deep, surrounded by marble balus- 
trades. These, as well as the columns 
and mouldings are from Carrara, the 
work of Italians, who have indulged 
their fancies by carving fish and va- 
rious strange things among the orna- 
mental details. You walk round it 
under a covered corridor, with kiosks 
projecting into the water ; and at each 
of the four corners of the building is a 
room with divans, fitted up partly in 
the Turkish, partly in the European 
style. Some have been surprised to 
see at this fountain gas-lamps, evi- 
dently of the same family as those in 
Regent Street ; but a more reasonable 
cause of surprise is that Shoobra 
should have been lighted by gas before 
it was introduced into any part of 
Paris. 

At the other side of the garden, near 
the pabce, is another kiosk, called eg 
Gebel, " the Hill," to which you ascend 
by flights of steps on two sides, and 
which forms a pretty summer-house, 
rising as it does above a series of ter- 
races planted witli flowers, and com- 
manding a view over the whole garden, 
the Nile, and the hills in the distance. 
It consists of one room paved with 
Oriental alabaster, having a fountain 
in the centre. 

About 2 m. beyond the palace are 
the liar as of Shoobra, at present occu- 
pied chiefly by the Arab mares and 
stallions collected during many years 
by the present King of Italy, and sold 
by him to the Khedive in 1870. It is 
under the management of M. de St. 
Maurice, the Master of Horse ; and if 



the extensive improvements he con- 
templates are carried out, it will be 
one of the most important breeding 
establishments in the world. 



Exctjksion II. — Heliopolis. 

a. Drive to Abbasseeyah and Koo- 
bah. b. "Virgin's Tree/' c. Obelisk 
and remains of Heliopolis. d. Mata- 
reeah. e. Birket el Hag and Kuined 
Towns. 

a. Drive to Abbasseeyah and Koobah. 
— The drive from Cairo to Heliopolis, 
the greater part of which is along a 
most excellent road, will occupy about 
li hour. 

The road from the Esbekeeyah is 
the same as to the station and to 
Shoobra, but on reaching the new 
sebeel or drinking - fountain, erected 
by the Khedive's mother, you turn to 
the right and proceed along a wide 
road, bordered for some way with 
houses of European aspect. After 
a time the road divides and skirts 
on either side a large square battle- 
mented building, commonly called 
Gama ez Zahir. At one time used as 
a government bake-house, it was until 
lately almost completely choked up 
with dust and rubbish both inside and 
out. When the new road was made 
all this was cleared away, and it is 
now used as a guard-house. The S. 
gateway forms a very picturesque ob- 
ject, with its massive portal deep in 
the shade of a fine old sycamore-fig. 
A little further on is passed a gate- 
way leading into the suburb called 
El Hoseyneeyah. To the right of the 
road, on the edge of the mountains, 
are the ruins of the mosk and tomb of 
the well-known Melek Adal, mother 
of Salah-ed-Deen. Only the curious 
and richly- wrought dome remains. 

The road now widens into a really 
magnificent cliausse'e, planted with 
lebbekh trees, which in a few years 
will form, a fine avenue. Leaving on 
the right the old caravan road to Suez, 
which is still in very good repair for 
some distance, and is the best drive 



158 



cairo: excursions: virgin's tree; obelisk; Sect. II. 



the invalid can choose for the sake of 
the fresh pure desert air, and on the 
left the Kobbet el Ghoree, a graceful 
dome covering the tomb of the last 
Memlook sultan but one, the Abbas- 
seeyah is reached. It was founded, as 
the name implies, by the late Abbas 
Pasha, as a sort of dependency to the 
huge unsightly palace on the right 
after crossing the railway, now turned 
into a barrack. Here Abbas Pasha, 
who was in constant dread of assassi- 
nation — a fear which his end justified 
— used to shut himself up, with watch- 
men stationed on the high look-out 
tower at one corner of the building, 
and swift dromedaries saddled in the 
stable, ready to fly into the desert at 
the first alarm. 

Owing to the presence of so many 
troops, and the large military schools 
established there, the neighbourhood 
of the Abbasseeyah presents a gay and 
busy appearance. 

On the left of the road, opposite the 
palace, is the observatory, and a little 
further on, where the new plantations 
are reached, can be seen, about a mile 
out in the desert to the right, the race- 
course. The races take place in Janu- 
ary. The Khedive has taken great 
pains to improve the breed of horses 
in Egypt, and among his endeavours 
to this end have been the establish- 
ment of race meetings at Cairo and 
Alexandria. He is of course himself 
the great breeder and owner ; but one 
or two Turks and some wealthy eu- 
nuchs have taken very kindly to the 
amusement; and these, with a few 
Europeans, make up the sporting com- 
munity. 

The beautiful plantations which the 
traveller now sees on either side of 
the road were only begun in 1869. 
The soil in which they grow is merely 
desert sand, irrigated with Nile water, 
and so impregnated with the rich allu- 
vial deposit contained by it. Every- 
thing grows in luxuriance ; palms, 
vines, orange and lemon trees, the 
castor-oil plant, and many others. 

After crossing the old railway to 
Suez the road turns to the right, and 
becomes a delicious shady avenue, 
bordered with hedges of lemon shrubs 



as far as the entrance to the palace of 
Koobah. This palace was built by the 
present Khedive, and is chiefly occu- 
pied by the hareem. Attached to it 
is a haras. 

From this point the less said about 
the road the better. One must en- 
deavour to forget the jolting in the 
prettiness of the surrounding scenery. 
After passing through a fine olive- 
plantation, you emerge on a broad 
richly-cultivated plain. It was here 
that Sultan Selim gained the victory 
in 1517, which put an end to the 
Memlook monarchy in Egypt, and made 
it a Turkish province. Here, too, in 
1800, the French, under Kleber, de- 
feated the Turks, and regained pos- 
session of Cairo. 

b. "Virgin's Tree." — Just before 
reaching the village of Matareeah, at a 
little distance from the road on the 
right, is the garden in which is shown 
the sycamore-tree beneath whose shade 
the Holy Family are said to have re- 
posed after the flight into Egypt. It 
is a splendid old tree, still showing 
signs of life, but terribly mauled alike 
by the devout and the profane, who 
respectively have forgotten their piety 
and their scepticism in the egotistical 
eagerness to carry away and to leave 
a record of their visit. The present 
proprietor, a Copt, fearing lest their 
united efforts should result in the total 
disappearance and destruction of the 
tree, has put a fence round it, 'which, 
while it prevents the ruthless tearing 
off of twigs and branches, affords those 
who are anxious to commemorate their 
visit a smooth and even surface on 
which, with the help of a knife oblig- 
ingly kept in readiness by the gar- 
dener, they may make their mark. 

c. Obelisk and Remains of Heliopolis. 
— A little further on beyond the vil- 
lage is Heliopolis. It is sufficiently 
known from a distance by its obelisk. 
The foundations of another obelisk, 
which formerly stood opposite this, 
and which was doubtless of the same 
Pharaoh, as it was customary for the 
Egyptians to place them in pairs at 
the entrance of their temples, have 



Egypt. 



REMAINS OF HELIOrOLIS. 



159 



lately been found. Before them ap- 
pears to have been an avenue of 
sphinxes, which probably extended to 
the N.W. gate of the city, fragments 
of which may still be seen near the 
site of that entrance. Pococke men- 
tions, near the same spot, a sphinx of 
fine yellow marble, 22 feet long ; " a 
piece of the same kind of stone with 
hieroglyphics; and, 16 paces more to 
the north, several blocks," having the 
appearance of sphinxes ; as well as 
another stone with hieroglyphics on 
one side. According to Strabo, it was 
by one of these avenues that you ap- 
proached the Temple of the Sun at 
Heliopolis, which he describes as laid 
out in the ancient Egyptian style, 
with a dromos of sphinxes before it, 
forming the approach to the vestibule. 

The apex of the obelisk indicates, 
from its shape, the addition of some 
covering, probably of metal; and the 
form of that in the Fyodm, of the same 
king, Osirtasen I., is equally singular. 
It is, indeed, not unusual to find evi- 
dences of obelisks having been orna- 
mented in this manner ; and the apices 
of those at Luxor, as well as of the 
smaller obelisk at Karnak, which 
have a slight curve at each of their 
four edges, recede from the level of 
the faces, as if to leave room for over- 
laying them with a thin casing of 
bronze gilt. 

The faces of the obelisk at Helio- 
polis measure at the ground 6 ft. 1 in. 
on the N. and S. ; 6 ft. 3 in. on the 
E. and W. ; it stands on the usual 
labical dado, which reposes on two 
slabs, each about 2 ft. high, forming 
apparently part of the paved dromos 
rather than pedestals or plinths, as 
they extend a long way inwards be- 
yond the dado of the obelisk. It is 
about 62 ft. 4 in. high, above the level 
of the ground, or 68 ft. 2 in. above the 
pavement. 

This obelisk is the oldest in Egypt ; 
the king whose name it bears, Osir- 
tasen I., was the founder of the XHth 
dynasty. The inscription, which is the 
same on each of the four faces, records 
his erection of the obelisk. The mounds 
and thick crude-brick walls, which en- 
close a space 4560 ft. by 3560 ft., mark, 



according to M. Mariette, not the 
limit of the town, but of the vast open 
space in front of the celebrated Temple 
I of the Sun; an assertion which he 
| defends by a reference to similar 
enclosures in front of the temples at 
Sais and Denderah. 

According to Strabo the city of 
Heliopolis stood on a large mound or 
raised site, before which were lakes 
I that received the water of the neigh- 
| bouring canals. It is therefore evident 
how much the Nile and the land of 
I Egypt have been raised since his 
| time, as the obelisks are now buried 
I to the depth of 5 ft. 10 in. ; and as he 
I saw the base of the temple and the 
pavement of its dromos, the inunda- 
! tion could not then have reached to a 
j level with its area. Part of the lofty 
j mounds may still "be seen in the site 
: of the ancient houses of the town, 
i which appear to have stood on the 
| north side, on higher ground than the 
temple, owing no doubt to their 
foundations having been raised from 
time to time as they were rebuilt, and 
no change of elevation taking place 
in the site of the temple. This con- 
tinued in the place where its founda- 
j tions had been laid by the first Osir- 
tasen. The same was observed by 
! Herodotus, though in a much greater 
degree, in the position of the temple 
of Diana at Bubastis, "which, haviag 
remained on the same level where it 
was first built, while the rest of the 
town had been raised on various 
occasions, was seen by those who 
walked round the walls in a hollow 
below them." 

The ancient Egyptian name of He- 
liopolis was in hieroglyphics, Ee-ei or 
Ei-Be, " the House," or " Abode of 
the Sun," corresponding to the title 
Bethshemes, of the same import, 
which was applied to it by the Jews ; 
and in Scripture and in Coptic it is 
called "On." Moses is said to have 
studied there, and Joseph's father-in- 
law was a priest of its renowned 
temple. 

Though small, Heliopolis was a 
town of great celebrity ; but it suffered 
considerably by the invasion of the 
Persians. Many of its obelisks, and 



160 



CAIEO : EXCUESIONS : MATAEEEAH ; 



Sect. II. 



probably other monuments, were 
afterwards taken away to Eome and 
Alexandria; and at the time of the 
Geographer's visit it had the charac- 
ter of a deserted city. Strabo also 
saw "some very large houses where 
the priests used to live, that being 
the place to which they particularly 
resorted in former times for the study 
of philosophy and astronomy;" but 
the teachers, as well as the sciences 
they taught, were no longer to be 
found, and no professor of any one 
was pointed out to him. Those only 
who had charge of the temple, and 
who explained the sacred rites to 
strangers, remained there ; and among 
other objects of interest to the Greek 
traveller, the houses where Eudoxus 
and Plato had lived were shown, 
these philosophers having, it is said, 
remained thirteen years under the 
tuition of the priests of Heliopolis. 
Indeed, it ceased to be the seat of 
learning after the accession of the 
Ptolemies, and the schools of Alex- 
andria succeeded to the ancient col- 
leges of that city. 

A few fragments bearing the names 
of Kameses II. and Thothmes III. are 
nearly all that has been found here ; 
with the former name, which occurs 
in a stone gateway, are associated the 
gods Re and Atmoo (Atum), the 
former being called " the lord of the 
temple." A pedestal with a bull and 
Osiris were found by Mr. Salt. The 
bull Mnevis shared with Ee or Phra 
the worship of this city, and was one 
of the most noted among the sacred 
animals of Egypt. It was kept in a 
particular enclosure set apart for it, 
as for Apis at Memphis, and enjoyed 
the same honour in the Heliopolite as 
the latter did in the Memphite nome. 
Close to the hamlet of Kafr Gamors, 
a part of the Necropolis has been dis- 
covered by M. Mariette. 

d. Matareeah. — The name of the 
neighbouring village Matareeah is 
erroneously supposed to signify " fresh 
water," and to be borrowed from the 
Ain Shems ( " Fountain of the Sun " ) 
of ancient times; and though in 
reality supplied, like the other wells 
of Egypt, by filtration from the river, 



i it is reputed the only real spring in 
the valiey of the Nile. That the 
word Matareeah cannot signify " fresh 
water" is evident from the form of 
the Arabic Xijl^o M-tareeah ; for the 
word Ma, " water," should be written 
L<j, and, being masculine, would re- 
quire the adjective to be taree ; and 
this last is not applied to water, but 
to fruit. According to the Mosaic of 
Palsestrina, the "Fountain of the 
Sun " stood a short distance to the 
right, or E. of the obelisks before the 
temple. 

Coptic tradition relates that the 
water of this fountain was salt until 
the arrival of the Holy Family, when, 
" Our Lady having bathed in it, the 
waters acquired their softness and 
excellence." 

The gardens of Matareeah were 
formerly renowned for the balsam 
they produced. The balsam-plants 
are said to have been brought from 
Judaea to this spot by Cleopatra ; who, 
trusting to the influence of Antony, 
removed them, in spite of the oppo- 
sition of Herod, having been hitherto 
confined to Judaea. Josephus tells us 
that the lands where the balsam-tree 
grew belonged to Cleopatra, and that 
" Herod farmed of her what she 
possessed of Arabia, and those 
revenues that came to her from the 
region about Jericho, bearing the 
balsam, the most precious of drugs, 
which grows there alone." This is 
the Balm of Gilead mentioned in the 
Bible. The plants were in later 
times taken from Matareeah to 
Arabia, and grown near Mecca, 
whence the balsam is now brought 
to Egypt and Europe, under the name 
of Balsam of Mecca ; and the gardens 
of Heliopolis no longer produce this 
valuable plant. But a still more 
profitable shrub — cotton — is said to 
have been first cultivated about 50 
years ago on the ground near the 
obelisk; an experiment which has 
succeeded far beyond the most san- 
guine expectations. 

In the month of April, the plain in 
the neighbourhood of Matareeah 



Egypt. 



PETRIFIED F0RE3T. 



161 



abounds in quail, and is in con- 
sequence much resorted to by Oairene 
sportsmen. 

e. Birket el Hag and Ruined Towns. 
—Beyond Heliopolis are the Birket el 
Hag, or " Lake of the Pilgrims," El 
Khanka, and some ruined toicns ; 
which are not of general interest, and 
are seldom visited. 

Birket el Hag is about 5 miles to 
the eastward of Heliopolis, and is the 
rendezvous of the Mecca caravan. 
Beyond this is El Khanka ; and still 
further to the N. is Aboozdbel, once 
known for its military college, camp, 
hospital, and schools of medicine. 

El Khanka was remarkable in the 
days of Leo Africanus " for its fine 
buildings, its mosks, and colleges," as 
the neighbouring plain for the abun- 
dance of dates it produced. 

A mile or so beyond El Khanka is 
the Birket el Akrashar, abounding in 
wild duck ; and in the neighbourhood 
at the light season are some very 
good snipe marshes. 

Further on to the N.W. are the 
mounds of an ancient town called 
Teh el Yahoodeli, the " Mound of the 
Jews." A visit to this place might 
prove interesting to the antiquary, 
but the excursion had best be made 
by taking the train to Shibeen el 
Kanater, the second station on the 
line to Zagtiziir. The description will 
be found under Bte. 7. 



Excursion HI. — The "Petrified 
Forest." 

This excursion, made from Cairo, 
will take from 3 to 4 hours. The 
Tombs of the Caliphs (Kaid Bey) 
may be taken in the way ; or it may 
be combined with the excursion to 
Heliopolis. It is a somewhat weari- 
some ride, and a still more wearisome 
drive when, as is often the case, the 
carriage sticks in the sand, and 
neither blows, prayers, nor curses are 
effectual in getting the wretched 
horses to move. A donkey is the 
best means of getting there ; and to 
those who do not care to take the 



trouble to ride, it may generally be 
said that it is not worth while to 
drive there. 

After passing Kaid Bey the way 
lies along a sandy noddy, with the 
Gebel el Ahmar on the left, and the 
Gebel Mokattam on the ri*<ht. The 
Gebel el Ahmar, or "Bed Mountain," 
is composed of red gritstone, which 
gradually runs into a siliceous rock, 
contains numerous calcedonies, and is 
of the same nature as the vocal 
statue at Thebes. Owing to the 
quality of the stone, which renders it 
peculiarly adapted for mills, this 
mountain has been quarried from a 
very early period to the present day, 
as may be seen from the fragments 
found at Heliopolis. The same 
species of rock rises here and there to 
the southward, upon the slope of the 
limestone range, and the bed above 
it contains petrified wood of various 
kinds. 

After passing the Bed Mountain, 
the plain opens out on the left, and 
the scenery assumes a complete desert 
aspect. Nearing the Mokattam hills, 
a slight sandy ascent is climbed, and 
on the plateau at the top are to be 
seen lying scattered about small and 
large fragments of petrified wood. At 
this point the driver or donkey-boy 
will endeavour to stop, and insist 
that these few specimens in the tand 
are what he calls the "Petlified'Ood." 
But if the visitor will persevere for 
about a mile further — he will be 
guided in the direction by the tracks 
of his predecessors — he will reach a 
spot where much larger fragments are 
lying, and among them two or three 
trees in situ, several feet in length. 
As they are sometimes more and 
sometimes less covered with sand, and 
as moreover pieces are constantly 
being taken to Cairo for ornamental 
purposes, it is hazardous to speak of 
their length, but in 1871 there were 
two on the left - hand s : de of the 
track, one 48 feet long and the other 
21, and on the rig lit of the track one 
39 feet long. These fossil stems and 
fragments have generally been taken 
to represent petrified palm-trees, but 
scientific investigation has decided 



162 



CAIEO I EXCUESIONS : BAEEAGE OF THE NILE ; Sect. II. 



that they are not correlated with any 
existing vegetation in Egypt. In an 
interesting paper contributed to the 
' Geological Magazine ' (vol. vii., No. 
7, July 1870), by Mr. Carruthers, he 
says that after examining microscopi- 
cally a large number of specimens 
collected by Professor Owen, he has 
come to the conclusion that the stems, 
though dicotyledonous, are not coni- 
ferous, and that they may be divided 
into two species, the Nicolia Mgyp- 
tiaca, already so named by linger, 
and the Nicolia Owenii, so named 
from the distinguished professor among 
whose specimens he discovered the 
new species. A great deal of infor- 
mation on the character and position 
of this remarkable silicified wood, 
may be found in the paper mentioned 
above, and also in an article on the 
" Geology of Egypt," by Newbbld, in 
the ' Quarterly Journal of the Geolo- 
gical Society ' (No. 16, 1818). 



Excursion IV.— The Baeeage. 

This excursion is hardly worth 
making for its own sake, except to 
those interested in hydraulic engi- 
neering; but, if made at the proper 
season, it might be combined with a 
day's snipe or wild-fowl shooting in 
the neighbourhood. The best way of 
going is by the train, which leaves 
the Cairo station at about 8.30 a.m. ; 
and if the object is merely to see the 
Barrage, there is plenty of time to do 
that and return with the train at 
midday. If it is intended to spend 
the day there, it will be necessary 
before leaving Cairo to order a car- 
riage or donkeys to be in readiness at 
the" bridge in time to get back before 
dusk. The carriage, which should 
have four horses, will take about 
hrs. ; donkeys, to 1 hrs. 

The first stone of the Barrage was 
laid by Mohammed Ali in 1847. The 
idea was originated and the works 
planned by M. Linant-Bey. Situated 
at the head of the Delta, about 12 
miles below Cairo, the object of this 
gigantic work was to hold up the 



waters of the Nile during the eight 
months of ebb, so as to maintain 
them at the level of the soil, and 
supply Lower Egypt during that 
period with the same amount of water 
as at the time of the inundation. It 
was calculated that the enormous 
expense of the work itself, and of the 
new system of canalisation which 
must be its necessary complement, 
would be compensated for by the 
great increase of cultivable land in 
the Delta, and by the being able to 
do away with the thousands of 
saMyahs and shadoofs, thus setting 
free for more useful agricultural pur- 
poses the men and animals employed 
in working them. Unfortunately, prac- 
tical difficulties have prevented the 
realisatiou of this magnificent scheme ; 
and the works having been for some 
time abandoned, the Barrage, as it 
is, answers hardly any other purpose 
than that of obstructing the naviga- 
tion ; so that what should have been a 
work worthy of old Egypt, has ended 
in becoming a very useless impediment 
in the river. 

The Barrage consists of a double 
bridge or weir, the eastern part span- 
ning the Damietta brancii of the 
Nile, the western the Rosetta. Be- 
tween the two is the head of the 
Delta. "To form," says Dr. Russell, 
i "an idea of such an undertaking, we 
| must fancy what it would be to throw 
I a barrier across the Thames at Green- 
j wich, in the height of a full tide 
i running down, with this exception, 
I that the bottom of the Thames would 
afford much greater facility for laying 
I the foundation, for the Nde bed is for 
many feet only soft mud. The ap- 
• pearance of the whole structure is so 
very light and graceful, that the 
spectator is apt to overlook the difti- 
I culty and the greatness of the work 
I itself. The Barrage is architecturally 
very beautiful, with a noble front and 
grand general effect, produced by a 
line of castellated turrets which mark 
the site of each of the sluice-gates. 
There are aho two lofty crenellated 
towers in the centre of each dam, to 
correspond with the towers over the 
entrance gateways. The turrets on 



Egypt. 



OLD CAIRO. 



163 



the N. side are constructed with 
small sentry-box-like chambers in- 
side." The sluices "are formed of 
double cones of hollow iron, in a semi- 
circular form, working on radii of rods 
fixed to a central axis at each side of 
the sluice-gate. These double cones 
increase in size from the lower part of 
the cone to the top, and the lowest, \ 
which are the largest, fill with water j 
as they descend into the bed prepared 
for them in the masonry at the bottom 
of the sluices. The labour of two men 
raised one very slowly against the 
great pressure of the water from its ! 
bed; when the gate was lowered, it \ 
was easy to understand the advantage j 
of the curved surface in pressing j 
obliquely against, instead of directly 
opposing, the current." These sluices | 
are never all closed, as the vast pres- ! 
sure of such a mass of water would 
probably sweep the whole structure 
away. The arrangement of them has 
only been completed on the Western, 
or Rosetta, half of the Barrage. At 
the Delta end of each part is a lock, 
with sloping terraced quays above 
and below. The toll levied is 60 
paras, or about 3s. an ardeb. Except 
daring the high Nile, the only water 1 
that flows through the Eastern, or 
Damietta half comes round from the 
other side by means of a canal, and ! 
rushes through two or three arches j 
only ; the rest is dry land. The ! 
width of the Damietta branch is 543 
metres, and at high Nile there passes i 
through it 298:i£ cubic metres of 
water per second, the mean velocity 
being 1 metre per second. The Ro- 
setta branch is 464 metres wide, and 
at high Nile there passes through 
it 4738J cubic metres, the mean velo- 
city being T70 per minute. The 
number of arches respectively is 72 
and 62, each arch having a span of 
16 ft. 

Forming part of the Barrage scheme 
is a series of strong earthworks, as yet 
unfinished. When completed, they 
will form a very strong military posi- 
tion, of great importance to the de- 
fence of the capital. 

Starting from the head of the Delta, 
midway between the two halves of the 



Barrage, is a large wide canal, which 
follows to a certain extent the course 
of the old Sebennytic branch of the 
Nile. 



Excuesion V. — Old Caieo. 

a. Drive to and Description of Old 
Cairo, b. Mosk of Amer. c. Roman 
Fortress of Babylon, d. Coptic Con- 
vents and Churches, e. Island of 
Roda and Nilometer. 

a. Drive to and Description of Old 
Cairo. — Old Cairo is about 3 miles 
from Cairo. The road, after leaving 
the Esbekeeyah, lies first a short waj 
down the Boolak avenue, and then, 
turning to the left, through the new 
quarter of Ismaileeyah to a road 
point where several roads meet, One 
of those to the right leads to Kasr en 
Nil palace and barrack. Continuing 
on along a shady, but no longer mac- 
adamised road, Ka-r el Ali, the palace 
of the Khedive's mother, is passed, 
and Kasr el Ain, where are the govern- 
ment hospital and medical schools. 
Soon after the old canal or Khaleeg 
(see § 8) is crossed. Just beyond 
this is the head of the aqueduct, 
which carries water to the citadel. 
The original aqueduct of Salah ed 
deen (Saladin) was merely a conduit 
supported on wooden pillars ; and it 
was not till about the year 1518 that 
the present stone one was substituted, 
by order of Sultan el Ghdree. The 
sakiyahs which raise the water are 
inside the massive building close to 
the river. The island of Roda is 
seen on the right, divided from the 
mainlaind by a canal-like stream. 

Old Cairo may be said to commence 
directly the aqueduct is passed. It 
was founded by Amer ebn el As, who 
conquered Egypt in the caliphate of 
Omar, a.d. 638 ; and is said to have 
received its original name of Fostat 
from the leather tent (fostat) which 
Amer there pitched for himself, during 
the siege of the Roman fortress. In 
the same spot he erected the mosk 
that still bears his name, which in 
after times stood in the centre of the 
city, and is now amidst the mounds 



164 



CAIRO : excursions : 



MOSK OF AMER ', 



Sect. II. 



and rubbish of its fallen houses. I 
Fostat continued to be the royal resi- 
dence, as well as the capital of Egypt, 
until the time of Ahmed ebn Too- 
loon, who built the mosk and palace 
at the Kalat el Kebsh, a.d. 879. 

Gowher el Kaed, having been sent 
by Mdez to conquer Egypt, founded 
the new city called Masr el Kaherah 
(Cairo), which four years after (in 
a.d. 974) became the capital of the 
country, and Fostat received the new 
appellation of Masr el Ateekeh, or 
" Old Masr," changed by Europeans 
into Old Cairo. The ancient name 
of the city which occupied part of the 
site of Old Cairo was Egyptian Baby- 
lon ; and the Soman station, which 
lies to the S. of the mask of Amer, is 
evidently the fortress besieged by the 
Moslem invader. 

In 1168, when the Crusaders in- 
vaded Lower Egypt, the Saracens set 
fire to Fostat to prevent its falling 
into the hands of the Christians. At 
that time it extended northwards as 
far as the mosk of Tooloon, to what 
is the southern part of Cairo. This 
fire, which is said to have lasted fifty- 
four days without being put out, was 
the ruin of Fostat. Nothing but the 
extensive rubbish-mounds all around 
remain to prove its former size. 

b. Mosk of Amer. — The first monu- 
ment of interest is the mosk of Amer, 
to the E. of the village, near the rub- 
bish-heaps. The mosk is of square 
form, as were all the early mosks, 
except those which had been originally 
churches ; * and it is somewhat similar 
in plan to the mosk of Tooloon, with 
colonnades round an open court. At 
the W. end is a single line of columns ; 
at the two sides they are three deep, 
and at the E. end in six rows, the total 
amounting to no less than 229 or 230, 
two being covered with masonry. 
Others are also built into the outer 
wall to support the diltlteh or platform 
of the moeddin ; and the octagon in the 
centre of the open court is surrounded 
by eight columns. Many have fallen 
down, and time and neglect will soon 
cause the destruction of the whole 

* This never was a church, as some have 
imagined. 



! building. It has three doors on the 
E. side, over the southernmost of which 
is a minaret, and another at the S.E. 
corner. 

At that early time the Arabs were 
contented with humble imitations of 
Eoman architecture, or with build- 
ings erected for them by Christian 
architects, which appears to have been 
the case in this instance ; and the style 
of the arches and other portions of the 
exterior wall is the same as that found 
in contemporary Christian edifices. 
The general form of the arches is 
round, alternating with others of the 
pent-roof head ; on the S. side some 
of the large lower arches are pointed, 
but it is doubtful if they are of the 
same age as the round ones above and 
adjoining them. Indeed it may be 
doubted if the Arabs in the time of 
the conquest of Egypt had made suffi- 
cient progress in architecture to build 
a mosk of the size and character of 
this of Amer ; though they added to 
the interior in after times. Its present 
arches, on columns, which are built 
against the simpler arches of the 
original outer wall, are evidently of 
the style common in the time of El 
Moaiud, about 1412 a.d., when repairs 
are said to have been made to the 
mosk. Nor have we here the only 
instance of the pointed arch at that 
early period; and the Christian re- 
mains of Upper Egypt afford several 
examples of its employment, to cover 
small spaces, before the Arabs invaded 
the country. 

The mosk has undergone several 
repairs, and in Murad Bey's time, who 
was one of its restorers, some Cufic 
MSS. were discovered, while exca- 
vating the substructions, written on 
the finest parchment. The origin of 
their discovery, and the cause of these 
repairs, are thus related by M. Mar- 
cel : " Murad Bey, being destitute 
of the means of carrying on the war 
against his rival Ibrahim, sought to 
replenish his coffers by levying a large 
sum from the Jews of Cairo. To 
escape from his exactions, they had 
recourse to stratagem. After assuring 
him they had not a single para, they 
I promised, on condition of abstaining 



Egypt 



ROMAN FOETBE3S OF BABYLON". 



165 



from his demands, to reveal a secret 
which would make him possessor of 
immense wealth. His word was given, 
and they assured him that certain 
archives mentioned a large iron chest, 
deposited in the mosk of Amer, either 
by its founder or by one of his suc- 
cessors in the government of Egypt, 
which -was filled with invaluable 
treasure. Murad Bey went imme- 
diately to the mosk, and, under the 
plea of repairs, excavated, tbe spot 
indicated by his informants, where, in 
fact, he found a secret underground 
chamber, containing an iron chest, 
half destroyed by rust, and full — not 
of gold — but of manuscript leaves of 
the Koran, on vellum of a beautiful 
quality, written in fine Cufic charac- 
ters." This treasure was not one to 
satisfy the cupidity of the Memlook 
Bey, and it was left to the sheykh of 
the mosk, by whom it was sold to 
different individuals. 

Tradition has not been idle here ; 
and the credulous believe that an 
ancient prophecy foretells the downfall 
of Moslem power whenever this mosk 
shall fall to decay ; and two columns 
placed 10 inches apart, near the south- 
ernmost door, are said to discover the 
faith of him who tries to pass between 
them, no one but a true believer in 
the Koran and the Prophet being 
supposed to succeed in the attempt. 
When all but Moslems were excluded 
from the mosks, the truth of this was 
of course never called in question ; 
and now that the profane are ad- 
mitted, the desecration of the building 
is readily believed to cause the failure 
of the chaim. At the S.E. angle is 
the tomb of the founder Amer ; and at 
the S.W. a spring, said by believers 
to communicate with the holy well of 
Zem Zem at Mecca. 

c. Roman Fortress of Babylon. — 
The next point of interest is the large 
walled enclosure called " Kasr esh 
Shemmah," or "Dayr en Nasarah," 
or " Dayr Welee Girghis," occupying 
the site of the fortress already al- 
luded to as having been the Koman 
station of Babylon. The style of its 
masonry has the peculiar character of 
Roman buildings ; which is readily 



distinguished by the courses of red 
tiles or bricks, and the construction of 
its arches : and over the main entrance 
on the S. side (which is now closed 
and nearly buried in rubbish) is a 
triangular pediment, under whose 
left-hand corner may still be seen the 
Boman eagle. Above appears to have 
been a slab, probably bearing an in- 
scription, long since fallen or removed. 
Its solid walls and strong round 
towers sufficiently testify its former 
strength, and account for its having 
defied the attacks of the Arab invaders 
for seven months ; and it is doubtless 
to this that Aboolfeda alludes when 
he says : " In the spot where Fostat 
was built stood a Kasr, erected in old 
times, and styled Kasr esh Shemmah 
(' of the candle '), and the tent (fostat) 
of Amer was close to the mosk called 
Jamat Amer." 

Strabo mentions the station or for- 
tress at Babylon, "in which one of 
the three Boman legions was quar- 
tered, which formed the garrison of 
Egypt." This Babylon he describes 
as a castle fortified by nature, founded 
by some Babylonians, who, having 
left their country, obtained from the 
Egyptian kings a dwelling-place in 
this spot. Mis statement, however, of 
its being fortified by nature, scarcely 
agrees with the Kasr esh Shemmah, 
unless (which is very possible) the 
mounds of rubbish have raised the soil 
about it, and concealed it3 once ele- 
vated base ; though the ridge of hill 
it occupied by the river, where hy- 
draulic machines raised the Nile 
water for its supply, seems to accord 
with the description of its site given 
by Arab writers, who state that when 
taken by the Saracens the river flowed 
near its walls. At all events, it is 
evidently a Boman station, and pro- 
bably the very one that existed in the 
days of the geographer, judging both 
from its style of building, and from 
the little likelihood of their forsaking 
a place " fortified by nature " for 
another ; and no vestiges of any other 
Roman ruin are to be met with in the 
neighbourhood. The name itself of 
Babylon has been preserved in the 
name of the next Dayr beyond the 



166 



CAIRO : EXCURSIONS 



COPTIC CONVENTS 



Sect. II. 



Kasresh Shemmah, which is still called 
Dayr Babloon. 

These Babylonians, according to 
Diodorus, were descendants of captives 
taken by Sesostris : some suppose 
them to have been left by Semiramis 
ia Egypt; and others say the town 
was not founded until the time of 
Cambyses. Some, again, pretend that 
the fort was first built by Artaxerxes, 
while Egypt was in the possession of 
the Persians. Strabo asserts that 
these Babylonians worshipped the 
Cynocephalus, which throws great 
doubt upon his assertion of the town 
having been founded by foreigners, 
and would rather lead to the conclu- 
sion that it was Egyptian; for it is 
more probable that those strangers 
were allowed to live there, as the 
Franks now are in a quarter of a 
Turkish city, than that they were 
presented by the kings with a strong 
position for "the erection of a fortress. 

Immediately on entering this 
gloomy-looking place by a low postern 
door on the W. side, the visitor finds 
himself in a narrow lane lined with 
shops. Indeed, the whole interior is 
a small town inhabited principally 
by Copts, but containing also some 
Muslims, and a Greek and a Latin con- 
vent. The objects of interest are 
many : but the traveller will find, if 
he trusts to his dragoman, that they 
are limited to the church in which is 
the traditional hiding-place of the 
Holy Family, and perhaps the Greek 
convent. It is well for those who 
wish to see something more to accept 
the services of a guide in the place 
itself, and distinctly make him under- 
stand what they wish to see. At 
some of the churches the key will not 
always be forthcoming, and the priests 
are apt to be surly and unaccommo- 
dating ; but patience and backsheesh 
will work wonders. Some will find 
enough here to occupy many hours, 
and will of course have to postpone 
the remainder of the excursion to 
another day. A description of the 
principal churches will be found in 
its place in the following account 
of the Coptic Convents and Churches 
of Old Cairo, which has been con- | 



tributed by Mr. Greville Chester. It 
would be very desirable if a plan 
could be made of the fortress as 
it formerly existed. The principal 
points at which remains of it are seen 
are inside the court of the Greek con- 
vent ; inside the Coptic church called 
" El Moallaka ;" in the courtyard near 
the Jewish synagogue ; and at the end 
of a lane, where the inside of one of 
the towers is used as a corn-mill : this 
part is called El Borg, and is* said to 
be the spot where people were hanged. 
It evidently forms a portion of a large 
Boman building, with additions of a 
| later period : crossing the lower part 
of one of the towers, the entrance to 
which is beneath a fine old round 
arch, is a more modern pointed brick 
horseshoe arch, which has been built 
to support more recent erections inside 
the old round tower. 

d. Coptic Convents and Churches. — 
The ancient Christian churches, now 
belonging to the Copts and Greeks, 
which are scattered about in different 
positions amongst the mounds of the 
Arabian Fostat, have received far less 
attention than they deserve, consider- 
ing their high architectural import- 
ance, and the numerous curiosities and 
works of art which they contain. 
The Dayrs, or convents, in which they 
are situated are fortress-like build- 
ings, evidently constructed with a 
view to security against attack, and 
often containing, besides the church 
or churches, a regular town within 
their walls, as notably in the case of 
the Kasr esh Shemmah. 

The churches within these ancient 
Dayrs are invariably extremely plain 
on the outside. They are constructed 
of thin dark-red bricks, probably of 
Boman manufacture. One, three, or 
more domes rise above their roofs, and 
the thickness of the walls and the 
narrowness of the apertures for light 
render them admirably adapted to 
the warmth of the climate. Inter- 
nally they are divided by wooden 
screens into different compartments, in 
the westernmost of which is commonly 
found the well or tank for the water 
blessed at the Feast of the Epiphany. 
The Baptistery proper is generally in 



Egypt- 



AND CHURCHES. 



167 



a separate chapel. The other com- 
partments are for the women and for 
laymen, and that within the screen, 
which answers to the Iconostasis of 
Greek churches, is reserved for the 
use of the clergy in the celebration of 
the Holy Eucharist. The side aisles 
are likewise separated from the nave 
by openwork screens. The central 
and side altars, of which the latter 
are rarely used, stand under baldac- 
chinos supported upon ancient marble 
pillars, and behind each is almost 
invariably an apse with semicircular 
stone seats, aud a central throne, 
anciently but not at the present time 
used by the bishop according to pri- 
mitive Christian practice. The walls 
of the apses are decorated with mosaics 
or painted, and paintings cover the 
ceilings. The altars are themselves 
square, and under each is a cavity at 
the back. They are invariably made 
of stone, and on the top there is a 
central groove, in which is placed the 
square wooden receptacle for the 
Sacred Elements. Persons entering 
the doors of the Iconostasis are ex- 
pected to take off their shoes, a prac- 
tice of remote antiquity, and one 
which recalls the command of the 
Almighty addressed to Moses at the 
Burning Bush. The celebrating 
clergy at the Eucharist are generally 
altogether barefooted. As in the 
Greek Church, there are no organs ; 
the only instruments of music used 
being cymbals and triangles. The 
voices of the clergy as they " praise 
God with the loud cymbals " have a 
singularly wild and impressive effect. 
There are no images, but a great 
number of paintings in the stiff 
Byzantine style, but some of them are 
not wanting in a kind of rude gran- 
deur. The principal painting is al- 
ways that of our Lord in the act of 
benediction. 

The following are among the prin- 
cipal objects found in those churches 
which merit the attention of anti- 
quaries and those interested in ancient 
ecclesiastical art : — 1. Pulpits of mar- 
ble, enriched with mosaics in marble 
and mother-of-pearl. 2. Shrines con- 
taining the relics of saints, enclosed 



in wooden cases wrapped in rich silk 
or other stuff, and precisely resembling 
bolsters. 3. Processional crosses, 
often with flags attached, and hand- 
crosses of brass and silver. 4. Ancient 
silver and brass censers, of which 
some have small bells attached to 
the chains. 5. Brass candlesticks. 

6. Silver boxes to hold the incense. 

7. Silver chalices, patens, and spoons. 

8. Coverings for copies of the Gospel, 
made of silver, silver-gilt, or iron. 
Many of these are enriched with inter- 
lacing work, crosses, and inscriptions 
in Coptic and Arabic in relief. The 
Gospels are hermetically sealed inside 
these cases. 9. Ancient Arabic lamps 
of glass. Only two or three of these 
now remain in use. 10. Square 
painted boxes or receptacles for the 
Sacred Elements at the time of cele- 
bration. 11. Ostrich eggs in metal 
casing, suspended from the roofs, like 
those in Mohammedan mosks. 12. 
Staves upon which the clergy and 
laity rest themselves during long 
services. 13. Large carved wooden 
chairs used as supports for relics, or 
for the Gospels, and occasionally as a 
seat for the Patriarch. 14. Screens 
of inlaid wood and ivory, often of 
extreme beauty and intricacy of de- 
sign. 15. Bich hangings for cur+ains 
and coverings of the altar. 16. Vest- 
ments, of extremely ancient design, 
but rarely of ancient manufacture. 
17. Wall-decoration of Arabic and 
Persian (or Bhodian) tiles. 

In making a few observations on 
these ancient Dayrs, and the churches 
which they contain, it will be conve- 
nient to arrange them in the order in 
which they occur as the visitor ap- 
proaches from the Bab Seyyideh 
Zeynib, at the S. end of Cairo : — 

1. Bayr Mart Mena, containing the 
Coptic church of Mari Mena, with a 
chapel lately occupied by the Syrians 
attached, and the comparatively mo- 
dern church of the Armenians. 

St. Menas, whose name is interest- 
ing as recalling that of the first 
recorded King of Egypt, nourished at 
the beginning of the fourth century. 
There was a celebrated convent bear- 
ing his name at Alexandria, and 



168 



CAIRO : excursions : 



COrTIC CHURCHES. 



Sect. II. 



there, probably, were made the numer- 
ous Christian bottles inscribed with 
his name and effigy which are found 
in the catacombs at Alexandria and 
elsewhere in Egypt. 

Mart Mena. —This church contains 
an extremely curious candlestick of 
bronze, representing two dragons with 
their heads at each extremity, and 
their tails interlaced in the middle. 
The lights are fixed along the back. 
This candlestick was copied about 150 
years since fur the adjoining church 
of the Armenians. 

2. Dayr Aboo Seplieen, containing 
the churches of Aboo Sepheen, Amba 
Shenooda, and Sitt Miriam. 

Aboo Seplieen. — A very fine and in- 
teresting church. The ancient wooden 
door is defended by a casing made of 
the scales of crocodiles ! In a reli- 
quary is preserved the arm of St. Ma- 
carius. The pulpit is magnificent, 
with mosaics of coloured marbles in- 
termixed with mother-of-pearl. The 
screens are of wood, inlaid with ivory, 
and superbly carved. The central 
apse has a magnificent semi-circle of 
marble steps, and the wall above is 
lined with fine mosaics. Some of the 
paintings, upon a gold ground over 
the screens, appear very ancient. 
There is a fine Arabic ewer and basin 
enamelled in blue and green, and a 
remarkably perfect wooden book-desk. 
The nave has a high- pitched, roof, and 
the dome is unusually lofty. Near 
the Epiphany water-tank is a curious 
prostrate stone column, 4 ft. 10 in. 
long, entirely covered with Arabic 
inscriptions, which merits investi- 
gation. 

Amba Shenooda. — An interesting 
church. There is a fine early pulpit 
of wood, and some curious coverings 
for the altar. Here are a Gospel -cover 
of base silver, and two silver diadems 
used in marriages. 

3. The Roman fortress known as 
" Kasr esh Shemmah," or Dayr Meri 
Girgliis, containing the Coptic 
churches of Meri Girghis, Kedeseh 
Berbarra, Sitt Miriam (a), Sitt Miriam 
(b), called also "El Moallaka," and 
Aboo Sirgeh, with the subterranean 
church of Sitt Miriam beneath. Here 



also is an ancient Jewish synagogue, 
formerly the church of St. Michael, 
and a Greek convent containing the 
church of St. George, and the chapel 
of the Forty Saints below it, which 
last is close to an ancient well, sur- 
rounded by a circle of massive columns 
supporting round arches. 

Kedeseh Berbarra. — A very curious 
church of early date. The shrine of 
St. Berbarra is gaudily painted in 
bright colours, and contains within a 
brass grill the relics of St. Berbarra 
wrapped in a kind of blue bolster. 
The nave is supported on ten pillars, 
upon which rest elegantly painted 
beams of wood, above which are pointed 
arches. The lofty marble pulpit 
stands upon ten marble pillars, and is 
enriched with mosaics. This church 
abounds with splendid early carvings 
in wood and ivory. The paintings on 
the screen before the Iconostasis are 
unusually good. There is a curious 
triple standing candlestick of iron, a 
single one of brass, and a corona now 
disused. 

Aboo Sirgeh. — A large, fine, and lofty 
church. The pulpit in the central 
aisle is of early wood-work. The 
principal screen is a magnificent spe- 
cimen of carved ivory and wood: to 
the left of it are some interesting 
panels sculptured with St. George (the 
patron saint of the Copts), other 
Saints, and Scriptural subjects. Behind 
the high altar there is a grand flight 
of seven lofty steps of white and 
coloured marbles, the wall above being 
faced with exquisite mosaics, in which 
the ( coloured marbles are intermixed 
with mother-of-pearl and pieces of 
blue opaque glass. This mixture of 
shell with marbles can only be seen in 
a very few of the finest churches and 
mosks, and has a remarkably elegant 
effect. In the space in front of the 
Iconostasis two narrow staircases de- 
scend to a small three-aisled subter- 
ranean chapel with plastered walls, 
apparently of great antiquity. It is 
dedicated to Sitt Miriam (the Lady 
Mary). Two pillars on each side 
divide the side aisles from the centre. 
In the eastern wall of the central aisle 
is a deep cavity or niche with a cross- 



Egypt. 



COPTIC CHURCHES 



169 



slab at the bottom, and with, the side 
and roof carefully finished with hewn 
stones. In the end of the S. aisle is a 
font embedded in stone like a copper, 
and used for the baptism of small 
children. In the side wall of each of 
the side aisles there is another niche, 
at the bottom of each of which is a 
sculptured cross. Tradition reports 
that at the time of the Flight into 
Egypt, the Blessed Virgin and the 
Holy Child rested in one cavity, and 
St. Joseph in tbe other. 

Sitt Miriam (El Moalldka). — A 
church of paramount interest. This 
church, being situated upstairs in one 
of the towers of the Roman Gateway 
of Babylon, and at a considerable 
height frnm the ground, is known as 
" El Moallaka," i.e., " the Suspended." 
The approach is by a lofty staircase, 
with side walls of ancient stone 
masonry, and a vaulted roof of small 
dark-red bricks. It has five aisles, 
supported, as usual in these churches, 
by pillars and capitals torn from 
ancient Greek or Roman buildings. 
Upon these rest beams of wood sculp- 
tured with ancient Coptic inscriptions, 
and above are series of pointed arches. 
From the introduction of the cross 
amidst the Corinthianizing foliage of 
some of the capitals it is evident that 
they belong to the Boman-Christian 
period. In the principal aisle there 
is a remarkable marble pulpit, orna- 
mented with Opus Alexaiidrinum, and 
supported on marble pillars. The 
pulpit staircase is adorned with two 
sculptured crosses. Beneath is the 
tomb of a Coptic Patriarch. The 
principal screen, which is surmounted 
by good paintings of our Lord with 
Saints and Angels, is exquisitely 
sculptured in ebony, cedar wood. :md 
ivory. In a small space to the left of 
the high altar two leaves of a cedar 
door are preserved, which are carved 
with great delicacy and elegance, 
and are of the highest interest. The 
panels are eight in number ; the two 
upper ones represent crosses amidst 
interlacing foliage, below which are 
the following subjects : The Adoration 
: of the Magi, Our Lord's Baptism. Our 
Lord's Triumphant Entry into Jeru- 

[Egypt] 



salem, The Ascension, The Descent 
of the Holy Ghost on the Day of Pen- 
tecost, and another subject, possibly 
the Avowal of St. Peter. In one of 
the aisles is a portion of pavement 
executed in Opus Alexandrinum, and 
there are some good fragments of 
mosaic in the Baptistery. Many of the 
details of this church are extremely 
curious. It also possesses the only 
specimen of a stained-glass window 
to be found around Cairo in a 
Christian church. A door in the 
entry gives access to the interior of one 
of the Boman Gate-towers, which is 
partly used for burials. By another 
door access is obtained to the remark- 
able doorway which bears a long 
Christian inscription in Greek, and 
Christian sculptures upon beams of 
cedar. The capitals which support 
the beams are themselves carved out 
of wood. Unfortunately the beams 
are so built into the wall at one end 
that the beginning of the inscription 
is illegible. It is arranged in four 
lines, and appears, so far as it can be 
deciphered, to cousist of sentences 
from the Greek liturgy. The pre- 
sence of the letters AIOK near the 
end of the last line has led to the 
supposition that the inscription is to 
be referred to the time of the Emperor 
Diocletian, but the debased style of 
the Greek letters would rather point 
to a later origin. Tne sculpture re- 
presents Our Blessed Lord, seated 
within a vescica or nim bus, and on 
either hand are six Apostles, divided 
from each other by rude columns 
or palm-trunks. Beyond the door- 
way is a small chamber with a vaulted 
brick roof. The whole no doubt for- 
merly was a side entrance to the 
original Greek church. It is probable 
that the edifice came into the pos- 
session of the Copts at the time of the 
Muslim conquest, when Arner re- 
warded them for their leady submis- 
sion and aid by making over to them 
various properties belonging to the 
hated fellow-Christians by whom they 
had been so long oppressed. 

The Greek Convent is a large build- 
ing, and contains many objects of 
i 



170 



CAIRO : EXCURSIONS 



ISLAND OF RODA ; 



Sect. II. 



interest. In the church are some 
beautiful specimens of old Arabic and 
Persian tiles. 

The Jewish Synagogue, already al- 
luded to, is the desecrated Christian 
Church of St. Michael, given up 
several centuries since to the Jews, to 
whom a large sum was owed which 
the Copts were unable to pay. In 
plan it resembles a Basilica in minia- 
ture. Above and around the niches 
for the books of the Law are nume- 
rous Hebrew inscriptions amidst 
interlacing foliage executed in wood 
and plaster. A door to the left of the 
building admits to an open space, 
where a fine view is obtained of the 
interior of one of the Eoman bastion- 
towers, and of the inside of the gate 
on the S. side, mentioned above. 

4. Dayr Babldon, preserving the 
name of the Eoman Babylon of Egypt, 
and containing the Church of Sitt 
Miriam. 

5. Dayr Tedreus, containing the 
Church of Sitt Mir. am, and that of 
Aboo Eer wa Hanna. 

Aboo Eer wa Hanna (Honnes).— 
This church has been rebuilt at no 
very remote period. It contains, 
however, several curious objects, pre- 
eminent among which is a magnificent 
silver-gilt Gospel-case, ornamented 
with Arabic and Coptic inscriptions. 
Here are also some fine crimson and 
gold vestments, and a pair of silver- 
gilt girdle-clasps, enriched with niello. 
The relics of Aboo Eer wa Hanna 
are preserved in a chapel to the right 
of the church. The cup and paten of 
this church appear to be ancient. 

6. Dayr Melek Michael (the Arch- 
angel Michael), with the church of 
St. Michael. 

7. Dayr El Admeeh, by the side of 
the Nile, a little on the Cairo side of 
the village of Tooreh. 

It may be added that all these 
ancient churches arc built east and 
west, and in their arrangements and I 



fittings give as accurate a picture of 
early Christian usages as can any- 
where be found. 

Dayrs Nos. 1 and 2 might be taken 
on the visitor's way back to Cairo, 
supposing him to have begun with 
No. 3. 

e. Island of Boda and Nilometer. — 
The Island of Boda lies opposite Old 
Cairo, from which it is separated by a 
canal-like branch of the river. The 
N. part of it was formerly occupied 
by beautiful gardens, planted chiefly 
.by Ibraheem Pasha. Though no 
longer resorted to by the Cairenes as a 
cool and shady retreat in summer, it 
still presents a very pretty and pleas- 
ing appearance. Arab tradition has 
chosen it as the site of the finding of 
Moses by Pharaoh's daughter. 

In the time of the latter princes of 
the Greek empire, Eoda was joined to 
the main land by a bridge of boats, 
for the purpose of keeping up a direct 
communication between Babylon and 
Memphis, which still existed at the 
period of the Arab invasion under 
Amer ; and at a later period the island 
was fortified by the Baharite Memlooks 
with a wall and towers of brick, some 
of which still remain. 

At the S. extremity of the Island is 
the Nilometer, situated in the garden 
of a house, the entrance to which may 
be reached in a boat from Old Cairo. 

The Nilometer, in Arabic Mehheeas 
(measure), is, as its name indicates, 
used for the purpose of measuring the 
height of the Nile. It consists of a 
square well or chamber, in the centre 
of which is a graduated pillar. This 
pillar is divided into 16 cubits, each 
21 T g inches long; the 10 uppermost of 
these cubits are again sub-divided into 
24 digits each, but the 6 lowest are 
separated only by a line. According 
to the measurement of Cairo, where the 
cubit is reckoned at about 14| inches, 
the column contains 24 cubits. Some 
have stated that the cubits are of dif- 
ferent lengths, but this is not the case ; 
though it is certain that no accurate 
calculation can be obtained from a 
column which has been broken and 



Egypt. 



THE NILOMETER. 



171 



repaired in such a maimer that one of | 
the cubits remains incomplete ; and it j 
is evident that the number of cubits of 
the river's rise, as calculated at the 
time of its erection, must differ much 
from that marked by it at the present 
day ; the elevation of the bed of the 
Nile having altered the relative pro- 
portion of the rise of the water, which, 
now passes about one cubit and two- 
thirds above the highest part of the 
column. 

The interior of the building is about 
18 feet square, and was formerly sur- 
mounted by a dome which is said to 
have borne a Curie inscription, and a 
date answering to a d. 848. On each 
side is a recess, about six feet wide, 
and three deep, surmounted by a 
pointed arch. Over each of these 
arches is an inscription in Cufic, and a 
similar inscription rims round the 
upper part of the chamber. They are 
passages from the Koran, relating to 
the "water sent by God from heaven," 
which shows the received opinion of 
the causes of the inundation, first al- 
luded to by Homer in the expression 
Airn-eTeos ttotclu.oio applied to the Nile, 
and occasionally discarded and read- 
mitted by succeeding authors until a 
very late period. The inscriptions have 
no date, but their age may be fixed by 
the character in which they are 
written ; they being the same as that 
used in the mosk of Ebn Tooloon, ami a 
different writing having been intro- 
duced in the century following. The 
fixing of this date is of considerable 
architectural interest, as it affords an 
additional proof of the early use of the 
pointed arch : and if Mr. Lane's date, 
a.d. 861, for the completion of the 
first Nilometer at Roda be accepted 
it follows that the pointed arches here 
seen are 16 years older than those of 
the mosk of Tooloon. 

According to Mr. Lane the first 
Nilometer of Er-Kddah was built 
duriug the Caliphate of El Weleed, 
who reigned from a.d. 705 to 717. 
" This was washed down by the river, 
or, as some say, was pulled down bv 
the order of the Khali ef. h El-Ma- 
moon, about the beginning of the third 
century of the Flight ; but that which 



replaced it was not finished by him ; 
under the Khaleefeh El-Mutawekkil it 
was completed in the beginning of 247 
(a.I). 861). " This is the building now 
existing" (says El-Is-hakee, in bis 
history, which he brought down to 
a.h. 1032). In the year 259, Ebn Too- 
loon went to inspect it and gave orders 
for repairing it ; which was done ; 1000 
deenars were expended on it; the. 
Khaleefeh El-Mustansir is also said to 
have caused some trifling repairs to be 
done to it. But it has undergone very 
slight alteration since the time of El- 
Mutawekkil." 

Diodorus would seem to affirm that 
the first Nilometer in the time of the 
Pharaonic kings was erected at Mem- 
phis, which is repeated by Arab his- 
torians. Herodotus speaks of the 
measurement of the river's rise under 
Mosris, and at the period he visited 
Egypt: a Nilometer is mentioned at 
Eileithyias, of thy time of the Ptole 
mies : that of Elephantine is described 
by Strabo ; and from the inscriptions 
remaining there we know it to have 
been used in the reigns of the early 
Eoman emperors. A movable Nilo- 
meter was preserved till the time of 
Constantine in the Temple of Serapis 
at Alexandria, and was then trans- 
ferred to a church in that city, where 
it remained until restored to the Sara- 
peum by Julian. Theodosius after- 
wards removed it again, when that 
building was destroyed by his order. 

" Remains of an ancient Nilometer 
existed in the time of El-Makreezee in 
the Deyr-el Benat in the Ka?r-eshn 
Shema; which was the Milometer 
before El-Islam." The first Nilometer 
built in Egypt after the Arab conquest 
is ascribed to Abel el Azee'z, brother of 
the Caliph Abd el Melek, erected at 
Helwau about the year 700 ; but being 
found not to answer there, a new one 
was made by his successor El Weleed, 
as already stated, in the Isle of Ro 'a. 
Mamoon built another at the village 
of Benbenoo.la, in the Saeed, and re- 
paired an ancient one at l.khrneem. 
These are perhaps the oldest con- 
structed by the Arab kings ; though 
Kalkasendas pretends that Omar has 
I a prior claim to this honour. 

i 2 



172 



CAIEO ; EXCUESIONS : THE PYEAMIDS ; 



Sect. II. 



The rise of the Nile as measured by 
the Mlometer of Koda is proclaimed 
in the streets of Cairo every day 
during the inundation by several criers, 
to each of whom a particular district 
is allotted. Their duties begin the 
first week in July, soon after the com- 
mencement of the rise, and continue 
until the end of September when the 
river has reached its greatest height. 
The ceremony of the cutting of the 
Canal already described takes place 
when the river has reached, according 
to the official declaration, the sixteenth 
cubit of the Kilometer ; but the 
actual rise of the river at the time 
of the ''Wefa en-Neel," (the com- 
pletion, or abundance of the Nile) as 
it is termed, is generally about twenty 
or twenty-one feet in the neighbour- 
hood of the metropolis. Twenty-two 
cubits is reckoned by the Cairenes as a 
perfect inundation. From 24 to 26 
feet may be taken as the ordinary 
maximum of the rise at Cairo. 

A full account of all the observances 
in connexion with the rise of the Nile 
will be found in Lane's ' Modern 
Egyptians,' from which the above 
particulars have been principally 
taken. 

The view from the terrace of the 
palace at the S. point of Koda is ani- 
mated and interesting. Immediately 
to the left is the port of Old Cairo, one 
of the principal ferry-stations between 
the two banks. Boats of all sizes, con- 
taining a curious medley of human 
beings, camels, and donkeys, are con- 
stantly passing ; and it is difficult to 
say which is the most striking and the 
least pleasing, the bray of the donkey, 
the roar of the camel, or the harsh 
shrieks of the passengers and the 
boatmen disputing over the fare. 
The traveller of the present day, who 
can loll in his carriage all the way to 
the Pyramids, loses the annoyance 
and the interest of the ferry-crossing 
between Old Cairo and Geezeh, which 
used to be a principal feature in that 
excursion. The Nile is here seen in 
its full width and grandeur, and the 
eye can follow its course for some 
distance S. To the right are mag- 
nificent palm-groves stretching for 



miles along the plain, and behind 
them, on the edge of the desert, rises a 
long line of pyramids reaching from 
Geezeh to Dashdor. 

On the return home, the route may 
be varied by taking the road to the 
right after passing under the aque- 
duct. This will lead by the Chris- 
tian cemeteries and the two Coptic 
convents of Meri Mena, and Aboo 
Sepheen described above, to the mosk 
of Seyyideh Zeyneb, and thence to the 
Esbekeeyah. 

Excursion VI.— The Pyramids. 

a. Preliminary Observations. b. 
Drive to the Pyramids. Boolak. Ge- 
zeereh. Geezeh. c. The History and 
Object of pyramidal buildings in 
Egypt, d. The pyramid platform of 
Geezeh. e. The Great Pvramid. f. 
The Second Pyramid. g.'The Third 
Pyramid, h. Other small Pyramids. 
*. The Sphinx, h. Tombs. I. The 
Causeways, m. Pyramid of Aboo- 
roash. n. Pyramids of Abooseer. 

a. Preliminary Observations. — The 
excursion to the Pyramids is no 
longer what it used to be. Carriages, 
a bridge over the Nile, and a macadam- 
ised road have superseded donkeys, 
the ferry at Geezeh, and the tortuous 
dusty footpath. It is no longer neces- 
sary, however high the Nile may be, 
to go many miles out of the way in 
order to avoid some canal or fields 
under water. Starting in a carriage 
from the Esbekeeyah, the Pyramids 
may be reached at any time of year 
in 1^ hour by the excellent high road, 
which lies above the reach of the 
inundation, and crossing all the prin- 
cipal canals on stone bridges, leads up 
to the very base of the Great Pyramid 
itself. Some will regret the change, 
and not appreciate the facilities afford- 
ed to the European ol iroKKoi of Cairo, 
for aiding in the task already too well 
performed by those who should know 
better, of disfiguring the monuments ; 
while others may think that in a coun- 
try where to lay a railroad is easier 
than to make a road, a first-class car- 
riage and a locomotive would be a de- 



Egypt 



DRIVE TO THE PYRAMIDS. 



173 



sirable and obvious improvement upon 
a rickety chaise and a pair of screw-. 

The whole excursion to the Pyra- 
mids from Cairo and back, may be 
" done " in five or six hours ; but those 
who are not pressed for time will do 
well to devote a whole day to it. Leav- 
ing Cairo at a rnoilerately early hour — 
say 8 - 30 a.m.. there will be time to drive 
to the Pyramids, make the ascent of the 
Great Pyramid, and visit the interior 
before the middle of the day ; two hours 
may then be devoted to luncheon and 
rest, and plenty of time will still remain 
for the other two pyramids, the sphinx, 
and the tombs. The hire of a car- 
riage will be from 16 shillings to 11., 
whether the whole, or part of a day 
be employed. For a donkey four 
shillings. 

As the ascent of the Great Pyramid, 
and the groping into the interior are 
very fatiguing, ladies who are not very 
strong will do well to send on donkeys 
from Cairo, to carry them about to the 
Sphinx and other objects of interest. 
The monopoly of acting as guides is in 
the hands of the inhabitants of the 
village on the edge of the plain close 
to the Pyramids, commonly called the 
Pyramid Bedaween, and their Sheykh 
is responsible for the good behaviour of 
his nitn. and the safety of visitors. 
There is a regular tariff of 2 shillings 
which should be paid to the Sheykh. 
and for which he is bound to furnish 
two or, if desired, three men to assist 
in making the ascent, and visiting 
the interior. This should not be paid 
in advance, and the traveller should 
decidedly refuse the assistance of any 
men. except those appointed by the 
Sheykh. If he is accompanied by a 
dragoman it will be better to leave the 
settlement of everything in his hands, 
making him distinctly understand that 
he is to arrange it all. and prevent all 
annoyance as much as possible. Of 
all pestilent nuisances to which the 
sight-seeing traveller is subjected in 
the course of his wanderings, the 
Pyramid Arabs are by far the worst, 
and the pleasure of the trip is often 
spoiled by the annoyauce and weari- 
ness caused by their importunities. 
Perhaps the best plan is to choose one 



as a special attendant, and make his 
backsheesh dependent on the manner in 
which he keeps off the others. 

It may be taken for granted that, as 
a rule, any so-called antiquity offered 
for sale at the Pyramids is not 
genuine. Things of small value, such 
as bits of mummy-clot n. beads, &c., 
may be old. as there is an inexhaustible 
supply of them at Sakkarah, and if 
they are not of very remote date the 
investment is not larse enough to be 
a matter of regret : but so-called an- 
tique gems and other articles, for 
which a comparatively high price is 
asked, are almost invariably counter- 
feit. When the Pyramid Arabs have 
got a good thing, they do not offer it 
at first hand to the European sight- 
seer. 

All who desire to see well the in- 
terior of the King's Chamber, inside 
the Great Pyramid, should take some 
magnesium wire with them. A rope 
ladder is necessary for those who wish 
to see any of the other chambers. 
Candles will also be wanted for the 
passages in the pyramids and for some 
of the tombs. 

It is possible to go to the Pyramids, 
and then on to Sakkarah, or vice versa, 
and back to Cairo in one day, but it is 
a very long day's work, and not to be 
recommended. By taking tents, how- 
ever, and camping out at either of the 
two places, the two excursions may 
very pleasantly be combined in one. 
(See Exclusion vii., Sakkarah, a.) 

b. Drive to the Pyramids. Booldh. 
Gezeereh. Geezeh. — The route for a 
short distance is the same as to Old 
Cairo ; it then turns to the right to 
Kasr-en-Nil. and crosses the river over 
a handsome iron bridge above Boolak. 
Although few will probably stop, either 
going or coming back, to visit Boolak, 
it will be convenient to introduce here 
a short description of what there is 
to be seen in that suburb of Cairo : 
premising that all the things to be 
mentioned, with the exception of the 

j Museum, will require an order for see- 
ing them, and that none of them are 

| worth the trouble of a visit except to 

j any one specially interested. 



174 



CAIEO : EXCUKSIONS : THE PYRAMIDS 



Sect. II.. 



Booldh, as has been already said, j the wrecks of houses, once the summer 
may be called the port of Cairo. From j retreats of the Memlooks and Cairenes. 
Ka*r-en-Nil to opposite Embabeh, the \ At the time of the Memlooks it was 
bank is crowded with boats of all j fortified, and formed, with the Isle of 
kinds, and decidedly the best view of ! Boda, a line of defences which com- 
Boolak is that which may be obtained I manded or protected the approach to 
from the river. Beginning from the the capital. Leo Africanus calls it a 



South end, the first object of interest 
is the Museum already described. 
Next come the stables of the Khe- 
dive, seen on the right immediately 
after leaving the avenue. Permission 
to see them can be obtained by apply- 
ing to M. de St. Maurice, the Master 
of the Horse. Continuing from the 
Museum, we reach, after passing- 
through the most crowded part of the 
narrow main street of Boolak, the 
Government Printing Establishment, 
at which are printed works, both in 
Arabic and the European tongues ; 
lithography is also done, and there is 
a drawing-school. Next to the Print- 
ing-house is a paper mill, the first 
built in Egypt ; a very good kind of 
paper is made there of the grass called 
" hilfeh." A little further on, still on 
the river-side of the road, is the Arse- 
nal, presenting no feature of interest. 
And nearly opposite the entrance to it 
is the building in which the lunatics 
are lodged ; most of the inmates are 
harmless, violent cases being seldom 
known : the so-called santons, or saints, 
who, under the protection of their real 
or pretended madness, used to infest 
the streets of Cairo, and practise all 
kinds of horrors, have suffered from 
the effect of advancing civilisation, 
and are confined here as lunatics. 

We now return to the direct road 
to the Pyramids. After crossing the 
river-, and leaving on the right Gezeereh 
and its palace (see §16), the drive 
enters a beautiful avenue of lebbeTch 
trees leading to the palace of Geezeh, 
a summer retreat, built by the present 
Khedive. It is not shown to visitors. 
After passing it, the direct road to 
the Pyramids crosses a large camping- 
ground, and turns to the right, leaving 
the town and station of Geezeh on 
the left. 

The Coptic name of Geezeli was 
Tpersioi. It is now a mere village, 
with a few cafe's, ruined bazaars, and 



city, beautified by the palaces of the 
Memlooks, who there sought retire- 
ment from the bustle of Cairo, and 
frequented by numerous merchants 
and artisans. It was also the great 
market for sheep, brought, as he says, 
from the mountains of Barca, whose 
owners, the Arabs, fearing to cross the 
river, sold their stock there to agents 
from the city. The mosks and beau- 
tiful buildings by the river's side are 
no longer to be seen at Geezeh : and 
the traveller, as he approaches it from 
the river, wanders amidst uneven 
heaps of rubbish, and the ill-defined 
limits of potters' yards, till he issues 
from a breach in the crumbling Mem- 
look walls into the open plain. No 
one is likely to turn aside on his way 
to the Pyramids, to look at Geezeh, 
and its name only will claim his 
notice, as distinguishing the locality of 
the Pyramids par excellence of Egypt. 

From Geezeh the road continues 
along the cultivated land in one un- 
broken straight line ; and a glaring, 
dusty highway it is, though the trees 
on each side give promise in a short 
time of a shady avenue. The em- 
bankment, on the top of which the 
road runs, is a very broad and sub- 
stantial one. The inundation finds an 
exit through two bridges. The first to 
drive to the Pyramids without a break, 
were the Prince and Princess of Wales, 
in 1868. The inundation of that 
year washed the bridges and some of 
the road away, but they were repaired 
for the Suez Canal fetes in 1869, and 
have successfully stood the test since 
then ; a result in some measure owing 
to the better system of canalisation 
inagurated in Upper Egypt, and the 
consequent diminution in the rush of 
the inundation by the time it reaches 
Cairo. It is, no doubt, a great conveni- 
ence to be able to drive to the Pyramids 
in an hour and a half, along a good 
road ; but the sense of the convenience 



Egypt. 



DRIVE TO THE PYRAMIDS. 



175 



is tempered by regret at the loss of 
much, that was picturesque aud striking 
in the old round-about donkey ride. 
The principle features of this ride, as 
it used to be, are thus well described — 
" The plain we now traversed, being- 
intersected in various directions by 
canals, and partly covered by broad 
sheets of water, the remains of the 
iuundation, between which in many 
places lay the road, over slippery 
causeways, or banks of earth, barely 
wide enough to admit of one person's 
riding along them at a time. Large 
flights of ibises (?), as white as snow, 
continually kept hovering above us, or 
alighted on the lakes, while several 
other kinds of water-fowl, of brilliant 
plumage, were scattered, here and 
there in flocks. A great portion of 
the plain was covered with forests of 
date-palms, of magnificent growth; 
planted in regular lines, and springing 
up from a level carpet of grass, or 
growing corn of the brightest green. 
Interspersed among these woods, and 
numerous smaller groves of tamarisk- 
and acacias, were the villages, mos- 
ques, and Sheikh's tombs; not un- 
pleasing objects when beheld by a 
cheerful eye. 

" As owing to the quantity of water 
which still remained from the inun- 
dation, the pathway turned in various 
directions, and proceeded in a very 
circuitous manner; we often seemed 
to be moving towards the east, and 
caught a view of the Mokattam 
Mountains : frequently the Pyramids 
of Sakkarah, Abousir, and Dashour 
became visible in the distance towards 
the south ; but though they were many 
in number, I could discern no more 
than seven. The appearance of the 
country continued extremely fine, 
and the rocks and grey sand-hills of 
the desert, which bounded our view 
towards the west, seemed only to 
enhance by contrast the splendour of 
the intervening landscapes. It would 
appear to be mere prejudice to suppose, 
that a fine level country like Egypt, 
contemplated through an atmosphere 
of extraordinary purity, with a surface 
diversified by all the accidents of wood 
a id water, rustic architecture, flocks 



and herds, or hemmed in by rocks 
and sands eternally barren, must 
necessarily be insipid and unpictur- 
esque. The landscape now before me 
was beautiful, and there are art ; sts in 
England who, from such materials, and 
without overstepping the modesty of 
nature, couid create pictures to rival 
the softest scene among the works of 
Claude. The date-palm itself is a 
lovely object ; far more lovely than I 
have ever seen it represented by the 
pencil ; and when beheld in its native 
country, relieved against a deep blue 
sky, or against tlie yellow sands of the 
desert, with a herd of buffaloes, a 
long string of laden camels, or a troup 
of Bedouins passing under it, lance in 
hand, it constitutes a perfect picture. 
But when we have before us a whole 
forest of these trees, of all sizes, from 
ten to one hundred feet in height, 
intermingled with mimosas, acacias, 
tamarisks, and Egyptian sycamores, 
more noble, if possible, than the oak, 
disposed in arched echoing walks, 
with long green vistas, glimpses of 
cool, shady lakes, villages, mosques, 
pyramids, the whole ever canopied by 
a sky of stainless splendour, and glow- 
ing beneath the pencil of that arch 
painter, the sun, nothing seems to be 
wanting but genius to discover the 
elements of the most magnificent land- 
scapes." — J. St. John. 

The view from the present high-road 
over the fertile plain on each side is a 
very beautiful one, especially in the 
month of January, when everything is 
green ; and the back-ground of pyra- 
mid and desert in going, and of Cairo 
and its citadel and the Mokattam 
hills in retundng, are worthy settings 
to the picture. 

The sportsman, too, will regard it 
with no less interest than the artist, 
as, in the months of March and April, 
the fields of clover, corn, and vetch, 
abound in quail, and bags of 30 or 40 
brace are often made by two guns in 
a few hours. 

Most travellers have expressed their 
sense of disappointment on approach- 
ing the Pyramids, so vast at a distance, 
so apparently insignificant when only 
a short way off — a feeling not dispelled 



176 



CAIRO : EXCURSIONS 



THE PYRAMIDS ; 



Sect. II. 



until one stands close under the Great 
Pyramid. '■ I found the best way of 
getting an inirr jssive idea of the enor- 
mous magnitude of these pyramids, 
was to place myself in the centre of 
one side and to look up. The eye thus 
travels over all the courses of stone, 
from the very bottom to the apex, 
which appears literally to pierce the 
blue vault above. This way of looking 
at the Great Pyramid — perhaps it is a 
way which exaggerates to the eye its 
magnitude unfairly — makes it look 
alpine in height, while it produces the 
strange effect just noticed." — Bev. B. 
Zincke. 

On the right of the road, just as it 
reaches the desert and begins to ascend 
the rocky platform on which the Pyra- 
mids stand, is a building intended for 
an hotel. Emerging from between the 
walls which keep this last portion of 
the road from being buried in sand, the 
traveller finds himself at the foot of 
the Great Pyramid. 

c. Tiie History and Object of pyra- 
midal buildings in Egypt. — What may 
be called the Pyramid Field of Egypt, 
extends in a long series of groups, over 
about three parts of a degree of lati- 
tude, from Abooroash in the N.. to 
Illahoon, in the Fyoom, in the S. 
The number contained within that 
space has been variously estimated ; 
but may be taken at nearly one 
hundred. Brick pyramidal structures 
are also found at Thebes. In Ethiopia, 
near Napata (Meroe), there are also 
many similar structures. Of the pyra- 
mids of Egypt, the oldest is, probably, 
the large one of Sakkarah, built in de- 
grees ; (see Exc. vii.). Stone is the 
material employed in building them, 
with a few exceptions, such as the 
crude brick ones at Dashoor, in the 
Fyoom, and at Thebes ; all of which, 
however, are probably of a later date 
than the stone ones. The "law of 
Egyptian pyramid building" has been 
thus described, according to the theory 
of Lepsius and Mr. Wild : " A rocky 
site was first chosen and a space 
made smooth, except a slight emi- 
nence in the centre, to form a peg 
upon which the structure should be 



fixed. Within the rock, and usually 
below the level of the future base, a 
sepulchral chamber was excavated, 
with a passage, inclining downwards, 
leading to it from the north. Upon 
the rock was first raised a moderate 
mass of masonry, of nearly a cubic 
form, but having its four sides inclined 
inwards, upon this a similar mass was 
placed ; and around, other such masses, 
generally about half as wide. At this 
stage, the edifice could be completed 
by a small pyramidal structure being 
raised on the top, and the sides of the 
steps filled in, the whole being ulti- 
mately cased, and the entrance passage, 
which had of course been continued 
through the masonry, securely closed; 
or else the work could be continued ou 
the same principle. In this manner it- 
was possible for the building of a pyra- 
mid to occupy the lifetime of its founder 
without there being any risk of his 
leaving it incomplete." 

Many have been the ideas pro- 
pounded, as to the purpose which 
pyramids were intended to serve. 
Temples, granaries, observatories, 
tombs, and many other notions, have 
all had their advocates ; but it is now 
a pretty generally accepted fact among 
Egyptologists, that they were simply 
tombs : that in fact, during a certain 
period of Egyptian history, it was 
customary to raise a structure of pyra- 
midal form, varying in size according 
to the importance of the owner, over 
every tomb of any consequence — a 
theory which the uniform subterranean 
chamber and descending passage found 
beneath every pyramid yet examined 
seems to confirm. How far it is [ap- 
plicable to the special case of the 
Great Pyramid, with its complicated 
arrangement of chambers in the very 
heart of the structure, is not a ques- 
tion that need be decided here. Many- 
learned men have seen, in the elabo- 
rate structure of the Great Pyramid, 
a wider intention and a more abstruse 
meaning; and the latest and most 
able opponent of the tomb theory as 
applied to the Great Pyramid, Mr. 
Piazzi Smyth, has written a learned 
work, to prove that it is a "metrological 
monument," intended to serve as a 



Egypt. 



PYRAMID PLATFORM OF GEEZEH. 



177 



standard for all kinds of measures. 
Some think they served for astrono- 
mical purposes as well as for tombs. 
The latest authority, M. Mariette, thus 
speaks decisively in favour of their 
being nothing but tombs : " With re- 
gard to the object for which the Pyra- 
mids were destined, it is contrary to all 
that we know of Egypt, to all that ar- 
chaeology has taught us of the monu- 
mental customs of that country, to s^e 
in them anything but tombs. The 
pyramids, such as they are, are tombs ; 
massive, complete, hermetically sealed 
everywhere, even to the most carefully 
constructed passages, without windows, 
without doors, without any external 
opening. They are the gigantic and 
for ever impenetrable casing of a 
mummy ; and the fact that one alone 
among them has accessible interior 
chambers, from which astronomical 
observations might have been made, 
as from the bottom of a well, only 
proves that such was not the purpose 
for which it was originally destined. 
It is useless to argue that the orient- 
ation of the four sides denotes some 
astronomical object. The four sides 
are thus accurately arranged because 
they are dedicated for mythological 
reasons to the four cardinal points, 
ami tuerefore, in a monument so care- 
fully finishc! as a pyramid is, a side 
dedicated to the north for instance, 
would not face any other point but the 
north. The pyramids then, are only 
tombs ; and the enormous size of some 
of them can furnish no argument 
against this conclusion, since there are 
many not more than twenty feet high. 
Be it remarked, moreover, that there 
is not in Egypt a single pyramid that 
is not situated in a necropolis ; a fact 
enough of itself to settle the question 
of their destination." 

The hieroglyphic word for pyramid 
appears to be br-br, though some have 
derived the word " pyramid " itself 
from Pi-Kama, the " mountain ;" it is 
probably, however, of Greek origin, and 
may b« derived either direct from 7rCp, 
fire, or, following Mr. Taylor, quoted 
by Mr. Piazzi Smyth, from irvpos, 
wheat, and [isrpov, measure : or it 
may he referred to the TTvpafxovs or 



-Kvpafus, a pointed cake used in the 
rites of Bacchus— the object of com- 
mon life suggesting a name for the 
mathematical solid. With regard 
both to the derivation of the word 
and the purpose of the thing, we 
may come to the most satisfactory 
conclusion with Lord Lindsay, when he 
says : — "Temples or tombs, monuments 
of tyranny, or of priestly wisdom, no 
theory, as to the meaning of the 
pyramids, 

' Those glorious works of fine intelligence,' 

has been broached so beautiful, to my 
mind, as old Sandys's ; who, like Mil- 
ton and the ancients, believing them 
modelled in imitation of ' that formless 
formtaking substance,' fire, conceives 
them to express the ' or 'ginal of things.' 
' For as a pyramis, beginning at a point 
by little and little dilateth into all 
parts, so nature, proceeding from an in- 
dividual fountain, even God, the 
Sovereign Essence, receiveth diversity 
of form, effused into several kinds and 
multitudes of figures, uniting all 
in the supreme head, from whence all 
excellencies issue.' A truth that will 
outlive the pyramids." 

d. The Pyramid platform of 
Geezeli. — The rocky plateau on which 
stand the Pyramids of Geezeh, was 
from the time of the IVth dynasty one 
of the cemeteries of Memphis. It is 
elevated about 100 feet above the 
plain, and forms a sort of promontory 
in the Libyan chain, whose greatest 
]3rojection is towards the north-east. 
Thy principal monuments situated on 
this platform are the Sphinx, and the 
three large pyramids known as the 
Great Pyramid, or Pyramid of Cheops, 
the Second Pyramid, or Pyramid of 
Ch-phren, and the Third Pyramid, 
or Pyramid of Mycerinus ; in addition 
to which there are several smaller pyra- 
mids, and many ordinary tombs. The 
rock is what is commonly called num- 
mirlite limestone, abounding in fossil 
remains, and nummulites of the kind 
called Nautilus Mammilla, or Lenti- 
cularis. They were mistaken by Strabo 
for the petrified residue of the lentils 
and barley, that formed the staple food 
I 3 



TOPOGRAPHICAL PLAN OF THE PYRAMIDS OF GEEZEH. 
A, Real and forced entrance to the great pyramid. B, entrance to the second pyramid. 
C C, Long pits, by some supposed for mixing the mortar. D, Pyramid of the daughter of Cheops 
(Herodotus, ii. 126). E, Pavement of black stories (basaltic trap), tbe same as found on the cause- 
ways of the pyramids of Sakkara. F, Remains of masonry. G, Round enclosures of crude brick, 
of Arab date, at n.e. angle 'of this pyramid. H, Tombs of individuals, with deep pits. I, The 
tomb of numbers. K, Two inclined passages, meeting under ground, apparently once belonging 
to a small pyramid that stood over them. L L, 'lhe rock is here cut to a level surface. M, 
A narrow and s-hallow trench cut in the rock. N, A square space cut in the rock, probably to 
receive and support the corner-stone of the casing of the pyramid. Tbe corner itself is of rock. 
P, Here stood a tomb which has received the title of the Temple of Osiris. Q, Tomb of trades, to 
west of tombs H. R, A pit cased with stone, of modern date. S, The third pyramid. T, Three 
small pyramids. In the centre one is the name of a king. (See below, p. 192.) U V, Temples 
ia iront of second and third pyramids. W W W, Fragments of stone arranged in the manner of 
a wall. X, A few palms and sycamores, with a well. Y, Southern stone causeway. Z, Northern 
causeway, repaired by the Caliphs, a, Tombs cut in the rock, b, Masonry, c, Black stones. 
d d, Tombs cut in the rock, e, The sphinx. /, Granite and alabaster temple, with oval of Chephren, 
builder of second pyramid : in it was found the large statue of Chpphren, now in the museum at 
Cairo, g, Pits, h, Stone ruin on a rock, i. Doorway, or passage through the southern causeway. 
Jc, A grotto in the rock, and above to the s.e. are pits at t. I, Inclined causeway, part of Y. 
to n, Tombs in the rocks, o, Some hieroglyphics on the rock, and trenches below, cut when the 
squared blocks were taken away, p, Tombs cut in the scarp of the rock, q. Stone wall, r, Steps 
cut in the rock, near tbe N.w. angle of the great pyramid. M N, m s, Magnetic North and South, 
in 1832 and 1836: T IV is True North, u, Campbell's tomb, v. Arched tomb, with name of 
Psammitichus. w, A tomb with figures in relief and the Egyptian curved cornice. The con- 
structed tombs at H, and behind the rocks, d d, are less regularly disposed than in the plan, but it 
s difficult to define them exactly on so small a scale. 



Egypt 



THE GREAT 



PYRAMID. 



179 



of the workmen employed in building \ 
the pyramids, and when we see the 
views of the present day, we readily 
forgive the geographer for his fanciful 
conclusion. 

e. The Great Pyramid. — The first 
visitor to Egypt who left any record 
of his travels was Herodotus, 2300 
years ago, and he thus relates the 
history of the building of this Pyramid. 
. . . . Cheops succeeded to the throne, 
and at once plunged into all manner of 
wickedness. He closed all the temples, 
and forbade the Egyptians to perform 
sacrifices ; after which he made them 
all work for him. Some were em- 
ployed in the quarries of the Arabian 
hills, to cut stones, to drag them to the 
river, and to put them into boats, 
others being stationed on the opposite 
shore to receive them, and drag them 
to the Libyan hills ; and the 100,000 
men thus occupied were relieved by 
an equal number every three months. 
Of the time," he adds " passed in this 
arduous undertaking, 10 years were 
taken up with the construction of the 
causeway for the transport of the 
stones,— a work scarcely less wonder- 
ful in my opinion than the pyramid 
itself; for it has 5 stades in length, 10 
orgyes in breadth, and 8 in height in 
the highest part, and is constructed of 
polished stones, sculptured with the 
figures of animals. These 10 years 
were occupied exclusively in the caues- 
way, independently of the time spent 
in levelling the hill on which the pyra- 
mids stand, and in making the subter- 
ranean chambers intended for his tomb 
in an island formed by the waters of 
the Nile, which he couducted thither 
by a canal. The building of the 
pyramid itself occupied 20 years. It is 
square, each face measuring 8 plethra 
in length, and the same in height. 
The greater part is of polished stones, 
most carefully put together, no one of 
which is less than 30 feet long. 

" This pyramid w,>s built in steps, 
and, as the work proceeded, the stones 
were raised from the ground by means 
of machines made of short pieces of 
wood. When a block had been brought 
to the first tier, it was placed in a 



machine there, and so on from tier to 
tier by a succession of similar machines, 
there being as many machines as tiers 
of stone ; or perhaps one served for the 
purpose, being moved from tier to tier 
as each stone was taken up. I mention 
this, because I have heard both stated. 
When completed in this manner, they 
proceeded to make out (the form of) 
the pyramd, beginning from the top, 
and thence downwards to the lowest 
tier. On the exterior was engraved 
in Egyptian characters the sum expen- 
ded in supplying the workmen with 
raphanu^ onions, and garlic ; and he 
who interpreted the inscription told me, 
as I remember well, that it amounted 
to 1600 talents (200,000Z. sterling.") 
" If that be true, how much must have 
been spent on the iron tools, the food 
and clothing of the workmen, employ- 
ing as they did, all the time above 
mentioned, without counting that 
occupied in cutting and transporting 
the stones and making the subterrane- 
ous chambers, which must have been 
considerable !" 

Diodorus, the next authority in point 
of time, says that " Chembis (or 
Chemmis), a Memphite, who reigned 50 
years, built the largest of the three 
pyramids, which are reckoned among 
the seven wonders of the world. They 
stand on the Libyan side (of the Nile), 
distant from Memphis 120 stadia, and 
45 from the river. They strike every 
beholder with wonder, both from their 
size and the skill of their workmanship ; 
for every side of the largest, at the base, 
is 7 plethra in length, and more than 
6 in height. Decreasing in size to- 
wards the summit, it there measures 
6 cubits (9 feet.) The whole is of 
solid stone, made with prodigious 
labour, and in the most durable 
manner, having lasted to our time, a 
period not less than 1000 years, or, as 
some say, upwards of 3400 ; the stones 
still preserving their original position, 
and the whole structure being un- 
injured. The stone is said to have 
been brought from Arabia, a consider- 
able distance, and the building made 
by means of mounds (inclined planes), 
machines not having yet been invented. 
What is most surprising is that, 



180 



CAIRO : EXCURSIONS : THE PYRAMIDS ; 



Sect. II. 



though these structures are of such 
great antiquity, and all the surround- 
ing ground is of so sandy a nature, 
there is no trace of a mound, nor 
vestige of the chippings of the stone : 
so that the whole seems as if placed 
on the surrounding sand by the aid 
of some deity, rather than by the sole 
and gradual* operations of man. Some 
of the Egyptians try to make wonder- 
ful stories about them, saying that the 
mounds (inclined planes) were made of 
salt and nitre, which by directing the 
water of the river upon them, were 
afterwards dissolved without human 
aid when the work was completed. 
This cannot be true; but the same 
number of hands that raised the 
mounds removed the whole to the 
original place whence they were 
brought. Fur it is reported that 
360,000 men were employed in this 
work, and the time occupied in finish- 
ing the whole was scarcely less than 
20 years." 

Pliny says, "The largest pyramid 
is built of stones from the Arabian 
quarries ; 366,000 men are said to have 
been employed for 20 years in its con- 
struction ; and the three were all made 
in 68 years and 1 months. Those who 
have written about flu m are Herodotus, 
Euhemerus, Duris of Samos, Arista- 
gorus, Dionysius, Artemidorus, Alex- 
ander Polyhistor, Butori Antisthenes, 
Demetrius, Demoteles, Apion; and 
yet no one of them shows satisfac- 
torily by whom they were built : a 
proper reward to the authors of such 
vanity that their names should be 
buried in oblivion. 

Some have affirmed that 1800 
talents were spent in raph anus-roots, 
garlic, and onions. The largest covers 
a space of 8 acres (jugera), with 4 faces 
of equal size from corner to- corner, and 
each measuring 883 feet ; the breadth 
at the summit being 25 feet. 

;£ No vestiges of houses remain near 
them, but merely pure sand on every 
side, with something like lentils, com- 
mon in the greater part of Africa. 
The principal question is. how the 
blocks were carried up to such a 
height? For some suppose that 
mounds, composed of nitre and salt, 




were gradually formed as the work 
advanced, and were afterwards dissol- 
ved by the water of the river as soon 
as it was finished; others, that bridges 
were made of mud -bricks, which, 
when the work was completed, were 
used to build private houses; since 
the Nile, being on a lower level, could 
not be brought to the spot." 

Modern research has decided that 
| the Cheops of Herodotus is identical 
I with the Suphis of Manetho, and 
the Shoofoo of the Tablets of 
Abydos and Sakkaiak, the 3rd King 
of the rVtk dynasty, reigning at 
Memphis some time between 1235 B.C.. 
and 2150 B.C., according to the system 
of chronology adopted. His hierogly- 
phic name, Shoofoo, (a), is 
found in the Great Pyramid 
on bricks and in the upper- 
most chamber, and in some 
of the tombs of the platform. 
The story of his wickedness, 
and of the way in which he 
oppressed the Egyptians is incon- 
sistent with the testimony of certain 
contemporary monuments, which re- 
present him as treated as a divinity, 
and specially worshipped. ■* Manetho' s 
account, " that he was arrogant to- 
wards the gods ; but, repenting, he 
wrote the Sacred Book " seems to 
reconcile both views of his character. 

The statement of the three writers 
already cited, that Cheops's Pyramid 
was built with stone from the quarries 
of the Arabian mountains, is partly 
true, as much of the material comes 
from the magnesian limestone quar- 
ries of Toora, at Gebel Masarali, a 
continuation of the Mokattam range, 
a few miles south of Cairo, but the 
nummulite limestone of the neigh- 
bouring rock has also been largely 
employed. The causeway along which 
the stone from the other side of the 
river was brought will be found de- 
scribed further on (?.). Traces of a 
similar causeway have been observed 
between G ebel Masarah and the Nile, 
which probably served for the convey- 
ance of the stone from the quarry to the 
river. Herodotus' s expression, that the 
" greater part is of polished stone, most 
carefully put together," corroborated 



Egypt. 



THE GEE AT 



PYRAMID. 



181 



by similar statements of Plato, Pliny, 
and early Arabian authors, though con- 
jectured to mean that the Great Pyra- 
mid had, originally, a smooth and even 
surface, similar to what may still be 
seen at the top of the Second Pyramid, 
received no proof until the discovery 
by Col. Howard Vyse, in 1837, of two 
of the " casing stones." in situ. They 
were blocks of limestone from the 
Toora quarries 4 feet 11 inches in per- 
pendicular' height, and 8 feet 3 inches 
long, the outer face sloping with, an 
angle of 51° 50'. After this discovery, 
there was no longer any doubt that 
the spaces between the several corners 
of the Pyramid bad been filled in with 
similar blocks, which after insertion, 
had been shaped to the required 
angle, and then polished to an uni- 
form surface. It is conjectured that 




these stones, with the exception of 
the two found by Col. Vyse, were 
taken away dming the time of the 
Caliphs, for building purposes at Cairo. 
They were in their place, in the time 
of Abd-el-Lateef. who speaks of the 
extreme nicety with which the stones 
of which the pyramid is constructed 
have been prepared and adjusted, a 
nicety so precise that not even a needle 
or hair can be inserted between any 
two of them. The same author corro- 
borates Herodotus in his assertion, that 
these polished exterior stones were 
covered with writing, and adds. 
il These inscriptions are so numerous, 
that if those only, which are seen 
on the surface of these two pyramids 
were copied upon paper, more than 
10.000 pages would be filled with 
them." The stones which now appear 
on the exterior are of various sizes, 
varying from 2 feet to 5 feet in depth : 



the first layer is laid in the rock, and 
the others, each receding about a foot, 
form, as it were, a staircase. The 
mortar used appears to be made of 
crushed red bricks, gravel, sand, Nile 
mad, and lime. 

The method employed in the con- 
struction of pyramids has been already 
described, and is applicable in all its 
general features to the Great Pyra- 
mid. The rock has been carefully 
levelled all round, and a nucleus of 
native rock, about 22 feet high, left 
in the interior. As to how the stones 
were raised into their places and 
what was the form of the machines 
mentioned by Herodotus, nothing is 
known. " The notion of Diodorus 
that machines were not yet invented, 
is sufficiently disproved by common 
sense, and by the assertion of Hero- 
dotus. It is certainly singular, that 
the Egyptians, who have left behind 
them so many records of their customs, 
should have omitted every explanation 
of then mode of raising the enormous 
blocks they used. Some have ima- 
gined inclined planes, without recol- 
lecting what their extent woidd be 
when of such a height of length of 
base; and, though the inclined plane 
may have been employed for some 
purposes, as it was in sieges by the 
Assyrians and others, as a "bank" 
(2 Kings xix. 32 ; 2 Samuel xx. ] 5) 
for running up the movable towers 
against a perpendicular wall, it would 
be difficult to ail apt it to the sloping 
face of a pyramid, or to introduce it 
into the interior of a large temple." — 
Bawlinson's Herodotus. 

The dimensions of the Great Py- 
ramid have been variously stated at 
different times by ancient and mo- 
dern writers. Herodotus makes it 
8 plethra (800 ft.) in length on each 
side at the base, and the same in 
height; this last measured no doubt 
not vertically, but along the sloping- 
side. Diodorus makes it 7 plethra 
(700 ft.) in length, and 6 (600 ft.) in 
height. Pliny gives the length at 
883 ft. Nine modern writers have 
equally varied in their calculations. 
The following is the result of the two 
most careful modern measurements : — 



182 



CAIRO : EXCURSIONS I THE PYRAMIDS ; 



Sect. IT. 



SrK G. Wilkinson. Col. H. Vtse. 
Former length of each sida when entire . 75 6 ft. 764 ft. 

Present length 732 ft. 746 It. 

Former perpendxular height 480 ft. 9 in. 4«u ft. 9 in. 

Present ditto 460 ft. 450 ft. 9 in. 

Former area 571 ,536 sq. ft. 13 ac. 1 rd. 22 ps. 

Present area 535,824 sq. ft. 12 ac. 3 rds. 3 ps. 



The space covered by this pyramid 
is said to equal the area of Lincoln's 
Inn Fields ; and its solid contents 
have been calculated at 85,000,000 
cubic ft. It may be interesting to 
compare its height with that of other 
well-known edifices. The tower of 
Strasburg Cathedral, the highest in 
Europe, is 461 ft. high. The dome 
of St. Peter's at Rome, 429 ft. high. 
The dome of St. Paul's, London, 404 ft. 
high. 

Having now given the history, and 
described the exterior, of the Great 
Pyramid, the next thing is to accom- 
plish the task, which most travellers 
think it necessary to set themselves, of 
getting to the top of it. The ascent is 
usually made from the N.E. corner, 
near the chalet which was built by the 
Khedive for the visit of the Prince and 
Princess of Wales in 1868. Some pro- 
nounce the getting to the top to be a 
very fatiguing business, while others j 
declare that it is the easiest thing 
possible. Some speak of the giddiness 
they experienced, and others affirm 
that the weakest head has nothing to 
fear. The truth may be said to lie 
between these two extremes, at least 
for those who are neither very old nor 
very young, very strong-headed nor 
very subject to vertige : the not alto- 
gether inactive may find it a little 
fatiguing ; and heads that are un- 
accustomed to going aloft, either on 
rigging or Alps, may feel a little 
dizzy. The following account gives a 
good idea of the ascent. If the tra- 
veller has nerve and determination 
enough, he should insist on no Arabs 
accompanying him but those who have 
been told off for the job. 

" On looking up, it was not the 
magnitude of the pyramids which 
made me think it s aicely possible 
to achieve the ascent, but the unre- 
lieved succession, almost infinite, of 
bright yellow steps, a most fatiguing 



image. Three strong and respectable- 
looking Arabs now took me in charge. 
One of them, seeing me pinning up 
my gown in front that I might not 
stumble over, gave me his services as 
lady's-maid. He tied up my gown all 
round, and tied it in a most squeezing 
knot, which lasted all through the 
enterprise. We set out from the N.E. 
corner. By far the most formidable 
part of the ascent was the first 6 or 8 
blocks. If it went on to the top thus 
broken and precipitous, the ascent 
would, I felt, be impossible. Already 
it was disagreeable to look down, and 
I was much out of breath. One of my 
Arabs carried a substantial camp-stool, 
which had been given me in London, 
with a view to this very adventure — 
that it might divide the higher steps, 
some of which, being 4 ft. high, seem 
impracticable enough beforehand. But 
I found it better to trust to the strong 
and steady lifting of the Arabs in such 
places, and, above everything, not to 
stop at all, if possible ; or, if one must 
stop for breath, to stand with one's 
face to the pyramid. I am sure the 
guides are lijjflit in taking people 
quickly. The height is not so great, 
in itself: it is the way in which it is 
reached that is trying to look back 
| upon. It is trying to some heads to 
I sit on a narrow ledge, and see a daz- 
| zling succession of such ledges for 200 
or 300 ft. below ; and then a crowd of 
diminutive people looking up to see 
whether one is coming bobbing down 
all that vast staircase. I stopped for 
a few seconds 2 or 3 times at good 
broad corners or ledges. When I left 
the angle, and found myself ascending 
the side, the chief difficulty was over ; 
and I cannot say that the fatigue was 
j at all formidable. The greater part 
I of one's weight is lifted by the Arabs 
at each arm ; and when one comes to 
j a 4 ft. step, or broken ledge there is a 
| third Arab behind. When we arrived 



Egypt. 



THE GEEAT PYRAMID. 



183 



at a sort of recess, broken in the angle, 
my guides sported two of their English 
words, crying out, ' Half vay ' with 
great glee. The last half was easier 
than the first. I felt, what proved to 
be true, that both must be .easier than 
the coming down." — H. Martineau. 

At the top there is a space about 
30 ft. square. " I was agreeably sur- 
prised," says the writer last quoted, 
"to find at the top, besides blocks 
standing up which gave us some shade, 
a roomy and even platform, where we 
might sit and write, and gaze abroad, 
and enjoy ourselves, without even see- 
ing over the edge unless we wished 
it." The view from the summit is ex- 
tensive, and, during the inundation, 
peculiarly interesting and character- 
istic of Egypt. The canals winding- 
through the plain, or the large ex- 
panse of water when the Nile is at its 
highest, and the minarets of Cairo, the 
citadel, and the range of the Mokat- 



I tarn hills in the distance, with the 
! quarries of Masarah, whence so many 
i of the blocks used for building the 
j pyramids were taken, are interesting 
features in this peculiar landscape ; 
and the refreshing appe arance of the 
plain, whether covered with water or 
with its green vegetation, are striking 
contrasts to the barren desert on the 
: W. To the southward are the pyra- 
| mids of Abooseer, Sakkarah, and l)as- 
| ho'or ; to the northward the heights of 
Abooroash ; and a little to the E. ol 
N. are the 2 stone bridges built by the 
Arab kings of Egypt, which some sup- 
pose to have served for the transport 
of the stones from the pyramids to 
Cairo. 

The descent is generally made by 
the same way as the ascent, but it can 
be made down the S.W. corner. It 
should not be forgotten that a high 
wind is destructive of any enjoyment 
to be gained by an ascent of the py- 




PLAN OF THE GEEAT PYRAMID. 



A. Pyramid when cased and 

entire. 

B. Pyramid as at present. 

C. Base of Pyramid. 

D. Natural rock. 

a. Entrance. 

b. Descending passage. 

c. Horizontal continuation of b. 

d. Subterranean chamber. 

e. Passage out of d. 

ft Pit dug by Col. H. Vyse. 



g. Granite block closing upper 

passage. 

h. Passage forced by Caliph 

El Mamoon. 

i. Ascending gallery. 
j. Mouth of well. 

Ic. Well. 

I. Horizontal gallery leading 

to Queen's Chamber, 
m. Queen's Chamber. 
n. Great Gallery. 



o. Vestibule. 

p. King's Chamber. 

q. Sarcophagus in King's 
Chamber. 

r. Davidson's Chamber. 

5. Wellington's Chamber. 

t. Nelson's Chamber. 

u. Lady Arbuthnot's Cham- 
ber. 

u. Campbell's Chamber. 



184 



CAIRO : EXCURSIONS : THE PYRAMIDS ; 



Sect. IT. 



rarnid, and a clear day is necessary 
for appreciating the view. Before mid- 
day is, as a rule, the best moment for 
avoiding the wind and gaining the 
view. Sunrise and sunset produce, of 
course, their own peculiar effects ; but, 
unless preparations are made for en- 
camping, they involve an early start 
or a late return. 

Before penetrating to the interior of 
the Great Pyramid, it will be well to 
have some idea of those internal pecu- 
liarities which distinguish it from any 
other specimen of pyramidal construc- 
tion, and which chiefly constitute its 
claim, according to Mr. Piazzi Smyth, 
and writers who hold his views, to be 
considered as intended for some higher 
purpose than that of holding a king's 
body. As has been said in the re- 
marks on pyramidal structures in ge- 
neral, an ordinary pyramid is a solid 
mass of stone, erected over a well lead- 
ing to a sepulchral chamber, excavated 
in the solid rock which forms the 
platform of the building. This cham- 
ber is duly in its place in the Great 
Pyramid (d), and is mentioned by He- 
rodotus and Pliny, though their state- 
ments that a communication existed 
with the Nile, by means of which 
water was introduced, so as to inundate 
the sepulchral chambers, appears to be 
inaccurate, as the bottom of the cham- 
ber is considerably above the level of 
the high Nile at the present time, 
and must have been still more so in 
the days when the pyramid was built : 
moreover, an excavation, 36 ft. in depth, 
by Col. Howard Vyse (/), sunk dia- 
gonally in the sepulchral chamber (d), 
failed to reveal any signs of this sub- 
terranean communication. The direct 
way to this chamber is by a passage 
306 ft. long {b), leading from the 
main entrance of the pyramid, and it is 
supposed that if Herodotus, Strabo, 
and Pliny were ever at all inside the 
pyramid, that this passage and well 
were all they knew of its interior. 

Of the entrance itself (a) no sign 
was visible in the smooth and 
polished surface of the pyramid's 
sides as they presented themselves 
to the travellers of those days ; and 
even if, which is not at all certain 



! the old Egyptians revealed to privi- 
leged strangers the secret of the open- 
ing (Strabo speaks of a movable stone), 
and allowed them to see or hear of the 
subterranean chamber, no hint was 
given of there being anything else 
hidden within that enormous mass ; 
nor did anything in that long passage 
suggest to the most inquisitive eye the 
possibility of other passages and other 
chambers. And inviolable the secret 
remained for 5000 years or so till the 
year a.d. 820, when, according to Arab 
writers, it was violently brought to light 
by the Caliph El Mamoon, son of Ha- 
roon er Easheed. Tradition, and the 
romancing story-tellers of the day, de- 
clared that the pyramids had been 
built by " Saurid ebn Salnook, a king 
of Egypt, who lived before the flood," 
who had placed in them all kinds of 
treasures, including a " cock made of 
precious stones," and " a quantity of 
gold coins put up in columns, every 
piece of which was the weight of 1000 
dinars." Incited by these stories, the 
caliph ordered the engineers of the 
day to discover the entrance, and open 
the pyramid. In order more effectu- 
ally to deceive those who should at- 
tempt to violate the tomb, the Egyp- 
tians had placed the passage 23 ft. 
from the centre. The workmen of the 
caliph commenced, as was natural 
enough, and as the Egyptians foresaw, 
in the centre of the face, and with iron, 
fire, and vinegar, quarried their way 
through the solid masonry. The la- 
bour must have been excessive ; but, 
says Mr. Piazzi Smyth, from whose 
graphic account we will now borrow, 
"the progress, though slow, was so 
persevering, that they penetrated at 
length no less than 10U ft. in depth 
j from the entrance. After that, how- 
ever, they were beginning to despair of 
I the hard and hitherto fruitless labour, 
1 and to remember tales of an old king, 
who had found, on a calculation, that 
all the wealth of Egypt in his time 
would not enable him to destroy one of 
j the pyramids. They were almost be- 
j coming rebellious, when one day, in the 
! midst of their murmurings, they heard 
| a great stone fall in a hollow passage 
i within no more than a few feet of them. 



Egypt. 



THE GREAT PYRAMID. 



185 



Energetically they pushed on after 
that ; hammers, and fire, and vinegar 
being employed again, until they 
reached the hollow way, 'exceeding 
dark, dreadful to look at, and difficult 
to pass/ they said at first, where the 
sound had occurred. A large, angular- 
fitting stone that had made for ages a 
smooth and polished portion of the 
ceiling of the lonely and narrow pas- 
sage, undistinguishable from any oi her 
part of its course, had now dropped on 
the floor before their eyes, and revealed 
that there was at that point a passage 
beyond and above, ascending out of 
this descending one. But that ascend- 
ing passage was closed by a granite 
portcullis (gf) : not built in or built up, 
as if never intended to be entered, but 
merely left portcullis down : a port- 
cullis of finished workmanship, and 
intended to be raised in its regular 
grooves when the proper time and 
right man should have arrived. Mean- 
while it was of most portentous weight, 
and the crew who had gathered about 
it were decidedly not the right men. 
Accordingly, unable to lift the true 
gate, they broke in sideways and round 
about through the smaller masonry (7i), 
and so up again into the ascending 
passage (<), at a point past the obstruc- 
tion. On they rushed, that lawless 
crowd, thirsting for the promised 
wealth. Up no less than ] 00 ft. of the 
steep incline, crouched hands and knees 
and chin together, through a passage of 
royally-polished marble, but only 14 in. 
in height or breadth, they had pain- 
fully to crawl, with their torches burn- 
ing too. Then suddenly they emerge 
into a tall gallery (?i) in front of them. 
On the level another low passage (7), 
leading to an inconsiderable room (m) ; 
on the rt. a black, ominous-looking 
well's mouth (Jj ; and onwards and 
above them a continuation of the glo- 
rious gallery or hall leading on to all 
the treasures of the earth. Narrow, 
certainly, was the way, only 6 ft. broad 
anywhere, and contracted to 3 ft. at 
the flour, but rising to a height of 28 ft., 
almost above the power of their smoky 
lights to illuminate, and of polished 
glistening marble-like Cyclopean stone 
throughout. That must surely be the 



j high-road to fortune and wealth. Up 
| and up its receding floor-line, ascend- 
ing at an angle of 26°, they had to 
push their toilsome way for 150 ft. 
more; then an obstructing ledge to 
climb over, then a low doorway in 
solid granite to bow below, then a 
hanging portcullis to pass under, then 
another doorway : and after that they 
leapt without further let or hindrance 
at once into the grand chamber (p), 
which was the conclusion of every- 
thing : the chamber to which, and for 
which, and towards which, according 
to every subsequent writer, in whatever 
other theoretical point they may differ, 
the whole of the Great Pyramid was 
built." 

Access was thus at length obtained 
to the place of the wished-for treasures, 
and great hopes were entertained, say 
the Arab historians, of finding a rich 
reward for their tod. But these hopes 
were doomed to end in disappointment. 
The chamber indeed was "a right 
noble apartment ... of polished gra- 
nite throughout ; in blocks squared 
and true, and so large, ' that 8 floors 
it, 8 roofs it, 8 flags the ends, and 16 
the sides ; ' and all put together with 
such exquisite skill, that the joints are 
barely discernible to the closest in- 
spection." But all there was in it 
was a stone chest without a lid (g). 
Clearly the pyramid had been pre- 
viously entered and rifled, and the 
caliph was about to abandon his vain 
search, when the people began to 
evince their discontent and to censure 
his ill-placed avidity. To check their 
murmurs, he had recourse to artifice. 
He secretly ordered a large sum of 
money to be conveyed to, and buried 
! in, the innermost part of the excavated 
! passage ; and the subsequent disco- 
{ very of the supposed treasure, which 
j was found to be about equal to what 
j had been expended, satisfied the people; 
and the caliph gratified his own curi- 
osity at the expense of their labour, 
their money, and their unsuspecting 
I credulity. Abd-el-H6km says that a 
statue resembling a man was found 
in the sarcophagus, and in the statue 
(mummy-case) was a body, with a 
breastplate of gold and jewels, bearing 



186 



CAIRO I EXCURSIONS : THE PYRAMIDS ; 



Sect. IL 



characters written with a pen which | 
no one understood. Others mention 
an emerald vase of beautiful work- 
manship. But the authority of Arab 
writers is not always to be relied on ; 
and it may be doubted whether the 
body of the king was really depo.-ited j 
in the sarcophagus. Lord Munster j 
found in the second pyramid the bones j 
of an ox, which he brought with him. j 
to England : but from these no con- 1 
elusion can be drawn, as they may I 
have been taken into it after it was 
opened, either by men or wild beasts ; 
neither of whom were aware how much 
they might puzzle future antiquaries 
with speculations about the bones of 
Apis. 

That both the pyramids had been 
opened before the time of the Arabs 
is exceedingly probable, as we find 
the Egyptians themselves bad in many 
instances plundered the tombs of 
Thebes ; and the fact of its having been 
closed again is consistent with expe- 
rience in other places. Belzoni's tomb 
had been rifiVd and re-closed, and 
the same is observed in many Theban 
tombs, when discovered by modern 
excavators. 

The forced passage of the Caliph 
could once be followed for a great dis- 
tance from the point where the upper 
and lower passages join ; but it is now 
filled with stones, brought from the 
excavations in the pyramid. The Ca- 
liph's workmen in the course of their 
labours cleared the real passage to 
its mouth, being more convenient 
for their ingress and egress than the 
rough way they had forced. The way 
thus opened by El Mamoon was not 
again closed, and people continued to 
go in and out. But no further dis- 
coveries were made till in 1763, when 
Mr. Davidson, British Consul at Al- 
giers, discovered another room over the 
King's Ch amber. This was followed in 
1839 by Col. Howard Vyse's discovery 
of four other chambers, one above 
another over Davidson's chamber (r), 
which he called respectively Welling- 
ton's (s), Nelson's (t), Lady Arbuth- 
not's \u), and Campbell's chamber (v). 
No more hollow spaces have since 
been discovered, though many ex- 



plorers, convinced that the hollow 
portion of the pyramid was greatly 
out of proportion to its solid substance, 
have restlessly tried in every direction 
in the hope of finding something. 

Having now some general idea of 
the inside of the Great Pyramid so 
far as it is known, let us proceed to 
the north side on which the entrance 
is situated, and mount the heap of 
rubbish and stones that have accumu- 
lated below the opening. Getting in- 
side the pyramid is not a very pleasant 
operation, and, on the whole, it is 
perhaps more fatiguing than going to 
the top ; the close air, the scrambling, 
and the dust all contribute to make it 
disagreeable. Nervous ladies had cer- 
tainly better not attempt it. Miss 
Martineau says : " To the tranquil 
the inside of the pyramid is sufficiently 
airy and cool for the need of the hour. 
But it is a dreadful place in which to 
be seized with a panic, and no woman 
should go who cannot trust herself to 
put down panic by reason. There is 
absolutely nothing to fear but from 
oneself; no danger of bad falls, or of 
going astray, or of being stifled. The 
passages are slippery : but there are 
plenty of notches ; and a fall could 
hardly be dangerous — unless at one 
place — the entrance upon the passage 
to the King's Chamber . . . The one 
danger is from the impression upon 
the senses of the solidity and vastness 
of the stone structure in such dark- 
ness." Nails in the shoes are as bad 
for going inside the pyramid as they 
are good for going up it : slippers give 
the best foothold in the slippery parts. 
As has been advised in the Preli- 
minary Kemarks, magnesium wire 
should be taken for the purpose of 
seeing the King's Chamber to advan- 
tage, and each person would do well 
to have a candle to themselves, and 
matches in their pocket : there will be 
plenty of candidates for carrying water, 
but no more Arabs than is absolutely 
necessary should be allowed to enter, 
as they only add to the dust and heat, 
and seem to think that the more noise 
they make the greater will be the im- 
pression of awe made on the mind of 
the visitor. 



Egypt. 



THE GREAT PYRAMID. 



187 



The entrance («) is, as has been 
said, like that of all other pyramids, 
on the northern face, about 23 ft. from 
the true centre, and 45 ft. from the 
ground. Over it is a block of immense 
size, on which are four other large 
blocks, resting against each other, so 
as to form a pent-roof arch, and so serv- 
ing to take off the superincumbent 
weight from the roof of the passage. 
The position of the stones in the body 
of the pyramid is horizontal, but at 
the entrance they follow the inclina- 
tion of the passage, which is an angle 
of 26° 41'. This passage (6) is 3 ft. 
5 in. high and 3 ft. 11 in. wide, and is 
roofed with well- wrought and closely 
fitted stones. This passage continues 
in the same incline for 320 ft., and 
with such exactness that the sky is 
visible from the farther end. It then 
runs, with somewhat smaller dimen- 
sions, for 27 ft. farther in a horizontal 
direction, and ends in a subterranean 
chamber (d), already spoken of as the 
sepulchral chamber common to all 
pyramids. This chamber is 46 ft. long, 
27 ft. broad, and 11 ft. 6 in. high, and 
the roof of it is more than 90 ft. from 
the base of the pyramid. It has been 
left in a rough and unfinished state. 
Into here, if anywhere, must have 
flowed the water of the Nile through 
the canal mentioned by Herodotus, 
but though Col. H. Vyse excavated 
36 ft. down, he discovered no signs of 
it. From the S. side of the chamber 
issues a narrow passage 53 ft. long, 
ending abruptly in nothing. 

All this, however, is seldom seen by 
the ordinary visitor. We return to join 
him at a point in the descending pass- 
age 63 ft. from the entrance. Here is 
seen the end of a granite block (g), once 
carefully connected by a triangular 
piece of stone fitting into the roof of 
the passage, and secured in that po- 
sition by an iron cramp on either side. 
It was probably the falling of this 
stone which revealed to the workmen 
of El Mamoon the existence of the 
entrance passage. But as they were 
unable to remove the granite block it 
had concealed, this block still remains 
in its original place ; and in order to 
avoid and pass above it, you turn to 



the right by the forced passage (7i) 
that these workmen made, and after 
climbing a few rough steps find your- 
self at the upper extremity of the 
block, and in another passage (i), the 
entrance to which this block had 
sealed. This upper passage continues 
ascending at nearly the same angle as 
the lower one for 125 ft., until what is 
called the Great Gallery (n) is reached. 

At this point a horizontal passage 
(I) branches off, 110 ft. long, leading 
to what is called the Queen's Cham- 
ber (m). Near the end of this passage, 
not far from the chamber, there is the 
descent of a step, after which the pas- 
sage becomes higher. The Queen's 
Chamber is 18 ft. 9 in. long, 17 ft. 
broad, and 20 ft. high in the centre. 
It is roofed with blocks of stone rest- 
ing against one another, m the man- 
ner of a pent-house, like those over the 
entrance of the pyramid ; and in order 
to give them strength they have been 
carried a long way into the masonry. 
The stones in the side- walls are ad- 
mirably fitted together, so that the 
joints can scarcely be traced ; and an 
incrustation of salt has tended to give 
them the appearance of having been 
hewn in the solid rock. On the E. 
side, a short way from the door, is a 
sort of niche or recess, built with 
stones projecting one beyond the other. 
The object of this niche is not known ; 
the Arabs, probably in the hope of 
finding treasure, have broken into the 
masonry at the back for some distance. 
An excavation in the floor by Sir G. 
Wilkinson revealed no signs of a se- 
pulchral pit. This chamber is 67 ft. 
above the base of the pyramid, 407 ft. 
below the original summit, and 71 ft. 
below the King's Chamber. Accord- 
ing to Col. H. Vyse, Sir G. Wilkinson, 
and. others, it stands immediately under 
the apex of the pyramid. 

Keturning to the commencement of 
the horizontal passage, immediately on 
the right of the Great Gallery, is the 
mouth of an opening, commonly called 
the well (/, k). It is a passage partly 
vertical, partly slanting and irregular, 
which leads down into the descending 
passage from the entrance to the sub- 
terranean cavern. It is 191 ft. deep, 



188 



CAIRO : EXCURSIONS : THE PYRAMIDS ; 



Sect. II. 



and 2 ft. 4 in. square. This well is cut 
through the masonry, which evidently 
proves that it was an afterthought, and 
was probably made for the purpose 
of affording a means of communication 
after the closing of the upper passage 
with the block of granite above men- 
tioned. The workmen having by it 
reached the lower passage could ascend 
to the entrance. The Great Gallery 
continues to ascend at the same angle 
as the passage of which it is a con- 
tinuation. It is 151 ft. long, 28 ft. 
high, and nearly 7 ft. wide, but this 
width is reduced one-half by a stone 
ramp on each side 20 in. wide and 
2 ft. high. Notches are cut in the 
floor at intervals, which are supposed 
to have some connexion witli the ma- 
chinery by which the sarcophagus in 
the King's Chamber was raised : as it 
is they serve as welcome footholds on 
the slippery surface of the smooth and 
polished stone. There are 8 courses 
of stone in the side walls, which pro- 
ject one over the other, so giving the 
gallery the appearance of being arched. 
At the end of the Great Gallery is an 
ascending step into a vestibule (o), for- 
merly closed according to some authors 
with 4 granite portcullises, sliding in 
grooves of the same stone, which con- 
cealed and stopped the entrance to 
anything beyond. On the other side 
of these, one of which remains in its i 
original position, is a short passage j 
leading into the King's Chamber (p). \ 
This, the principal apartment of the 
pyramid, is 34 ft. 3 in. long. 17 ft. 1 in. 
broad, and 19 ft. 1 in. high. The 
floor is 138 ft. from the base of the 
pyramid, and its position is not exactly 
under the apex, but a little southward 
and eastward of the vertical line. The 
roof is flat, and formed of simple blocks 
of granite, resting on the side-walls, 
which are built of the same materials ; 
and so truly and beautifully are these 
blocks fitted together that the edge of 
a penknife could not be inserted be- 
tween them. At the upper end, placed 1 
N. and S., is the sarcophagus (g), of 
red granite or porphyry like the blocks : 
" the only and one thing," says Sandys, 
" which this huge mass contained 
within its darksome entrails." It is 



without a lid, and totally devoid of 
hieroglyphics or any ornamental carv- 
ing. The measurements given of it by 
different authors are various. Taking 
those of Col. Howard Vyse, we find 
the length of the exterior given as 
90"5 in., the breadth 39 in., and the 
height 41 in. ; the length of the in- 
terior 78 in., the breadth 26 - o in., and 
the height 34 5 in. On being struck, 
it emits a very fine sound, as of a 
deep-toned bell; but the foolishness 
of travellers in endeavouring to verify 
this assertion, and also to carry off 
pieces of the stone, will end in re- 
ducing it to a mere fragment. It 
is such a bad example, too, for the 
Arabs, wiio want no encouragement to 
the wanton destruction of relics of an- 
tiquity. The object of this stone chest, 
in which most Egyptologists agree to 
see nothing but a simple sarcophagus, 
is the subject of much ingenious con- 
jecture on the part of a few, of whose 
views Mr. Piazzi Smyth may be con- 
sidered as the chief exponent. He sees 
in the " coffer," as he calls it, a stand- 
ard measure of capacity and weight 
for all ages. His views, which are 
curious if not conclusive, on this and 
the pyramids generally, will be found 
at length in his book, ' Our Inherit- 
ance in the Great Pyramid.' In the 
side walls of the king's chamber are 
small holes or tubes, the use of which 
perplexed every one until Colonel 
Howard Vyse ascertained their real 
use, as tubes to conduct air into the 
interior of the pyramid. One is on the 
N., and the other on the S. side of the 
chamber, about 3 ft. from the floor. 

Over the king's chamber is another 
room (r), or rather entresol, which, like 
those above it, was evidently intended 
to protect the roof of that chamber 
from the pressure of the mass of 
masonry above. The ascent to it was 
by means of small holes cut into the 
wall at the S.E. corner of the great 
gallery, at the top of which was the 
entrance of a narrow passage leading 
into it. This room is not more than 
3 ft. 6 in. high ; and the floor, which 
is the upper side of the stones forming 
the roof of the chamber below, is very 
uneven. Its roof also consists of 



Egypt- 



THE SECOND PYRAMID. 



189 




granite blocks, like that of the king's 
chamber, and serves as the floor of 
another entresol (s) ; above which are 
three other similar low rooms (f, u, v,) 
the uppermost of which has a pent- j 
roof, made of blocks placed against ; 
each other, like those of the queen's 
chamber, and over the entrance of the 
pyramid. 

On the stones, in the uppermost 
chamber, were found some hierogly- 
phics, painted in red ochre, presenting, 
besides the quarry marks of the work- 
men, the oval of King Shoofoo 
(Cheops). In the chamber below the 
upper one is another royal oval (a), 
which may be a variation of 
the first, but which by some 
has been taken to be that 
of another king, Noo Shoo- 
foo, and the argument 
drawn from this is that 
the two were brothers, and 
shared the throne, and that 
the so-called queen's cham- 
ber was for one, and the king's cham- 
ber for the other. Their names are 
found together in an adjacent tomb. 

It may seem remarkable that, while 
the roofs of these chambers are smooth 
and even, the floors are left rough, the 
inequalities of the stones in some 
places being of several feet ; but this 
only shows that they were not intended 
for any use beyond that of relieving 
the king's chamber from the superin- 
cumbent weight. Towards the ends 
of the blocks in the floor of the upper- 
most room are small square holes, the 
object of which it is difficult to deter- 
mine. They are probably connected 
with their transport from the quarry, 
or their elevation to their present posi- 
tion. 

These chambers are seldom visited, 
the ascent without a ladder being 
extremely difficult : nor is there any- 
thing to make it worth the ordinary 
traveller's while. He will probably 
have had quite enough scrambling and 
crawling by the time he reaches the 
king'schamber, and may think the sight 
of that a sufficient reward for his exer- 
tions. " There is nothing else like it," 
says Miss Martineau, "no catacomb or 
cavern in the world ; there never was, 



and surely there never will be . . . 
the symmetry and finish so deepen the 
gloom as to make (it) seem like a fit 
prison-house for fallen angels." And 
very like fallen angels one may be dis- 
posed to think the attendant Arabs 
as they shout, and hollow, and scream 
in the almost black-darkness. It is 
with a feeling of relief, as of a task 
accomplished, that the entrance and 
daylight are once more reached. Care 
should be taken on coming out, if it is 
evening, or the wind is cool, to have 
some warm covering to put on. 

The Second Pyramid. Herodotus 
writes thus of this pyramid which stands 
about 500 ft. to the S.W. of the Great 
Pyramid. " Cheops, having reigned 
50 years, died, and was succeeded by 
his brother Cephren, who followed the 
example of his predecessor. Among 
other monuments he also built a pyia- 
mid, but much less in size than that 
of Cheops. I measured them both. 
It has neither underground chambers, 
nor any canal flowing into it from the 
Nile, like the other, where the tomb of 
its founder is placed, in an island sur- 
rounded by water. The lowest tier 
of this pyramid is of Ethiopian stone 
of various colours (granite). It is 40 
ft. smaller than its neighbour. Both 
are built on the same hill, which is 
about 100 ft. high." Diodorus has the 
following : " On the death of this 
king, his brother Cephern succeeded 
to the throne, and reigned 56 years. 
Some say he was his son, by name 
Chabry'is, and not his brother. All, 
however, agree that on his accession, 
wishing to emulate his predecessor, he 
built the second pyramid, similar to 
tne other in its style of building, but 
far inferior in size, each face being 
only one stade in length at its base. 
On the larger one is inscribed the sum 
spent in herbs and esculent roots for 
the workmen, amounting to upwards 
of 1600 talents. The smaller one has 
no inscription, but on one side steps 
are cut to ascend it." 

The Cephren of Herodotus is now 
considered to be the Shafra of the 
monuments ; his name is not found on 
any stone in this pyramid, but it 



190 



CAIRO : EXCURSIONS I THE PYRAMIDS J 



Sect. II. 



occurs in many tombs in the neigh- 
bourhood, and the magnificent statue 
of him, found with eight other 
smaller ones by M. Mariette in the 
granite and alabaster temple near 
the Sphinx, proves the high state of 
civilisation at which the Egyptians 
had already arrived ; while the hiero- 
glyphics it bears are a sufficient proof, 
were any further needed, that the 
builders of the Pyramids were acquain- 
ted with the art of writmar. According 



to the Tablets of Abydos and Sakkarah, 
Shafra was not the immediate suc- 
cessor of Shoofoo, one King Eatetfe, 
whose reign was probably of short 
duration, intervening. 

The size of this pyramid is not much 
j inferior to that of the Great Pyramid, 
1 and the fact of its standing on higher 
ground gives it the app: arance, when 
seen from certain positions, of greater 
height. The following are the dimen- 
sions given respectively by 



Former length of base 

Present length of base 

Former height 

Present height * . 

Former area 

Present area 

The number of granite blocks lying 
about prove the correctness of Hero- 
dotus's assertion that the lowest tier 
was of :< variegated Ethiopic stone " on 
the outside. The remainder was built, 
like the Great Pyramid, partly of the 
nummulile rock from the neighbour- 
hood, and partly of stone from the 
other side of the river ; but the stones 
have been less carefully selected, and 
the spaces in some parts of the interior 
appear to have been filled in with 
rubble. Like the Great Pyramid, this 
one also formerly presented a smooth 
and polished surface. Some of the 
casing, indeed, still remains for about 
130 or 150 ft. from the top. Except 
for the purpose of examining this 
casing, there is no object in mounting 
to the summit, and the ascent is rather 
difficult, not to say dangerous, as the 
casing considerably projects beyond 
and overhangs the part below. In the 
smooth part there are holes cut to 
serve as steps. It is a favourite amuse- 
ment with some travellers, when at the 
top of the Great Pyramid, to give an 
Arab a small backsheesh to run to the 
bottom, then across the intervening 
ground, and up to the top of the 
Second Pyramid, over the smooth 
space, in less than ten minutes. Ac- 
cording to the account of ancient 
writers, the people of the neighbouring 
village of Busiris were wont to practise 
the same feat for a similar considt ra- 
tion. 



Sir G, Wilkinson. 

690 ft. 
453 ft. 
4 46 ft. 9 in. 



Col. H. Vtse. 

707 ft. 9 in. 

690 ft. 9 in. 

454 ft. 3 in. 

447 ft. 6 in. 
11 ac. 1 rd. 38 ps. 
10 ac. 3 rds. 30 ps. 



This pyramid has two entrances, one 
at about the same relative height as 
that, of the great pyramid, and the 
other in the pavement at the base. 
Both descend at the same angle for 
over 100 ft. At this point they are 
closed by a granite portcullis. The 
lower one then becomes horizontal, 
and passes over an excavated chamber 
34 ft. long 10 ft. broad, and 8 ft. high. 
Soon after it begins to ascend, and 
joins the upper passage, which beyond 
the portcullis also becomes horizontal, 
and proceeding on ends in a chamber 
46 ft. long, 16 ft. broad, and 22 ft. 
high, called, after the name of its re- 
disco vere-, Belzoni's Chamber. He re- 
opened this pyramid in 1816. In the 
chamber is a sarcophagus of red 
granite sunk in the floor, lather larger 
than that in the Great Pyramid, and 
like it, without sculpture or hiero- 
glyphics. It contained, when found 
by Belzoni, the bones of an ox. From 
an Arabic inscription in this chamber, 
it appeared that the pyramid had been 
already opened either by Sultan Ali 
Mohammed or Saltan el Azeez Oth- 
man, translators differing in their 
versions. 

An area sunk in the rock runs round 
its northern and western face, parallel 
with the pyramid, distant from it on 
the N. 200, and on the W. 100 ft. 
The object of thus cutting away the 
rock was to level the ground for the 
base of the pyramid, the hill in this 



Egypt. 



THE THIRD PYRAMID. 



191 



part having a slight fall towards the 
E. and S. ; which is very evident from 
the N.W. corner of the scarped rock 
being of great height, 32 ft. 6 in., and 
gradually decreasing to its southern 
and eastern extremities. In the level 
surface below this corner the rock has 
been cut into squares, measuring about 
9 ft. each way. similar to those at 
Tehneh near Minieh; showing the 
manner in which the blocks were 
taken out to form this hollow space, 
and to contribute at the same time 
their small share towards the con- 
struction of the pyramid. On the face 
of the rock on the W. and N. sides are 
two inscriptions in hieroglyphics. One 
contains the name of Barneses the 
Great, and of an individual who held 
the office of superintendent of certain 
functionaries supposed to be attached 
to the king, ami officiating at Heliopo- 
lis. The inscription is in intaglio, and 
of much more modern style than the 
hieroglyphics in the neighbouring 
tombs ; which would suffice to show, 
if other evidence were wanting, how 
much older the latter, and consequently 
the pyramids themselves, are than this 
king. 

About 270 ft. to the E. of this 
pyramid are the ruins of a building 
(U), which was probably the temple 
dedicated to king Cephren, here wor- 
shipped in front of his tomb as a god. 

g. The Tliird Pyramid. The story 
of this pyramid is variously told. 

"After Cephren," says Herodotus, 
" Mycerinus, the son of Cheops, ac- 
cording to the statement of the priests, 
ascended the throne. He also built a 
pyramid, much less than his father's, 
being 20 ft. smaller. It is square: 
each of its sides is 3 plethra lon^ ; and 
it is made half-way up of Ethiopian 
(granite) stone. There are some 
Greeks," he says, " who ascribe it to 
the courtesan Rhodopis, but they are 
m error, and do not appear to know 
who she was, or surely they would not 
have attributed to her the building of 
a pyramid, which must have cost 
thousands and thousands of talents. 
Besides, Rhodopis did not live in the 
t me of Mycerinus, but of Amosis, 



many years after the kings who built 
these monuments." 

The account of Diodorus is some- 
what similar : " After them i Chembis 
and Cephren) came Mycerinus, or, as 
some call him, Mecherinus. the son of 
the founder of the great pyramid. He 
built the third, but died previous to its 
completion. Each side was made 3 
plethra long at the base, with (a casing 
of; black stone, similar to that called 
Thebaic, as far as the fifteenth tier, 
the rest being completed with stone of 
the same quality as the other pyramids. 
Though inferior in size to the others, 
it is superior in its style of building 
and the quality of the stone. On the 
N. side is inscribed the name of its 
founder, Mycerinus. Some think it 
was erected as a tomb for Rhodopis by 
certain monarchs who had loved her." 

Strabo repeats, with variations, the 
fable rejected by Herodotus : — " At 
some distance, on a more elevated part 
of the hill is the third, smaller than 
the other two, but bu.lt in a more 
costly manner. From the base to about 
the middle it is of black stone, of which 
they make mortars, brought from the 
mountains of Ethiopia ; and this being 
hard and difficult to work rendered its 
construction more expensive. It is 
said to be the tomb of a courtesan, 
built by her lovers, whom Sappho the 
poetess calls Doricha, the friend of her 
brother Charaxus, at the time that he 
traded in wine to Naucratis. Others 
call her Rhodope, and relate a story 
that, when she was bathing, an eagle 
carded off one of her sandals, and, 
having flown with it to Memphis, let 
it fall into the lap of the king as he sat 
in judgment. Struck by this singular 
occurrence and the beauty of the 
sandal, the king sent to every part of 
, the country to inquire for its owner, 
I and. having found her at Naucratis, 
1 he made her his queen, and buried her 
1 at her death in this sepulchre." 
j Pliny says, " The third pyramid is 
I less than the other two, but much more 
elegant, being of Ethiopian stone, and 
measures 363 ft. between the corners." 
Manetho, according to Eusebius and 
Africanus, say that it was built by 
Nitoeris, the last sovereign of the sixth 



192 



CAIRO : EXCURSIONS : THE PYRAMIDS : 



Sect. II. 



dynasty. The question as to who was 
the founder of this pyramid is con- 
— ^TN sidered to have 
W jt^k H \ been settled by 
IjJLKJy £° discovery, by 
~— Col. H. Vyse, of a 
wooden mummy case, now in the 



British Museum, with the oval of King 
Menkera, or Menkeoora (a), the Men- 



cheres of Manetho. As, however, 
there is evidence of its having been 
enlarged, it is not impossible that the 
addition to its size may have been 
made by Nitocris. 

The dimensions of this pyramid are 
much less than those of the two 
others. 



Col. H. Vyse. Sik G. Wilkinson. 

Former base 364 ft. 6 in. 

Present base 333 ft. 

Former height 208 ft. 

Present height 203 ft. 203 ft. 1 in. 

Extent of area 2 ac. 3 rds. 21 ps. 

Angle of casing 51° 



The casing of granite mentioned by 
all writers, still covers it to a height 
of 36 ft. 9 in. on the W. side, and 25 
ft. 10 in. on the N. From the colour of 
the granite, this pyramid has been 
called by Arab writers the Eed Pyramid. 
The stones of the casing have bevelled 
edges ; a style of masonry common in 
Syria, Greece, and Eome ; but round 
the entrance their surfaces are smooth, 
and of a lower level than the rest, as if 
something had been let into that de- 
pressed part. Here perhaps were the 
hieroglyphics containing the name of 
Mycerinus, mentioned by Diodorus. 

This pyramid shows the mode, al- 
ready explained, of constructing these 
monuments (not perceived in any of 
the other two), in almost perpendicular 
degrees or stories, to which a sloping 
face has been afterwards added. For 
it has been conjectured by Dr. Lepsius 
and Mr. Wild, and doubtless with rea- 
son, that all the pyramids were built in 
this manner, and that the statement of 
Herodotus, '<that they finished them 
from the top," is explained by their 
first filling up the triangular spaces of 
the uppermost degree. It is, however, 
true that at the pyramids, as in other 
Egyptian buildings, the stones were 
put up rough and afterwards smoothed 
off to a level surface. 

With the exception of a statement 
by Edreesee writing in 1250 a.d., to 
the effect that " the Red Pyramid had 
been opened a few years before," no 
tradition existed of any attempt to 
open this pyramid, nor was there any 
sign of an entrance. One or two un- 



successful efforts to force an opening 
were made at the beginning of the 
century, but they only resulted in 
making a hole in the north face and 
throwing down numerous stones, which 
encumbered the spot where the real en- 
trance was. The right entrance was 
successfully discovered by Caviglia, 
and the operations begun by him were 
concluded by Col. H. Vyse, who found 
that, like the others, this pyramid had 
been already opened and rifled. The 
entrance as usual is on the north side, 
about 13 ft. from the base. Thence 
a passage descends at an angle of 26° 
2'. It is 104 ft. long, 28 of which are 
lined with granite. At the end is 
a vestibule with sculptured panels, 
beyond which are granite portcullises. 
A horizontal passage now leads to a 
chamber 46 ft. long and 12 broad, 
nearly under the apex of tlie pyramid. 
In the floor is a depression, perhaps 
meant for a sarcophagus, but no si»;ns 
of one was found, except some fragments 
of granite. From this chamber, another 
passage, entered from the floor, de- 
scends into a second sepulchral chamber 
hned with granite, in which was found 
a basalt sarcophagus, without inscrip- 
tions, but sculptured in compartments. 
Its broken lid was found in the inclined 
passage, and also a body, now in the 
British Museum; the mummy case, 
mentioned before, was found in the 
first chamber. The sarcophagus was 
got out, and sent to England, but the 
vessel carrying it foundered at sea. 
There is another chamber again below 
this, in wdiich are niches, meant prob- 



Egypt 



SMALLEK PYRAMIDS ; THE SPHINX. 



193 



ably for the reception of mummies, i 
Eeturning to the chamber first reached, 
another passage is seen near the top of ! 
the north side, which leads upwards 
towards the exterior, but ends abruptly- 
after about 50 ft. It is conjectured 
that this was the entrance passage to 
the original pyramid; but that, when 
the pyramid was enlarged, this entrance 
whs blocked up by the added masonry, 
and the new entrance and passage 
made probably from within, out- 
words. 

The site on which this pyramid 
stands has been made level by raising 
on the eastern side a substructure, 10 
ft. in height, composed of two tiers of 
immense blocks. 

As in the case of the Second Pyra- 
mid, a ruined temple (t) stands about 
40 ft. from the E. face of this one, in- 
tended for the worship of the deified 
royal occupant of the tomb. From it 
leads a part of the causeway (l) for 
bringing stones to the Third Pyra- 
mid. 

Enclosing this group of monuments, 
and the 3 small pyramids mentioned 
below, is an enclosure (w) about 1200 
ft. square, formed of rough stones 
heaped on each other in the form of a 
low rude wall. Similar heaps of stones 
occur in parallel rows to the northward 
of it, bounded by others which run 
parallel to the western face of the 
second pyramid. 

h. Other Small Pyramids. 

To the E. of the Great Pyramid are 
3 small ones, built in degrees or stages. 
The centre one (d) is stated by Hero- 
dotus to have been erected by the 
daughter of Cheops, of whom he re- 
lates a ridiculous story, only surpassed 
in improbability by another he tells 
of the daughter of Ehampsinitus. It 
is 122 ft. square, which is less than 
the measurement given by the histor- 
ian of 1\ plethrum, or about 150 ft.: 
but this difference may be accounted 
for by its ruined condition. All these 
have descending pas-ages leading to a 
subterranean chamber, but nothing has 
ever been found in any of them. 

Three somewhat smaller pyramids 



I (t), again, stand to the S. of the Third 
Pyramid. They also each have a pas- 
! sage leading to a chamber ; and in the 
centre one is the name of the king 
Mencheres (or Mycerinus), painted on 
a stone in the roof of its chamber, the 
same that occurs on the wooden coffin 
of the Third Pyramid. The roof is flat, 
and above it is a space or entresol, as 
in the great pyramid, to protect it from 
the pressure of the upper part of the 
building. In the chamber is a sarco- 
phagus of granite, without hierogly- 
phics or sculpture of any kind. The 
lid had been forced open before it was 
found by Colonel Vyse, and is remark- 
able for the ingenious contrivance by 
which it was fastened. It was made 
to slide into a groove, like the sliding 
lids of our boxes ; and its upper rim 
(which projected on all sides to a level 
with the four outer faces of the sarco- 
phagus) was furnished with a small 
movable pin, that fell from the under 
part of it into a corresponding hole, 
and thus prevented the lid being 
drawn back. 

Of the remaining two pyramids, one 
has not been finished ; but in the 
sepulchral chamber of the other a 
sarcophagus was found containing 
bones, said to be those of a female. 

There are indications of the exist- 
ence of other pyramidal structures in 
different parts of the Necropolis. 

i. Hie Spfiinx. — About a quarter 
of a mile to the' S.E. of the Great 
Pyramid is the Sphinx, the most re- 
markable object, next to the Pyramids, 
exhibited on the Geezeh platform. No 
mention is made of the Sphinx by any 
author or traveller before the Eoman 
period; a fact which, as will be seen, 
goes to prove the fallacy of attempting 
to argue the non-existence of ancient 
monuments at the time any account 
of the country was written, from the 
circumstance of no mention of such 
monument being made in that his- 
tory ; just as, e.g., some people have 
asserted that the Pyramids could not 
have been built when Abraham or the 
Israelites were in Egypt, because no 
mention of them is made in the Bible. 
Negative testimony is of little value in 
K 



194 



caieo: excursions; 



Sect. II. 



such cases. Pliny gives a long account 
of the Sphinx, and says that they 
supposed it in his time to he the tomb 
of Amasis of the XXVIth dynasty. 
Till quite recently most Egyptologists 
were inclined to recognise in it the 
work either of Thothmes IV. of the 
XVIIIth dynasty, or of Chephren the 
builder of the Second Pyramid, but 
the researches of M. Mariette have 
proved it to be of even greater 
antiquity than the Pyramids. In 
the museum at Cairo is a stone 
found by him in a ruined building 
at the foot of the southernmost of 
the three small pyramids close to 
the Great Pyramid. It appears to 
have formed part of a wall. Among 
the inscriptions with which it is 
covered are the following, thus ren- 
dered by M. Mariette : " The liv- 
ing Horus, the . . . . , the king of 
Upper and Lower Egypt, Shoofoo, 
during his lifetime, has cleaned out 
the temple of Isis, ruler of the Pyra- 
mid, which is situated at the spot 
where is the Sphinx, on the N.E. side 
of the temple of Osiris, Lord of Kosa- 
too. He has built his Pyramid where 
the temple of this goddess is, and he j 
has also built the Pyramid of the prin- 
cess Heut-sen where this temple is. 
The living Horus, the . . . . , the 
king of Upper and Lower Egypt, J 
Shoofoo, during his lifetime,, has paid 
this honour to his mother Isis, the 
divine mother Athor having ordered 
him to have it graven on a stone. 
And he has renewed (the foundation) 
of the divine offerings, and has built 
for them his temple in stone, and a 
second time he has also restored the 
gods (of this temple) in the sanctuary." 
After the gods referred to follow re- . 
presentations of their statues, accom- 
panied by descriptions indicating their 
size, and the materials of which they i 
should be made. Among them figures 
the Sphinx, followed by this inscrip- 
tion, "The place of the Sphinx of 
Hor-em-Khoo is to the south of the j 
temple of Isis, ruler of the Pyramid, 
and to the north (of the temple), of 
Osiris, Lord of Kosatoo. The images , 
of the god of Hor-em-Khoo are in ac- ; 



cordance with the regulations." In 
the words of M. Mariette, "it is hardly 
necessary to dwell upon the excep- 
tional importance of the facts which 
this monument of the Pyramids re- 
veals to us. Whether the stone be 
contemporaneous with Cheops (a fact 
which may be doubtful), or whether it 
belongs to a later epoch, it is none the 
less certain that Cheops restored a 
temple already existing, secured to it 
the revenues arising from the sacred 
offerings, and renewed the statues of 
gold, silver, bronze, and wood which 
adorned the sanctuary. This shows 
us to what a degree of splendour 
Egyptian civilisation, even at that 
very remote age, had already at- 
tained." And, moreover, it proves, as 
he adds, that " the Sphinx is anterior 
to Cheops, since it figures on one of 
the monuments which he restored." 

As now seen, only the head, 
shoulders, and back of the Sphinx are 
visible, the rest is buried in sand ; 
but early in the century excavations 
made by Caviglia revealed the com- 
plete form and arrangement of this 
remarkable monument, and proved 
the correctness of Pliny's description, 
and of the dimensions given by him. 
Commencing from the edge of the 
rock, where it overhangs the plain, a 
sloping descent, 135 ft. long, cut in 
the rock, led to a flight of thirteen 
steps, below which was a platform. 
Here were found the remains of two 
buildings, one apparently, from the 
inscription, erected in the reign of 
Septimius Severus, the name of Geta 
being erased as on the triumphal arch 
at Eome. From this platform another 
flight of thirty steps led to a paved 
dromos inclosed within the paws of 
the Sphinx. " This gradual approach, 
during which the figure of the Sphinx 
was kept constantly in the spectator's 
view, rising above him as he de- 
scended, was well adapted to heighten 
the impression made by its colossal 
size, its posture of repose, and calm 
majestic expression of countenance." — 
Kenrick. The clearing away of 
the sand from this approach was a 
most difficult and tedious operation, 



Egypt- 



THE SPHINX. 



and as it accumulates again in a very- 
short time, every successive attempt 
to clear the space again requires the 
same labour to be repeated. This 
accumulation of sand was in former 
times prevented by crude brick-walls, 
remains of which are still visible ; and 
it is probably to them that the inscrip- 
tion set up there in tbe time of " An- 
toninus and Verus " alludes, in notic- 
ing the restoration of tbe walls. 

An altar, three tablets, a lion, and 
some fragments were discovered in the 
space between the paws ; but no en- 
trance could be found in that part, 
and it is probable that the interior is 
of solid rock. The altar stands be- 
tween the two paws ; and shows, from 
its position, that sacrifices were per- 
formed before the sphinx, and that 
processions took place along the sacred 
area, which extended between the 
forelegs to the breast, where a sort of 
sanctuary stood, composed of three 
tablets. One of these, of granite, at- 
tached to the breast, formed the end 
of the sanctuary ; and two others, one 
on the rt., and the other on the 1., of 
limestone, formed the two sides. The 
last have been both removed. At the 
entrance of the sanctuary two low 
jambs projected, to form a doorway, 
in the aperture of which was a crouched 
lion, looking towards the sphinx and 
the central tablet. It is supposed that 
the fragments of other lions found 
near this spot indicated their position 
on either side of the doorway, and 
others seem to have stood on similar 
jambs near the altar. On the granite 
tablet King Thothmes IV. is repre- 
sented offering on one side incense, 
on the other a libation to the figure of 
a sphinx, the representative, no doubt, 
of the colossal one above, with the 
beard and other attributes of a god. 

The title given to the sphinx is Hor- 

\em-Khoo (a) (" the Sun in 
his resting-place "), from 
which no doubt he was 
styled " the Sun, Arma- 
_ cMs" in the Greek inscrip- 
€ tion of Balbillus. Like 

g»v other deities, he is said to 
feSraM grant "power" and " pure 
^^^ m life " to the king ; and there 



is no doubt that, as Pliny observes, 
this sphinx had the character of a local 
deity, and was treated with divine 
honours by the priests, and by strangers 
who visited the spot. The side tablets 
have similar representations of Ba- 
rneses the Great offering to the same 
deity. On a fractured part of the 
granite tablet is the oval of Chephren, 
the founder of the Second Pyramid. 
The deification of the sphinx is sin- 
gular, because that fanciful animal is 
always found to be an emblematical 
representation of the king, the union 
of intellect and physical force ; and is 
of common occurrence in that cha- 
racter on the monuments of early and 
later Pharaonic periods. 

The front paws, which are 50 feet 
in length, are cased with hewn stone. 
Upon them are cut some Greek ex- 
votos, or dedicatory inscriptions, one 
of which, restored by Dr. Young, ran 
as follows : — 

"Zov Sejuas e<iray\ov rev^av 6eoi aiev eoi/res 

Ei? fueaov evOvvavTes apoupcucno Tpa7re^>]?, 

Nrjcrov 7reTpa(.T/s ^lapp-ov aTriacrap-evoL- 
TetToi^a TTvpafjuSdiv roi-qv Oecrav eicropaacrOai , 
Ov TTjv OiSmoBao fiporoKTOvov, w; e7U ©rjjScus, 

T77 Se 6ea Atjtoi npoanokov ayvoranqv, 
(Eu p.aA.a)TV7povcrai/ TrewoGrifxevou ecrOkov ava/cra, 
Tatrjs AiyvnTLOio o~ej3acrpLiov r\yy]Tt]pa., 
Ovpaviov p.eyav avroixeSovra (Qeoicriv op.aip.ov~), 
EifceAoi/ H^aio-TO), p,eyakr)Topa (Ovp-okeovra), 
(AAxip.oi' ev Trokepup /cat epa.crp.iov ev nokLrjTai^) 
Taiav aOvpoocrOat (nacrais 6aX.ia.LCTi KekovTa)- 
Appiavos. 

The same scholar has thus rendered 
it into English verse ; — 

" Thy form stupendous here the gods have 
placed, 

Sparing each spot of harvest-bearing land ; 
And with this mighty work of art bave graced 

A rocky isle, encumbered once with sand ; 

And near the pyramids have bid thee stand : 
Not that fierce sphinx that Thebes erewhile laid 
■waste, 

But great Latona's servant, mild and bland ; 
Watching that prince beloved who fills the 
throne 

Of Egypt's plains, and calls the Nile his own. 
That heavenly monarch (who his foes defies), 
Like Vulcan powerful (and like Pallas wise)." 

Arrian. 

The inscription is remarkable from its 
allusion to the isolated position of this 
monument of rock, and the notion of 
the Egyptians sparing the cultivable 
land, of which many instances occur 
k 2 



196 



CAIRO : EXCURSIONS ; 



Sect. II. 



in the foundation of towns on the 
edge of the desert. 

We now come to that part of the 
sphinx which is generally visible to 
the traveller, its head and body. The 
body is 140 ft. long, and is formed of 
the uncut natural rock, with pieces 
of badly worked sandstone masonry 
added here and there in order to make 
it the required shape. The head is 
cut out of the solid rock, and mea- 
sures nearly 30 feet from the top of 
the forehead to the bottom of the 
chin, and about 14 ft. across. It was 
formerly covered with a cap, probably 
the pshent, terminating in an asp erect, 
as seen in the figures of the sphinx on 
the tablets above mentioned.. The 
wig still hangs, a huge mass of stone, 
on either side the head. Originally 
it had a beard, fragments of which were 
found in the area below. It is hardly 
necessary to say that the idea of the 
sphinx in the abstract as a female be- 
longs to Greek mythology. Traces of 
the red colour, mentioned by Pliny 
"rubrica facies monstri colitur,'* may 
still be seen on the right cheek, and 
the same colour was found on the 
lions, and in the fragments of the 
small sphinx found in the area. We 
may agree with " Eothen " that, 
"Comely the creature is, but the 
comeliness is not of this world: the 
once worshipped beast is a deformity 
and a monster to this generation, and 
yet you can see that those lips so thick 
and heavy, Were fashioned according 
to some ancient mould of beauty." 
As Dean Stanley says, " there is some- 
thing stupendous in the sight of that 
enormous head ; " and we may well 
wonder with him "what it must have 
been when on its head there was the 
royal helmet of Egypt; on its chin 
the royal beard ; when the stone pave- 
ment by which men approached the 
Pyramids, ran up between its paws ; 
when immediately under its heart an 
altar stood, from which the smoke went 
up into the gigantic nostrils of that 
nose, now vanished from the face, 
never to be conceived again ! " The 
mutilated state of the face renders it 
impossible to trace the outline of the 
features with any accuracy, and the 



traveller must draw upon his fancy 
and imagination, to decide whether 
they are cast in a Negro, Nubian, 
or Egyptian mould, whether they be 
sublimely beautiful or sweetly smiling, 
calmly benevolent or awe inspiring, 
typical of solemn majesty or debased 
idolatry ; quot homines, tot seiitentise. 

Old Arab writers speak of it as a 
talisman to keep the sand away from 
the cultivated ground ; and tradition 
at one time says that it was mutilated 
by a fanatic sheykh in the 14th centy., 
and that since then the sand had 
made great encroachments. Certainly 
in Abd-el-Lfiteef s time it appears 
not to have been disfigured, as he 
speaks of the face as " very beauti- 
ful," and of the mouth as " graceful 
and lovely, and, as it w T ere, smiling 
graciously ; " and adds that the red 
colour was quite bright and fresh. By 
the Arabs of the present day it is 
known as Aboo-el-hOl (the Father of 
Terror). 

Whatever the object and origin of 
the sphinx " its situation and signifi- 
cance are worthy of its grandeur ; " 
and, "if it was the giant representa- 
tive of Eoyalty, then it fitly guards 
the greatest of Koyal sepulchres ; and, 
with its half-human, half-animal form, 
is the best welcome, and the best fare- 
well to the history and religion of 
Egypt."— A. P. Stanley. 

A short distance to the S.E. of the 
sphinx is the building (/) already 
mentioned as having yielded the statue 
of Chephren in the Cairo Museum. 
According to M. Mariette it served as 
a temple of the divinity Hor-em-Khoo 
( Armachis ) worshipped under the 
form of the sphinx. It is lined with 
granite and alabaster. The statue 
with some other smaller ones was 
found at the bottom of a water-well, 
down which at some unknown epoch 
they had been thrown. 

(k) Tombs. The pyramid platform of 
Geezeh was, as has been already men- 
tioned, one of the cemeteries of Mem- 
phis, and, as such, abounds in tombs 
belonging to various epochs ; but the 
greater number, and those to which 
the greatest interest attaches, belong to 



Egypt. 



TOMBS. 



197 



the Old Empire, i. e. the period extend- 
ing from the 1st to the Xlth dynasties. | 
A more favourable opportunity of enter- j 
ing into a detailed account of the 
mode of construction and arrangement 
usual in the building of the Egyp- j 
tian tombs will occur in describing I 
those at Sakkarah. It will be suffi- 
cient here to indicate briefly that they j 
consist generally of three parts : 1, an : 
exterior temple or chapel, containing [ 
one or more chambers always accessible 
by means of doors opening at will ; 
2, a vertical well leadiug from one of ! 
these chambers, or from some concealed ; 
corner of the chapel to ; 3, a sepulchral 
chamber, in which was buried the 
mummy : the lower part of the well, 
and the whole of the sepulchral cham- 
ber being cut out of the solid rock. 
Sometimes the exterior temple was a 
constructed monument on the plain; 
sometimes it was hollowed out of the 
side of the Mil. Specimens of both 
kinds occur at the Pyramids. 

Under the Old Empire the usual 
form of a constructed exterior temple 
was pyramidal. " They have," says 
M. Mariette. " the form of a mastabah, 
a sort of truncated pyramid, covering 
like a massive lid the well, at the 
bottom of which reposes the mummy." 
The entrance is nearly always on the 
E. side. The chambers contained within 
these external temples were intended 
for the performance of certain funereal 
ceremonies in honour of the dead by 
priests attached to the cemeteries, and 
on certain anniversaries the relations 
of the deceased came and assisted at 
the functions. A list of these anni- 
versaries, and of the funereal offerings 
proper to each, accompanied by a 
prayer, is generally found on the lintel 
of the outer doorway. The walls of 
the interior chambers are covered with 
representations of the scenes and oc- 
cupations amidst which the life of the 
deceased person was passed. At a 
later period of Egyptian history these 
pictures of domestic life were super- 
seded by mysterious religious em- 
blems. 

The well, which forms the second 
part of the tomb, is a square or rect- 
angular pit varying in depth from a 



few feet to 30 or 40 yards, lined with 
masonry in the upper part, where it 
passes through the sand, and then 
simply hollowed out of the rock. It 
was rilled with stones, earth, and sand 
moistened so as to form a kind of 
cement. At the bottom of the well 
on one side was a built-up wall, and 
through this lay the entry to the se- 
pulchral chamber. 

In the centre of this sepulchral 
chamber hollowed out of the rock, 
was the sarcophagus of basalt, granite, 
or limestone, in which lay the wooden 
coffin, shaped and painted so as to re- 
semble the mummied body contained 
within it. 

That part of a tomb which, as being 
the most easy of access, and the most 
generally interesting, chiefly attracts 
the notice of the traveller, are the 
chambers of the exterior chapel, exhi- 
biting pictures of the domestic life or 
the religious belief of the old Egyp- 
tians. No very good specimens of 
these, however, are to be seen on the 
pyramid platform. Sakkarah, Beni 
Hassan, and Thebes offer the best 
examples of this part of a mausoleum. 

Two or three good examples of the 
form of external covering which has 
been called a mastabah are seen to the 
E. of the Great Pyramid. 

In the eastern face of the platform 
(a) are tombs containing sculpture, 
and the names of Shoofoo Cheops) 
and other ancient kings. One of them 
(I), a little below the line of the rocks, 
and nearly in a line with the S.E. 
angle of the great pyramid, contains a 
curious and satisfactory specimen of 
the Egyptian numbers, from units to 
thousands, prefixed to goats, cattle, 
and asses, which are brought before 
the scribes to be registered as part of 
the possessions of the deceased. 

There are several tombs in the per- 
pendicular face of the lower rock be- 
hind the sphinx, and a short distance 
behind this rock is a tomb called 
" Campbell's Tomb," (u) after the Con- 
sul General in Egypt at the time of its 
discovery by Col. H. Vyse. The upper 
part of it is completely gone, but it 
offers a good example of the well or 
pit which forms the second part of a 



198 



CAIRO : EXCURSIONS ; THE CAUSEWAYS ; 



Sect. II. 




tomb. It is cut in the rock to a depth 
of 53 ft. 6 in. In the high rock, be- 
tween this and the Great Pyramid are 
several pits where sarcophagi were 
found ; and in one of them was dis- 
covered a gold ring bearing the name 
of Shoofoo. In a tomb to the S.E. of 
the great pyramid occurs the oval 
bearing the name of Seneferoo (a), pro- 
- bably the king who preceded 
^T*"' Shoofoo. 

\( To the S.E. of the second py- 
ramid are some tombs (ra, n), 
with the ovals of Shafra 
( Chephren ) and Menkera 
(Mycerinus ) ; and there are 
A "Ho some other smaller ones with 
V I sculptures and hierogly - 
phies. In the scarp of the 
rock to the W. of the Second 
Pyramid are a dozen tombs 
one of which (the 6th from 
the S.) the ceiling is remarkable, the 
stone being cut in imitation of palm- 
tree beams, reaching from wall to wall. 
Another instance of this occurs at a 
tomb of about the same date, at Kaai- 
neh in Upper Egypt. This shows that 
the houses of the Egyptians (when the 
arch was not preferred) were sometimes 
so roofed, as at the present day : the 
only difference being, that the beams 
were close together, while in modern 
houses they are at some distance from 
each other, with planks or layers of 
palm-branches, and mats across them. 
And it is reasonable to suppose that 
the latter mode of placing the beams 
was also adopted by the ancient Egyp- 
tians. This tomb is the third from the 
line of the S.W. angle of the pyramid, 
going northwards along the face of the 
rock. 

To the W. of the Great Pyramid 
are a number of tombs (H) ; and in 
one of them, near the extremity, are 
some interesting sculptures. Trades, 
boats, a repast, agricultural scenes, the 
farm, the wine-press, and other sub- 
jects are there represented ; and it is 
"worthy of remark that the butchers 
slaughtering an ox sharpen their red 
knives on a blue rod, which would 
seem to indicate the use of steel at 
this early period. In the sculptures 
columns with the full-blown lotus 



=>1 



capital are represented, and the man 
of the tomb seated in an armed chair 
of very early form on a figured mat, 
very like those now made in the Delta. 
Beneath his chair is a favourite dog. 
The long passage in this tomb has the 
roof made in imitation of an arch, the 
tympanum at the end being a single 
block. The names of Shoofoo and 
another Pharaoh (&) (perhaps Aseskef, 
successor of Menkera) occur 
in the sculptures ; and in the 
next tomb to the S. are the 
names of Suphis and other 
old kings; Aimai, the pos- 
sessor of the tomb, having 
been director of the temple 
of Suphis (Shoofoo). Three 
names of early kings occur ^^ H ^ m 
in the tomb adjoining that of 
Trades to the N. 

These tombs, like those to the E. of 
the Great Pyramid, afford good ex- 
amples of the constructed external 
covering, to which the name of mas- 
tabah has been given. Some of them 
are of considerable size, though no 
great height, and they are all built 
with their sides inclining inwards 
towards the top at an angle of 77°, 
thus producing the appearance of a 
truncated pyramid as mentioned above. 
The mouth of the well, or pit, may be 
noticed in nearly all. 

I. The Causeicays. Herodotus, as 
we have seen, speaks of the great labour 
involved in bringing the finer part of 
the stone of which the pyramids were 
constructed from the Arabian hills on 
the other side of the river, and says 
that it took 10 years to make the 
causeway, along which those for the 
Great Pyramid were transported. This 
causeway he describes as 5 stadia 
(3000 ft.) long, 10 orgyes (60 ft. wide), 
and 8 orgyes (48 ft. high). Kemains 
of it still exist (Z) ; but it can only be 
traced for about 1400 ft., the rest being 
buried in the alluvial soil gradually 
deposited by the inundations. Its pre- 
sent breadth too, is only 32 ft., the 
outer face having fallen, and there 
being no signs of the " polished stones 
adorned with the figures of animals" 
(hieroglyphics); spoken of by Hero- 



Egypt 



THE P YE AMID OF ABOOROASH. 



199 



dotus. But its height of 85 ft. exceeds 
that given by the historian, and as it 
naturally reached to the height of the 
rocky platform which Herodotus cor- 
rectly places at 100 ft. above the plain, 
it is evident that he or his copyist 
committed an oversight in giving 48 
ft. as the height. It was repaired by 
the caliphs and Memlook kings, who 
made use of the same causeway to 
carry back to the " Arabian shore " 
those blocks that had before cost so 
much time and labour to transport 
from its mountains ; and several of 
the finest buildings of the capital were 
constructed with the stones of the 
quarried pyramid. 

There does not appear to have been 
any causeway exclusively belonging to 
the Second Pyramid, unless we sup- 
pose it to have been taken away when 
no longer required, and the stones used 
for other purposes ; and were it not 
for the presence of the causeway of the 
Third Pyramid, we might attribute 
the northern one to the caliphs, and 
thus explain the statement of Diodorus, 
who says, that, owing to the sandy 
base on which it was built, it had 
entirely disappeared in his time. But 
he is speaking of the mounds which 
he supposed to have been erected on 
the platform itself, as vast inclined 
planes to raise the stones to the upper 
course of the pyramids. And, more- 
over, the causeway which leads to the 
Third Pyramid is certainly of Egyp- 
tian, and not Arab workmanship. Re- 
mains of this causeway still exist (Y 
and Z), and that part of it remaining 
on the plain (Y) has an opening (i) in 
the centre for the passage of persons 
travelling by the edge of the desert 
during the high Nile. 

A short distance to the N. of this 
causeway are a well with some palms, 
and a big sycamore-fig tree (X). For 
those who wish to remain for any time 
in the neighbourhood of the pyramids, 
this spot affords a very good camping- 
ground. 

Few persons probably will be con- 
tent with a single visit to the Pyra- 
mids ; and all would wish to fill in for 
themselves the picture thus graphically 
suggested : " It is only by going round 



the whole place in detail that the con- 
trast between its present and its ancient 
state is disclosed. One is inclined to 
imagine that the Pyramids are immu- 
table, and that such as you see them 
now such they were always. Of distant 
views this is true; but taking them 
near at hand, it is more easy from the 
existing ruins to conceive Karnac as it 
was, than it is to conceive the Pyra- 
midal platform as it was. The smooth 
casing of part of the top of the Second 
Pyramid, and the magnificent granite 
blocks which form the lower stages of 
the third serve to show what they must 
have been all, from top to bottom ; the 
first and second, brilliant white or 
yellow limestone, smooth from top to 
bottom, instead of those rude disjointed 
masses which their stripped sides now 
present, the third, all glowing with 
the red granite from the First Cataract. 
As it is, they have the barbarous look 
of Stonehenge; but then they must 
have shone with the polish of an age 
already rich with civilization, and that 
the more remarkable when it is re- 
membered that these granite blocks 
which furnished the outside of the 
third and inside of the first, must 
have come all the way from the First 
Cataract. It also seems from Herodotus 
and others, that these smooth outsides 
were covered with sculptures. Then 
you must build up or uncover the 
massive tombs, now broken or choked 
with sand, so as to restore the as- 
pect of vast streets of tombs, like 
those on the Appian Way, out of 
which the Great Pyramid would 
rise like a cathedral above smaller 
churches. Lastly, you must enclose 
the two other Pyramids with stone 
precincts and gigantic gateways, and 
above all you must restore the Sphinx 
as he was in the days of his glory." — 
A. P. Stanley. 

m. The Pyramid of Abooroash. Few 
will care to extend the excursion to 
Abooroash, about 5 m. to the N. of the 
Geezeh platform ; though, if encamped 
at the latter place, a walk or ride to 
the pyramid of Abooroash might be 
combined with a look for an hyaena in 
the "Red Mountain" in its vicinity, 



200 



CAIKO I EXCURSIONS ; PYRAMIDS OF ABOOSEER ; Sect. TT. 



where these animals are often found 
by the Arabs. 

About one-third of the way are seen 
inland to the right, two stone bridges 
of several arches, with inscriptions 
shewing that they were built by the 
Sultans Naser Mohammed and El 
Ashraf respectively, and the dates of 
their erection and repair. A little 
further on, on the edge of the desert, 
are the remains of an old village, now 
a heap of pottery and bricks. 

The pyramid stands on a range of 
hills that skirt the desert behind 
Kerdasseh, and forms the southern 
side of a large valley, a branch of the 
Bahr-el-Fargh. From the decomposed 
condition of the stone, it has the ap- 
pearance of greater age than the pyra- 
mids of Geezeh. Only 5 or 6 courses 
of the stone remain, and it contains 
nothing but an underground chamber 
to which a broad inclined passage 
160 ft. long, descends at an angle of 
22° 35' on the north side. According 
to the measurements given by Colonel 
Vyse, the base of the pyramid was 
320 ft. square, and the chamber 40 ft. 
by 15 ft., with smaller apartments 
over it, as in the great pyramid of 
Geezeh. 

Near the pyramid, to the westward, 
is another stone ruin ; and a causeway 
30 ft. broad leads up to the height on 
which they both stand, from the north- 
ward ; the length of which is said by 
Colonel Howard Yyse to be 4950 ft. 
A great quantity of granite is scattered 
around the pyramid, mostly broken 
into small fragments, with which (if 
ever finished) it was probably once 
cased. From the hill is a fine view 
over the valley of the Nile ; and being 
much higher than that of the Pyramids 
of Geezeh, it commands them, and has 
the advantage of showing them in 
an interesting position, with those of 
Aboose'er, Sakkarah, and Dashoor in 
the distance. This view is also remark- 
able from its explaining the expression 
11 peninsula, on which the Pyramids 
stand," used to denote the isolated 
position of the hill. It is the same 
that Pliny applies to the isolated rocky 
district about Syene. 

At the eastern extremity of the hills 



of Abooroash are some massive crude 
brick walls, and the ruins of an ancient 
village, with a few uninteresting tombs 
in the rock ; and in the sandy plain to 
the S. of them is the tomb of the sheykh 
who has given his name, Abooroash, to 
the ruined pyramid. 

n. The Pyramids o/Abooseer. These 
pyramids, like the one just described, 
offer no inducement to the traveller to 
go out of his way to see them; but if he 
should be including Geezeh and Sak- 
karah in one excursion (see Exc. vii., a) 
they will not lie far out of his course 
in riding between the two places. 
The road, which lies along the edge 
of the desert, affords a constant suc- 
cession of beautiful points of view 
across the rich plain to the Nile, ever 
changing in hue and outline at dif- 
ferent periods of the day. 

The pyramid first reached is an 
isolated one about f of a mile N. of 
the central group. It is 123 ft. 4 in. 
square. On one of the blocks is the 
name of one of the early 
Pharaohs (Raen-oo-ser of the 
Vth dynasty perhaps). In the 
plain below are the remains 
of a stone building, appa- 
rently a temple, connected 
with the pyramid by a cause- 
way ; and about halfway be- 
tween this and the pyramids of Aboo- 
se'er are other vestiges of masonry, 
now a heap of broken fragments of 
white stone. 

The pyramids of Abooseer are four 
in number. The largest measured 
originally, according to Colonel Vyse, 
359 ft. 9 in. square, and 227 ft. 10 
in. high, now reduced to 325 ft. and 
164 ft. The northernmost one is sur- 
rounded by an enclosure 137 paces 
square ; the pyramid itself being about 
213 ft. square, or 216 according to 
Colonel Vvse, having been originally 
257 ft. ; and its height of 162 ft. 9 in. 
is now reduced to 118. They are all 
in a dilapidated state, and seem to 
have been loosely built ; but the sepul- 
chral chambers have been constructed 
with great care, and have blocks in 
the roof larger than any in the pyra- 
mids of Geezeh ; there being some 



MAM 



Egypt- 



SAKKARAH. 



201 



from 35 ft. to 50 ft. long, and 12 ft. 
thick. Fifty paces to the E. of the 
northernmost pyramid is a temple, and 
a causeway leading from it to the 
plain ; and some distance to the S. of 
this is another causeway leading to 
the central pyramid, at the side of 
which lie fragments of black stone 
that once paved it. 

Besides the pyramids are 8 or 9 
other stone ruins, one of which, to the 
S.W. of the large pyramid, is 78 paces 
by 80, with an entrance on the N. It 
has perpendicular sides, and some of 
the stones measure nearly 17 ft. in 
length. 

The village of Abooseer, from which 
these pyramids are named, is 1 m. 
further S., and about 7 m. distant 
from the Geezeh platform. It has 
the mounds of an ancient town, but 
though it may have succeeded, to 
the name, it can hardly occupy the 
site of the ancient village of Busiris, 
which must have stood much nearer 
the Geezeh pyramids ; for we read in 
Pliny and other ancient writers, that 
the inhabitants of Busiris used to 
climb the pyramids for the amuse- 
ment of visitors, much in the same 
way no doubt as the Arabs of the 
neighbouring village do now. The 
village of Busiris may have stood 
on the site of one of those below 
the pyramids : that called El Hamra, 
" the red," or, more commonly, El 
K6m-el-Aswed, "the black mound," 
to the N.E. is evidently ancient ; and 
another stood just above the two kafrs, 
or hamlets, to the S. of K6m-el-Aswed. 
This is not the only instance of the 
Arab form of the Egyptian word : 
Abooseer being the modern name of 
Busiris in the Delta, near Sebennytus, 
and of Busiris, the supposed Nilo- 
polis, near the Heracleopolite nome. 



Excursion VII. Sakkarah. 

a. Preliminary Observations— b. Be- 
dreshayn, Mitrahenny. — c. History 
of Memphis. — d. Kemains of Mem- 
phis.— e. Village of Sakkarah. — 
Site of Necropolis.—/. Pyramids. — 



g. Serapeum, or Apis Mausoleum. 

h. Tombs. — i. Pyramids of Dashoor. 

a. Preliminary Observations. This 
excursion will occupy the entire day. 
The best way of making it is to drive 
to the station at Geezeh in time for 
the daily train to Upper Egypt, about 
9 a.m. Take the train to the first sta- 
tion, Bedreshayn, reached in about J 
an hour. Thence ou donkeys to Sak- 
karah, an hour to an hour and a half's 
ride. Donkeys can be procured at 
Bedreshayn, but they are wretched 
animals, without saddles and bridles ; 
and the best plan is to send on donkeys 
from Cairo either to the station at 
Geezeh early in the morning, to go in 
the train with you, or across country 
overnight, to be ready to meet you at 
Bedreshayn in the morning on the 
arrival of the train. The few remains 
at Memphis should be taken on the 
way to Sakkarah. This will lengthen 
the ride a little, and leave about 4 hrs. 
to be spent at Sakkarah, from which 
place a start should be made about 
| past 3 back to Bedreshayn, to catch 
the daily train from Upper Egypt to 
Cairo due about 5, though often much 
later. The charge for the carriage to 
Geezeh will be 5 shillings ; but if it 
is required to wait, or to come again 
in time for the return— and it is very 
necessary to secure there being a car- 
riage ready for this purpose — 16 shil- 
lings will be asked, as for the whole 
day. Five shillings should be enough 
for a donkey, if taken there and back 
in the day, phis, of course, the railway 
fare for it and the boy. Seven or 
eight shillings if sent on the day 
before. It is possible to ride to Sak- 
karah and back in one day, but few 
probably will choose this somewhat 
fatiguing manner of making the excur- 
sion. 

A very good plan for those who are 
provided with tents is to combine Sak- 
karah and the Pyramids in one trip 
of two days. This may be done in 
any of the following ways:— Go to 
Sakkarah as directed above, and after 
having seen everything there, ride by 
Abooseer to the Pyramids (3 hrs.). 
The tents will have been sent there 
k3 



202 



CAIRO : EXCURSIONS 5 MITRAHENNY MOUNDS ; Sect. IT. 



direct from Cairo, and pitched near 
the well in readiness : the following 
day may he devoted to the Pyramids, 
beginning with seeing the sun rise 
from the top of the Great Pyramid; 
and the donkeys can then be used for 
the ride home, or a carriage can have 
been ordered previously from Cairo. 
If it is thought better to spend more 
time at Sakkarah, the tents can be 
taken there, and the camp pitched for 
the night in the palm-grove on the 
edge of the desert outside the village : 
then next morning early ride to the 
Pyramids. In the same way, if the 
order is reversed and the Pyramids 
taken first, the tents can either be 
pitched there for the night, and the 
ride to Sakkarah be taken early the 
next morning, or the tents sent on to 
be pitched at Sakkarah, and the ride 
there taken after finishing the pyra- 
mids. In either of these last two cases 
the return from Sakkarah must be 
arranged so as to catch the train to 
Cairo, as directed above. Of these four 
alternatives the first is perhaps the 
one to be preferred, as involving the 
least expense and trouble for the car- 
riage of tents, and avoiding the chance 
of having to wait hours for the return 
train at Bedreshayn; but dragomen 
sometimes object to camping at the 
Pyramids, owing to the somewhat in- 
trusive character of the neighbouring 
inhabitants. 

Travellers going up the Nile may 
prefer to make the excursion from their 
boat, stopping for that purpose at 
Bedreshayn either on the way up or 
down the river. 

The later in the spring the excursion 
is made, the more will there be to see 
of the remains of Memphis, as the 
water of the inundation, which covers 
most of what there is in the winter, 
will have subsided. 

Candles and matches, and some 
magnesium wire, for lighting up the 
Apis Mausoleum, should be taken; 
and provisions will be required for 
luncheon. 

b. Bedreshayn. Mitrahenny. — The 
road to Geezeh has been already de- 
scribed in Exc. vi. From Geezeh to 



Bedreshayn the rlwy. runs through an 
almost continuous forest of palm-trees. 
On reaching Bedreshayn, the first stat. 
from Geezeh, the traveller mounts his 
donkey, and, skirting the village, 
which is composed of the usual mud 
hovels, and contains nothing of in- 
terest, rides along a winding embank- 
ment till the palm-groves are reached, 
in and around which lie the mounds 
of Mitrahenny, so called from the vil- 
lage, which is situated a little farther 
! on. These mounds mark a part of 
the site of ancient Memphis. Before 
proceeding to point out the objects 
which may arrest the attention for a 
few moments, it may be well to give 
some account of this once famous city, 
nearly every trace of which is now so 
completely obliterated. 

c. History of Memphis. — According 
to Herodotus's account of the story 
told him by the priests, Memphis was 
founded by Menes, the first recorded 
king of Egypt . who, by turning the Nile 
from its old course under the Libyan 
hills into a more western channel cut 
by him, made a large tract of dry land, 
on which he built the city. At the 
point where the river was turned off, 
he constructed dykes to prevent its 
returning into its old channel and 
overwhelming Memphis. Of these 
dykes no trace remains, though He- 
rodotus says they were kept up with 
great care by the Persians at the time 
of his visit : but the actual appearance 
of the river strongly corroborates the 
account. For at Kafr-el-Iyat, 14 m. 
above Mitrahenny, the Nile takes a 
considerable curve to the eastward, and 
would, if the previous direction of its 
course continued, run immediately be- 
low the Libyan mountains to Sakkarah ; 
and the slight difference between this 
distance and the approximate mea- 
surement of Herodotus, who places the 
dykes at 100 stadia above Memphis, 
offers no objection. Indeed, if we cal- 
culate from the outside of the town, 
which the historian doubtless did, we 
shall find that the bend of Kafr-el- 
Iyat agrees exactly with his 100 stadia, 
or about 11 J in., Mitrahenny being 
some way within the city of Memphis. 



Egypt. 



HISTORY OP MEMPHIS. 



203 



It is not necessary to suppose, how- 
ever, that the whole of the river was 
diverted from its original channel into 
an entirely different one. It probably 
divided into two arms, as is often the 
case in many parts of its course, which 
joined into one stream again some 
miles lower down, and Menes merely 
blocked up the western channel, and 
turned all the water into the eastern. 
A similar thing w T as done a few years 
ago, when the arm of the river that 
flowed to the west of Gezeereh was 
dammed up, and the whole stream 
turned into the branch that flows by 
Boolak. The arm of the river was re- 
placed by a canal which brought water 
to the famous lake " on the IS", and W. 
of the city " excavated by Menes ; and 
this canal is now represented by the 
one which flows through the plain 
between the desert and Mitrahenuy, 
and continues on to below the pyra- 
mids of Geezeh. It is a continuation 
of the Bahr Yoosef, and appears here 
to flow through a natural depression. 

Memphis is styled in Coptic Men, 
Momf, and Meuf, which last is tra- 
ditionally preserved by the modern 
Egyptians, though the only existing 
town whose name resembles it is Me- 
noof, in the Delta. The Egyptians 
called it Panouf, Memfi, Membe, and 
Menofre (Ma-nofre), "the place of 
good," which Plutarch translates " the 
haven of good men," though it seems 
rather to refer to the abode of the 
Deity, the representative of goodness, 
than to the virtues of its inhabitants. 
In hieroglyphics it was styled " Me- 
nofre, the land of the pyramid," and 
sometimes Ei-Phtah, " the abode of 
Phtah," as well as "the -city of the 
white wall." 

Though the remains of Memphis lie 
chiefly about Mitrahenny, it is evident 
that the city extended considerably 
beyond the present mounds, which 
appear to have belonged to the enclo- 
sures about the temple and other sacred 
edifices, as well as to the "palaces" 
that were situated, as Strabo says, on 
an elevated spot reaching down to the 
lower part of the town ; and there is I 
reason to believe that it extended from 
near the river at Bedreshayn to Sak- 



karah, which only allows a breadth E. 
and W. of 3 miles. Diodorus calcu- 
lates its circuit at 150 stades, upwards 
of 17 Eng. m., requiring a diameter of 
nearly 6 m. ; and its greatest diameter 
was probably N. and S. But the whole 
of this space was not covered by houses 
or public buildings ; much was given 
up to gardens, villas, and " sacred 
groves;" and the great Acherusian 
lake, " surrounded," according to Dio- 
dorus, " by meadows and canals," occu- 
pied a large portion of it. This lake 
was probably in the lowlands to the 
N.E. of Sakkarah with a canal commu- 
nicating with the large reservoir con- 
structed for the service of the temple 
of Phtah, in the open space to the N. 
of the colossus, between Mitrahenny 
and the long eastern mounds, in the 
mud of which several statues have 
been discovered. On the river side of 
these mounds is the site of what is 
called the Nilometer. 

It may be doubted if Memphis was 
surrounded by a wall. It was not the 
custom of the Egyptians to include 
the whole of a large city within one 
circuit : Thebes even, with its 100 
gates, had no wall ; and we find there, 
as in other cities, that portions alone 
were walled round, comprehending 
the temples and other precious monu- 
ments. In places of great extent, as 
Thebes, each temple had its own cir- 
cuit, generally a thick crude-brick 
wall, with strong gateways, sometimes 
within an outer one of greater extent ; 
and the quarters of the troops, or 
citadel, were surrounded by a massive 
wall of the same materials, with an 
inclined way to the top of the rampart. 
The temples of Memphis were, no 
doubt, encompassed in the same man- 
ner by a sacred enclosure ; and the 
" white wall " was the fortified part of 
the city, in which the Egyptians took 
refuge when defeated by the Persians. 
This white fortress was very ancient, 
and from it Memphis was called the 
" city of the white wall." 

Memphis had probably already 
suffered somewhat from the Persians 
when Herodotus saw it, but the ac- 
count he has left of some of the prin- 
cipal buildings shows that it must have 



204 



CAIRO : EXCURSIONS ; 



Sect. IT. 



been the largest and most magnificent 
city in Egypt at the time of his visit. 

Among those which he mentions 
are the Temple of Phtah or Hephaes- 
tus, said to have been founded by 
Menes, and enlarged and beautified by 
succeeding monarchs. Mceris (Ame- 
nemha III) erected the northern vesti- 
bule; and Sesostris (Barneses II.), 
besides the two colossal statues, one 
of which is still to be seen, made 
considerable additions with enormous 
blocks of stone which " he employed 
his pri- oners of war to drag to the 
temple." Pheron (Menephtah), his 
son, also enriched it with suitable 
presents, which he sent on the recovery 
of his tight, as he did to all the prin- 
cipal temples of Egypt. The western 
vestibule, or propylseum, was the work 
of Ehampsinitus (Barneses III.), who 
also erected 2 statues, 25 cubits in 
height, one on the N., the other on the 
S. ; to the former of which the Egyp- 
tians gave the name of summer, and to 
the latter winter. The eastern was 
the largest and most magnificent of all 
these propylsea, and excelled as well in 
the beauty of its sculpture as in its 
dimensions. It was built by Asychis 
(Shishak). Several grand additions 
were afterwards made by Psamme- 
tichus, who, besides the southern vesti- 
bule, erected a large hypa:thral court 
covered with sculpture, where Apis 
was kept, when exhibited in public. 
It was surrounded by a peristyle of 
Osiride figures, 12 cubits in height, 
which served instead of columns ; — 
similar no doubt to those in the Mem- 
nonium at Thebes. Many other kings 
adorned this magnificent temple of 
Phtah with sculpture and various 
gifts, among which may be mentioned 
the statue of Sethos, in commemora- 
tion of his victory over the Assyrians, 
holding in his hand a mouse with 
this inscription, " Whoever sees me, 
let him be pious." Amasis, too, dedi- 
cated a recumbent colossus, 75 ft. long, 
in this temple, which is the more 
singular as there is no instance of an 
Egyptian statue, of early time, in that 
position : and the same king built a 
magnificent temple to the goddess 
Isis. 



The temenos, or sacred grove, of 
Proteus was very beautiful and richly 
ornamented. Some Phoenicians of 
Tyre, settlers at Memphis, lived round 
it, and in consequence the whole 
neighbourhood received the name of 
the Tyrian camp. Within the temenos 
was the temple, called " of Yenus the 
stranger ; " whence the historian con- 
jectured that it was of Helen, who was 
reported to have lived some time at 
the court of the Egyptian king. This 
is of course an idle Greek story, which, 
like so many others, shows how ready 
the Greeks were to derive everything 
from their own country. 

Four hundred years after Herodotus, 
Diodorus expatiates on the size and 
magnificence of Memphis, which, how- 
ever had already become second in 
importance to Alexandria. And 
Strabo, a few years before the Christian 
era, says : " The city is large and 
populous, next to Alexandria in size, 
and, like that, filled with foreign re- 
sidents. Before it are some lakes; 
but the palaces, situated once in an 
elevated spot, and reaching down to 
the lower part of the city, are now 
ruined and deserted." The temples, 
however, seem still to have been kept 
up in the former style of magnificence. 
They suffered no doubt in the reign of 
Theodosius from the zeal which he dis- 
played against idolatry and its shrines. 
But Memphis still continued to enjoy 
some consequence, even at the time of 
the Arab invasion ; and though its 
ancient palace was a ruin, the gover- 
nor of Egypt, John Mekaukes, still 
resided in the city ; and it was here 
that he concluded a treaty with the 
invaders after they had succeeded in 
taking the strong Boman fortress at 
Babylon. The wealth, as well as the 
inhabitants of Memphis, soon passed 
to the new Arab city of Fostat, and 
the capital of Lower Egypt in a few 
years ceased to exist. The blocks of 
stone of its ruined monuments were 
afterwards taken to help in building 
the new city of Cairo: and yet not- 
withstanding this wholesale spoliation 
we find Abd-el-Lateef at the end of the 
12th centy., asserting that " the ruins 
of Memphis occupy a space half a day's 



Egypt. 



REMAINS OF MEMPHIS. 



205 



journey every way;" and that "they 
still offer to the eyes of the spectator a 
collection of marvels which strike the 
mind with wonder, and which the 
most eloquent man might in vain 
attempt to describe." Aboo'l-Feyda, 
150 years later, speaks of the ruins as 
still occupying a large extent, but 
gradually disappearing. But from 
that time hardly any mention is made 
of them ; and the waters of the inun- 
dation, long ago unrestrained by the 
protecting dykes, covered the plain 
with a gradually increasing layer of 
mud deposit, beneath which every 
trace of such ruins as were left com- 
pletely disappeared. It was not till 
the beginning of the present century 
that researches were made which re- 
sulted in discovering some traces of 
the ancient city. 

(d) Remains of Memphis. Some 
statues, a few fragments of granite, 
and some substructions are all that 
can be seen of the ruins of a city, 
which, if there is any truth in the 
description given of it, " in its glory 
must have exceeded any modern city, 
as much as the Pyramids exceed any 
mausoleum which has been erected 
since those days." — Curzon. It is pos- 
sible that much may be concealed 
beneath the mounds, but the latest 
researches have been singularly unpro- 
ductive. There are a few objects, 
chiefly statuettes of the god Phtah, 
at the museum at Cairo, and one inter- 
esting discovery was that of a private 
house. 

The only object that will attract 
the traveller's attention is the colossal 
statue, lying on its face in an excavated 
hollow to the left of the path before 
reaching Mit; ahenny. This is pro- 
bably one of the statues mentioned by 
Herodotus and Diodorus as erected by 
" Sesostris " in front of the Temple of 
Phtah. These statues were 30 cubits 
(45 to 51 \ feet; high: this one is un- 
fortunately broken at the feet, and 
part of the cap is wanting ; but its 
total height may be estimated at 48 ft. 
8 in. without the pedestal. The stone 
is a white siliceous limestone, very 
hard, and capable of taking a high 



polish. From the neck of the king 
is suspended an amulet or breast- 
plate, like that of the Urim and 
Thummin of the Hebrews, in which 
is the royal prenomen, supported by 
j Phtah on one side, and Pasht on the 
I other. In the centre, and at the side 
of his girdle, are the name and pre- 
nomen of this Eameses, and in his 
l and he holds a scroll, bearing at 
one end his name Amun-mai-Eameses. 
1 A figure of his daughter is re presented 
j at his side. It is on a small scale, her 
' shoulder reaching little above the level 
! of his knee. The upper part of the 
I statue is somewhat worn away, but the 
J under part still retains its polish. The 
; expression of the face, which is per- 
fectly preserved, is very beautiful : and 
by going down into the hollow a good 
view may be obtained of the features, 
which are sharp cut and most deli- 
cately finished. At the time of high 
Nile the hole is full of water and but 
little of the statue visible ;* and indeed 
the whole of the face is seldom to be 
seen before March. 

There are some other remains of 
statues, and another coh ssus, lying not 
far from this one ; and at the guard's 
hou.-e close by may be seen a few things 
which have been dug up at various 
times; among them are some statues 
in the bitting attitudes of the modern 
Egyptians, with crossed legs, or knees 
up to the chin. The space to the S. of 
the colossus is the site of the temple 
of Phtah, of which the foundations 
have been discovered by M. Mariette. 
In the open space to the N. are some 
remains only visible at low Nile. This 
open space, which is still a depres- 
sion filled with more or less water 
according to the time of year, was 
formerly probably a reservoir - in front 
of the temple, supplied with water by 
a canal from the lake before men- 
tioned, situated near Sakkarah. On 
the borders of this pond M. Mariette 
discovered a small temple of Eameses 
II. 



* TMs beautiful statue -was discovered by 
Signor Caviglia and Mr. Sloane, by whom it was 
given to the British Museum, on condition of its 
being taken to England; but no atternpi has 
ever been made to remove it. 



206 



CAIEO : EXCURSIONS ; SAKKARAH ; 



Sect, II. 



e. Sakkarah. Site of Necropolis. — 
Crossing the western line of mounds, 
with the village of Mitrahenny on the 
right, we enter the fertile plain that 
reaches to the edge of the desert. The 
path now generally followed turns to 
the right, till it reaches a high em- 
bankment at a point where the latter 
crosses a canal by means of an old 
Arab bridge. This embankment leads 
up to the S. corner of the rocky pro- 
montory on which are the pyramids 
and tombs. Immediately on the left, 
before reaching the desert, is the pro- 
bable site of the lake dug by Menes 
for regulating the supply of water to 
Memphis and the surrounding country. 
Except at low Nile there is always 
plenty of water in it, and it sometimes 
abounds in ducks. Formerly the road 
used to lie straight across the plain 
from Mitrahenny to the village of 
Sakkarah, passing through it and 
along the edge of the pond on to the 
platform. Outside the village to the 
N., before reaching the pond, is the 
grove in which those who encamp at 
Sakkarah have been advised to pitch 
their tents. 

The Necropolis, to which the neigh- 
bouring village of Sakkarah gives its 
name, is the oldest, as well as the most 
modem, of the cemeteries of Memphis. 
It is also the largest, being nearly 
4§ m. long, and having a breadth 
varying from J m. to nearly 1 m. 
Like the Necropolis of Geezeh, that of 
Sakkarah belongs more especially to 
the Old Empire. In the centre, form- 
ing as it were the nucleus of this vast 
ensemble, rises a pyramid curiously 
built in degrees. If tradition may be 
trusted, and if the place of which this 
pyramid is the centre is called Ko- 
Komeh, and if King Ouenephes built 
his pyramid, as Manetho says he did, 
in a place called Ko-Komeh, then this 
pyramid of Sakkarah belongs to the 
1st dynasty, and is the most ancient 
monument not only in Egypt, but in 
the world. 

To the N. of this pyramid are the 
tombs of the Old Empire, which have 
yielded up so many of the interest- 
ing objects in the museum at Cairo, 
and are themselves magnificent wit- 



nesses to the civilization of that remote 
period; those of Tih, Phtah-hotep, 
Saboo, and some others are the most 
remarkable. To the S. of the pyramid 
are tombs of the XVIIIth, XlXth, and 
XXth dynasties. Among them was 
found the list of king-! called 4 The 
Tablet of Sakkarah.' To the E., in 
going from the pyramid to the culti- 
vated land, there occurs first a belt of 
tombs of the Old Empire, then one of 
the XXVIth and following dynasties, 
and then a third, which maybe called 
the Greek cemetery. Among these last 
tombs were found nearly all the Greek 
papyri that Lave enriched the different 
European museums. 

On the western side of the old tombs 
to the N. of the pyramid are the re- 
mains of the Serapeum, and at the 
beginning of the XXVIth dynasty a 
way was cut through the tombs for 
an avenue of sphinxes leading to the 
Serapeum, and to the underground 
vaults known as the Apis Mausoleum. 
From the ruins of the Serapeum came 
most of the statuettes of the different 
divinities in the Cairo museum. 

The truncated pyramid, called 
by the Arabs Ma-tabat-el-Pharaoon 
(Pharaoh's throne), is at the S. of the 
large pyramid; and the ibis mummy 
pits to the N. The ibises have been 
preserved in long earthen pots, but 
owing to the damp, which at a cer- 
tain depth filters in through the soil, 
they are mostly reduced to powder. 

(/) Pyramids. There are eleven py- 
ramids on the Sakkarah plateau. The 
southernmost of these is the truncated 
one already mentioned called Masta- 
bat-el-Pharaoon. It is in a very ruined 
condition. In the inside is a chamber 
with niches, as in the Third Pyramid 
of Geezeh. 

A little further on, as the visitor 
approaches from Mitrahenny, is the 
largest of the Sakkarah pyramids, 
curiously built in stages or degrees. 
The date of this monument has not 
yet been accurately determined, but, 
as has been said, it may be the oldest 
pyramid in Egypt. The argument on 
which this supposition is founded is 
as follows : Manetho says that Ouene- 



Egypt. 



PYRAMIDS ' APIS MAUSOLEUM. 



207 



ph.es, the 4th king of the 1st dynasty 
according to his list, built a pyramid 
close to a village called Ko-Komeh ; on 
the tablet of Serapeum the name of 
Ko-Korneh was found as given to the 
surrounding necropolis ; on an en- 
trance door of the pyramid, now at 
Berlin, was deciphered not the name, 
but the title and banner of a very old 
king. From this the deduction is 
drawn that as Ouenephes built a pyra- 
mid at Ko-Korneh, and as this necro- 
polis was called Ko-Komeh, this title 
and banner were his, and the pyramid 
was built by him. 

It is the largest in size next to 
those of Geezeh. The degrees are five 
in number, diminishing in height and 
breadth towards the top. The present 
height from the base is about 190 ft. 
Contrary to the usual rule in pyra- 
midal buildings, the base is not a per- 
fect square, the measurements accord- 
ing to Col. H. Vyse being 351 ft. 2 in. 
on the N. and S. faces, and 393 ft. 
11 in. on the E. and W. It is sur- 
rounded by what may be called a 
sacred enclosure, about 1750 ft. by 
950 ft. Inside the construction is pe- 
culiar. Immediately under the centre 
is an excavation in the rock, 77 ft. in 
depth and 24 ft. square : the top of 
this is dome-shaped, and was origi- 
nally lined with wooden rafters ; the 
bottom is paved with blocks of granite, 
| and beneath is a rude chamber, the 
opening to which was concealed by a 
granite block four tons in weight. No 
trace of anything was found here 
when the pyramid was opened by Mi- 
nutoli in 1821. Out of the excavation 
leads a very labyrinth of passages con- 
ducting to different apartments. On 
the doorway of the one opposite to the 
entrance are some hieroglyphics, and 
the title and banner referred to above. 
The sides of these chambers had been 
lined with blueish green slabs similar 
to those now known as Dutch tiles : 
and it is scarcely necessary to remark 
that vitrified porcelain was a very old 
invention in Egypt, and continued in 
vogue there till a late period, even 
after the Arab conquest, and the foun- 
dation of Cairo. Pieces of broken 
marble and alabaster were found in 



I some of the passages ; and in a gallery 
i connected with another entrance which 
! appeared not to have been ransacked, 
[ were found 30 mummies of an in- 
ferior description coarsely enveloped 
in wrappers. None of the other 
pyramids present anything worthy of 
notice. 

(jg) The Serapeum, or Apis Mauso- 
leum. The vast subterranean tomb 
which next claims the visitor's atten- 
tion is called indiscriminately the 
Serapeum. or the Apis Mausoleum, but 
it should be noted that the latter of 
these titles is the correct t one. The 
Serapeum, properly so called, was the 
exterior temple surmounting the ex- 
cavated tomb. It no longer exists; 
but to judge by such few remains of it 
as have been found it resembled in 
appearance the ordinary Egyptian 
temple. An avenue of sphinxes led 
up to it. and two pylons stood before 
it ; round it was the usual enclosure. 
But it was distinguished from all other 
temples by having in one of its cham- 
bers an opening, from which descended 
an inclined passage into the rock be- 
low, giving access to the vaults in 
which reposed the mummied repre- 
sentatives of the god Apis. Living, 
the sacred bull was worshipped in a 
magnificent temple at Memphis, and 
lodged in a palace adjoining— the Api- 
euni : dead, he was buried in exca- 
vated vaults at Sakkarah, and wor- 
shipped in a temple built over them — 
the Serapeum. 

The discovery of the site of the 
Serapeum and the Apis Mausoleum 
was made by M. Mariette in 1860-61. 
Having observed the head of a sphinx 
appearing through the sand, and find- 
ing on clearing the spot that the 
statue was entire, the passage of 
Strabo occurred to him in which that 
writer says: "There is also a Sera- 
peum in a very sandy spot, where 
drifts of sand are raised by the wind 
to such a degree that we saw some 
sphinxes buried up to their heads, 
and others half-covered." From this 
passage, taken in connexion with the 
finding of the sphinx, M. Mariette did 
I not hesitate to conclude that he was 



208 



CAIRO I EXCURSIONS ; SAKKARAH J 



Sect. II. 



on the track of the Serapeum, and he 
immediately set to work to verify his 
idea with an energy proportionate to 
the difficulty of the task. For the 
cutting a passage through the deep 
sand was an arduous as well as a 
dangerous undertaking, the shifting 
wall constantly threatening to fall in, 
and not only fill up the hardly won 
trench, but bury the workers. In two 
months he had cleared out an avenue 
600 feet long, and laid bare 141 
sphinxes, besides the pedestals of 
many others. At first the depth of 
sand bad only been 10 or 12 ft., but 
before the end was reached a depth 
of 70 ft. had to be cut through. At 
the end of this avenue was found a 
semicircle of statues representing the 
most famous philosophers and writers 
of Greece, some with the name in- 
scribed at the bottom of the statue. 
Between the last two sphinxes and 
this semicircle ran a cross avenue, 
leading on the left to a temple built 
by Amyrtaeus, and on the right to the 
Serapeum. This right-hand part of 
the cross avenue was bordered on each 
side by a low broad wall. On the 
right-hand wall were curious statues 
representing children astride various 
real and symbolical emblems. On 
the left-hand wall was a small temple 
in the Greek style, and two Egyptian 
temples, in one of which was a stone 
statue of the bull Apis. At the end of 
the avenue was one of the pro-pylons 
of the Serapeum, with two crouching 
lions on pedestals immediately in front 
of it. These lions are now at the 
Louvre. 

Notwithstanding the various diffi- 
culties to be encountered from the 
shifting sand and other causes, M. 
Mariette laid bare the whole circuit 
of the Serapeum, and at length in 
November, 1861, crowned his success 
by discovering the entrance to the 
huge vaults in which were buried 
the dead representatives of Apis. 

The approaches to the Serapeum, 
and such remains as there were of 
the Serapeum itself, have long since 
been re-covered by the sand. The hol- 
low in front of the house where M. 
Mariette lived during the progress of 



the excavation marks the line of the 
walled avenue, and sometimes the top 
of one or two of the curious figures 
alluded to above may be seen appear- 
ing through the sand. 

The Apis Mausoleum is divided into 
three distinct parts. The first and 
most ancient served as the burial 
place of the sacred bulls from Amu- 
noph III. of the XVIIIth dynasty to 
the end of the XXth dynasty. In this 
part each tomb is a separate sepulchral 
chamber, hewn here and thereout of the 
rocky platform of the temple. They were 
of no particular interest, and are again 
hidden by the sand. The second part 
comprised the tombs of Apis from the 
time of Sheshonk I. of the XXIInd 
dynasty to that of Tirhakah, last king 
of the XXVth dynasty. In this part 
a new system has been adopted, and 
a long subterranean gallery excavated 
beneath the temple, on each side of 
which are mortuary chambers for the 
dead bulls. This also is inaccessible, 
the roof having in many places fallen 
in, and the whole being in an insecure 
state. 

The third part is that which the 
visitor now sees. It was the place of 
interment from the reign of Psamme- 
tichus I. of the XXVI th dynasty (cir. 
650 b.c.) till the time of the later 
Ptolemies (cir. 50 b.c.) The same sys- 
tem is here followed as in the second 
part, only on a much larger and more 
magnificent scale, the galleries having 
an extent of nearly 400 yards, and 
granite scarcophagi having been em- 
ployed for the interment. Partly to 
prevent the ingress of sand, and partly 
to protect the galleries from the 
marauding and destructive propen- 
sities of too many of the visitors, the 
entrance is now closed by a door, the 
key of which is kept by the Arab who 
has the charge of the tombs, &c. at 
Sakkarah, and who lives at the house 
close by. It is essential that each 
person should carry a candle and 
look well before him, a serious acci- 
dent hnving occurred to a gentleman 
in 1870 through a neglect of these 
simple precautions. He was standing 
close to one of the openings in which 
are the sarcophagi, and not seeing it, 



Egypt. 



APIS MAUSOLEUM ; TOMBS. 



2C9 



fell in and broke his arm. Imme- 
diately on entering you turn to the 
right, and proceed down a gallery 
more than 210 yards long. On both 
sides, but never opposite to one an- 
other, are deep reeestes, each con- 
taining a huge sarcophagus of granite, 
measuring on an average 13 ft. in 
length by 7 ft. 6 in. in breadth, and 
11 ft. in height. In one of the recesses 
are steps for the purpose of descend- 
ing and examining the sarcophagus, 
which is sculptured: the curious can 
also climb by a ladder into the interior, 
and satisfy themselves that it would 
hold four or live persons sitting. In 
nearly every instance the lid of the 
sarcophagus has been partly pushed 
away, so as to give access to the mum- 
mied contents ,of which no vestiges 
have been found. The number of 
sarcophagi in situ, throughout the 
whole extent of the galleries, is 24. 
Of thete only three bear any inscrip- 
tion, and they contain the names of 
Amasis, Cambyses, and Khebasch, and 
belong therefore to the several periods 
just preceding, contemporaneous with, 
and subsequent to, the Persian con- 
quest. A fourth with some ovals with- 
out any name is supposed to be of the 
date of the later Ptolemies. 

The historical importance of the 
discovery of the Apis Mausoleum was 
very great, though it does not consist 
in anything which can now be seen. 
When first opened the walls of the 
vaults were covered with stelx, or 
inscribed tablets, placed there by in- 
dividuals who on certain annual fes- 
tivals, or on the occasion of the death 
and burial of an Apis, came to per- 
form an act of worship at his temple 
and tomb. In memory of this pious 
act, it was the custom to fit into one 
of the walls of the tomb a square- 
shaped stone, rounded at the top, in 
which were recorded the names of the 
visitor and his family, and very often 
in addition the precise date of the cur- 
rent year of the reigning king. A 
comparison of these stelse was neces- 
sarily of great importance in fixing 
the chronology of the period to which 
they belong. About 500 of these 
ez votos were found in their original 



position, principally near the entrance 
to the tombs on the right All those 
of any importance which were legible 
have been removed and are in the 
Louvre at Paris, but some may still be 
seen in the wall. 

Qi) Tombs. The vast extent of the 
Sakkarah Necropolis has been already 
noted, and the position of the tombs 
belonging to different epochs pointed 
out. On every side heaps of sand and 
debris beside the mouths of deep pits 
evidence the extent of the researches 
that have been made, and the results 
are seen in some of the most interest- 
ing objects exhibited in the Cairo 
Museum. The tombs themselves are 
soon covered in again by their pre- 
server, the sand. The most interest- 
ing are those belonging to the old 
empire on the N. side of the large 
pyramid; and the one usually, visited 
after leaving the Apis Mausoleum lies 
a short distance to the N.E. of the 
entrance to those vaults. It is called 
the Tomb of Tih. Before proceeding 
to describe it, it may be well to repeat 
at greater length the account already 
given of the plan of these old tombs, 
and to explain the spirit which dic- 
tated the various representations found 
in them. 

The Old Empire tombs consisted of 
three parts. 1. An exterior building 
(a), containing one or more chambers : 
2. A vertical pit (b) : and 3. the vault 
(c), generally excavated at right angles 
to the pit, in which was placed the 
sarcophagus containing the body (d). 
The outer covering was usually in the 
form of what has been called a mas- 
tabah, better illustrations of which 
may be seen at the Pyramids than 
here ; but nowhere better than at 
Sakkarah do specimens exist of the 
interior arrangement. The entrance 
faces nearly always W., and varies in 
its proportions from a simple doorway 
to a highly ornamented facade, accord- 
ing to the rank and importance of the 
owner of the tomb. On the lintel is 
an inscription, setting forth the name 
and titles of the deceased,' followed by 
an invocation addressed to Anubis, 
the guardian of tombs, in which he is 



210 



CAIRO : EXCURSIONS ; SAKKARAH ; 



Sect. IT. 




Han of an Egyptian Tomb. 



Egypt- 



TOMB OF TIH. 



211 



prayed, 1. To accord to the person 
named propitious funeral rites, and a 
good burial-place in the cemetery after 
a long and happy life : 2. To be 
favourably disposed towards the de- 
ceased in his journey through the 
regions beyond the tomb : and 3. To 
secure to him through all eternity the 
proper paying of what the text calls 
" funereal offerings." This invocation 
is followed by a list of these funereal 
offerings, and of the anniversaries on 
which they are to be paid. It is to be 
noted that all the scenes sculptured on 
the walls of the chamber contained in 
this exterior building have reference to 
these three subjects of invocation. The 
chambers vary in number and size; 
sometimes there is only one. They 
served the purpose of mortuary chapels, 
in which the parents of the deceased, 
and the priests attached to the service 
of the cemetery celebrated, on the 
anniversary festivals mentioned in the 
inscription over the door, certain cere- 
monies in honour of the dead, and 
offered the appropriate gifts. The 
walls were covered with sculptures 
representing the scenes in which the 
deceased person had been accustomed 
to pass his life ; ending with the last 
act at which he may be said to have 
assisted in this world, the transport 
of his mummied body to the place 
of burial. The tables of offerings, 
which no doubt also formed part of 
the furniture of the chambers, are 
depicted on the walls covered with 
the gifts of meat, fruits, bread, and 
wine, which had to be presented in 
kind. At the end of the principal 
chamber was a stela, containing what 
might be called the epitaph of the 
deceased. Under the Old Empire 
these stelse, are quadrangular stones, 
often of large size, and sculptured so 
as to represent the exterior of a temple 
of the period. In the oldest tombs 
the statue of the defunct is not found, 
as at a later period, in any of the 
chambers. They were generally placed 
in a sort of corridor contrived in the 
thickness of one of the outer walls, 
and excluded from all external com- 
munication. Sometimes, however, a 
small opening in one of the walls of 



the principal room indicates the pre- 
sence of a shaft reaching to the spot 
where the statues are concealed, and 
through which the scent of incense 
might pass. 

The entrance to the pit which forms 
the second part of the tomb is found 
either in one of the chambers, or some 
hidden corner of the outer monument. 
The upper part, dug through the over- 
lying stratum of sand, is cased with 
stones, the remainder being excavated 
out of the rock. These pits vary from 
10 to 30 yards in depth, are vertical in 
' direction, and of square or rectangular 
form. Those that have not previously 
been opened have been found filled 
with a hard cement composed of stones, 
sand, and earth. At the bottom of 
the pit appears on one side a con- 
structed stone wall. This closes the 
entrance to the third part of the tomb, 
the sepulchral chamber. 

In this sepulchral chamber, hollowed 
out of the rock, lay the mummied 
body, protected from all probable 
chances of violation by the solid stone 
sarcophagus, the cavern hewn deep into 
the rock, and the pit filled with com- 
pact debris, and with its entrance con- 
cealed from view. Here it is no longer 
a question of this world, but of the next, 
and the walls are consequently often 
covered with passages from the Book 
of the Dead, and representations of 
religious subjects. 

Such was the disposition of an Egyp- 
tian tomb during the earliest dynasties, 
and though many changes in some of 
the details were made at later epochs, 
the division into three parts was always 
substantially the same. 

The Tomb of Tih is an excellent 
specimen of an Old Empire tomb. 
The mastabdh, or external covering has 
disappeared, but the chambers within 
are in a wonderfully good state of 
preservation; and the sculptures on 
the walls far surpass, if not in variety, 
at any rate in drawing and preser- 
vation, those at Beni Hassan. That 
they have preserved their colour and 
delicacy of outline is owing, no doubt, 
to their having been so long buried in 
the sand, and one is almost tempted to 



212 



CAIRO : EXCURSIONS ; SAKKARAH J 



Sect. II. 



wish that that apparent enemy, but 
real friend to antiquities in Egypt was 
allowed to have his way again, when 
one sees the cruel havoc wrought by so 
many of those for whose benefit this 
splendid old monument is kept cleared 
and open. What with the would-be 
archaeologists, who with their wet 
squeeze-paper have destroyed in so 
many places the brilliant colours that 
centuiies had spared— the real but 
ruthless savans, who with over eager 
thought for their own honour and 
glory, and for the enriching of their 
natlVe museums, have not hesitated to 
cut out and carry off whole pieces of 
that exquisite sculpture— and the horde 
of vulgar sightseers, whose only object 
in going to see anything seems to be 
that they may write their names in 
the most disfiguring manner possible, 
this tomb, beautiful as it still is, 
presents a very different aspect to 
what it did when first cleared of its 
sandy shroud. The carving or writing 
of names on natural rock, or un sculp- 
tured pieces of stone is a harmless 
amusement enough, but to hack with 
a knife, or blacken with pencil, charred 
wood, or paint (and all these, and 
other methods have been resorted to) 
sculptured and painted walls and 
columns, are acts of gratuitous and 
detestable vandalism, that no langu- 
age is too strong to condemn. 

In descending the sandy incline into 
the chambers, it must be remembered 
that formerly the surrounding plain 
was on a level with their floor, and not 
as now with the top of their walls. 
On the two large pillars which formed 
part of the entrance fagade are the 
names and titles of the owner of the 
tomb, from which we learn that he 
was a priest, named Tih, who lived 
at Memphis under the Vth dynasty. 
Beyond these pillars is a court sur- 
rounded by a peristyle. On the 
wall to the left are depicted various 
scenes. Statues of Tih, destined 
to adorn his tomb, are being em- 
barked in boats for transport to the 
edge of the desert ; oxen are being 
brought for sacrifice at the anniversary 
of the funeral rites ; one has just been 
seized, and men are tying its legs, 



and preparing to throw it on its side. 
Oa the wall to the right is seen Tih 
himself, accompanied by his wife and 
their sons. He is watching his 
servants at work in one of his form 
yards. Some are bringing on their 
shoulders sacks full of grain for the 
poultry; others are fattening the 
birds by making pellets of flour and 
putting them down their throats. 
Beyond is a picturesque view of the 
farm buildings ; the roofs are supported 
by small elegantly carved wooden 
columns ; in the middle is a pond in 
which ducks are swimming. In the 
distance are the wide fields, where the 
four-footed animals are pastured. 
Among the birds that Tih kept are 
geese, ducks of various kinds, Numi- 
dian cranes, pigeons, &c, while the 
animals included cattle of every size 
and race, antelopes, gazelles, wild 
goats, and others, in great numbers. 
Next come the boats which transport 
for him along the Nile the produce of 
his land. They are full of jars and 
bales of goods. Iu the middle of the 
court is the pit leading to the sepul- 
chral chamber Curiously enough this 
pit offers an exception to the general 
rule, being inclined instead of vertical. 
The sarcophagus at the bottom is of 
limestone, without inscription. 

Leading from this court is a narrow 
passage on the walls of which are re- 
presented servants of the house bring- 
ing offerings of all kinds for the 
anniversary ceremonies ; some carry 
fruit, vegetables, vases full of .sweet oil, 
and perfumes : others lead oxen to the 
sacrifice, as depicted in the outer court. 
Further on, in the same passage, some 
men are seen drawing statues enclosed 
in little temples of wood ; half a dozen 
drag with cords, while one pours water 
on the earth to render the passage 
easier. Next to these again are boats 
with large sails and a numerous crew. 
On the right of the passage is a small 
chamber, where again is depicted the 
bringing of offerings of all sorts and 
kinds. On the end wall are some 
rather indistinct scenes : workmen 
appear to be making pots, and smelt- 
ing large ingots composed of some red 
substance. 



Egypt. 



TOMB OF TIH. 



213 



At the end of -the passage is the 
principal chamber, covered with bas- 
reliefs no less remarkable for their 
profusion than for the finish with 
which the different designs are exe- 
cuted. To describe all would be 
impossible; it will be sufficient to 
indicate some of the most worthy of 
notice. On the wall to the right on 
entering, Tih is depicted shooting in 
the marshes. He is standing upright 
in a light boat, holding decoy-birds in 
one hand, and with the other he is 
hurling a curved stick, which knocks 
down and stuns the flying birds. 
Innumerable wild fowl of every kind 
fill the air. In the water beneath the 
boat hippopotami and crocodiles are 
floating. Two of them are fighting, 
and the hippopotamus is evidently the 
victor. Some of the servants are trying 
to catch them, and a hippopotamus is 
just being hooked with a sort of har- 
poon. This scene may recall the verse 
in Job xli. 1-2 ; " Canst thou draw out 
leviathan with an hook ? or his tongue 
with a cord which thou lettest down ? 
Canst thou put an hook into his nose ? 
or bore his jaw through with a thorn." 
The idea of crocodiles and hippopotami, 
in the neighbourhood of Memphis 
appears extraordinary at the present 
day, but in the time of Tih, no doubt 
they were common enough in that 
part of the river. Abd-el-Lateef who 
visited Egypt about 1216 a.d. recounts 
that hippopotami abounded in the 
Damietta branch of the Nile, and that 
two of them had committed such 
depredations that an armed force was 
sent to destroy them. Even so late as 
Mohammed Ali's time a hippopo- 
tamus was taken alive at Mansoorah, 
in the Delta, and killed on the banks. 
Crocodiles are still seen as far North 
as 200 miles above Cairo. Another 
scene shows us Tih watching his 

i servants fishing. Crouching in the 
bottum of their boats, some are holding 
lines, while others are dragging across 
the l.ottom of the stream an enormous 
. square net, within whose meshes the 
fish are being drawn. The usual 

' agricultural scenes are full of life and 

j spirit. Cows are crossing a ford ; 

i cattle browse in the meadows ; herds- 



men are conducting home a flock of 
goats. All the phases of seed time 
and harvest are depicted. Oxen are 
ploughing ; the seed is sown ; the 
corn is reaped; men with three- 
pronged forks gather it into heaps ; 
and oxen going round and round, tread 
it out. In another place it is tied into 
sheaves, and donkeys are brought up 
with much fuss and use of the stick, 
on whose backs the sheaves are put 
and carried away to the farmyard and 
granaries. Some of these scenes are 
drawn with inimitable humour. In 
another part carpenters are busy mak- 
ing furniture for the house, and ship- 
wrights labour at the boats belonging 
to the estate. 

It is to be noticed that Tih is pre- 
sent at all these varied scenes ; seated 
or standing, he is there in the attitude 
of command, while singers, dancers, 
acrobats and others perform for his 
amusement. In fact every thing in 
these pictures shows the realisation of 
the first petition in the prayer over 
the entrance. Tih evidently leads a 
prosperous and happy life in the midst 
of these agricultural pursuits, to which 
the Egyptians at that epoch were de- 
voted. He is surrounded by his own 
people, and attains, as the inscription 
records, " a fortunate and prolonged 
old age." " The Egyptians," says Dio- 
dorus, " call their houses hostelries, 
on account of the short period during 
which they inhabit them, but they call 
their tombs eternal dwelling places." 
Tih built this tomb during his life- 
time, and fitted it to be his eternal 
dwelling-place, both by the solidity of 
its construction, and by depicting on 
its walls the scenes in which his life 
was passed. All those symbolical 
representations of the life of the soul 
beyond the tomb, which formed the 
basis of the Egyptian faith, are absent 
in the upper chambers of the Old 
Empire sepulchres. Spiritual religion 
is confined to the vault in which the 
mummied body reposes, and even then 
is represented almost entirely by a 
few short quotations from the Book of 
the Dead. It is at a later period, 
under the New Empire, that, as seen 
in the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes, 



214 



CAIEO : EXCURSIONS ; PYRAMIDS OP DASHOOR. Sect. II. 



the walls of the tombs become covered 
with whole chapters of that book, and 
with a whole army of grotesque and 
fantastic divinities. 

The Tomb of Phtali-hotep, which lies 
to the S. of the Apis Mausoleum, may 
sometimes be found cleared from sand. 
It consists of one chamber only, the 
walls of which are covered with simi- 
lar scenes to those already described, 
but offering some very interesting 
and curious peculiarities. The sculp- 
tures referring to the presenting of 
gifts are especially noticeable. Phtah- 
hotep is seated, and before him passes 
a regular procession of servants bring- 
ing offerings. At their head march 
priests chanting sacred hymns, while 
other servants heap up on a table the 
destined votive oblations. 

As has been said, the whole sur- 
rounding desert is one vast sepulchre ; 
and when excavations are going on, and 
as is often the case, one of the large 
mausoleums that served as the common 
burial place for the lower classes is 
being turned out, the mass of mum- 
mied remains, sculls, bones, hands, 
feet, swathing cloths, &c, lying about 
in weird confusion, is as remarkable 
as it is unpleasant. Many of these 
burial places were large enough to 
hold hundreds of bodies; they were 
laid side by side on a series of shelves, 
without any covering except the 
thick bands in which they were 
wrapped; and it is wonderful to 
see them lying there, so wonderfully 
preserved through many hundreds of 
years. 

On the way back to Bedreskayn the 
visitor may turn aside to look at a 
tomb of the time of Psammetichus I. 
(cir. 650 b.c), in the face of the rocky 
platform, near the cultivated land. 
It is built of hewn stone and vaulted, 
and affords one of the earliest instances 
of stone arches. That style of building 
was known to the Egyptians long 
before that period, crude brick arches 
having been found at Thebes dating 
from the time of the VHIth dynasty. 

From the middle of March to the 
middle of April, the cultivated land 
along the edge of the desert, in the 



neighbourhood of Sakkarah, swarms 
with quail. 

(I) Pyramids of Dasltdor. — These 
pyramids cannot be brought into the 
day's excursion to Sakkarah; though 
they might perhaps fail into the two- 
days' excursion to the Pyramids and 
Sakkarah, sketched out above. They 
present nothing of interest, how- 
ever, to repay the generality of travel- 
lers. They are situated about 3 miles 
from Sakkarah, and mark, perhaps, 
the southern limit of the Necropolis of 
Memphis. Two are of stone, and two 
brick. The northernmost of the two 
stone ones measures, according to Col. 
H. Vyse, 700 ft. square, having been 
originally nearly 720 ft., only forty 
less than the Great Pyramid; but its 
height was only 342 ft. 7 in. of which 
326 ft. remain. It has three subter- 
ranean chambers, one beyond another, 
in which the stones forming the sides 
project one before the other as they 
rise, so that at the roof they nearly 
meet. The southernmost stone pyra- 
mid presents the peculiarity of being 
built at two different angles, the lower 
part at 54° 14' 46", the upper at 42° 
59' 26" : it consequently presents the 
appearance of a pointed pyramid, 
resting on a truncated one. There is 
a subterranean chamber 80 ft. in height, 
contracted in the same manner as in 
the other pyramid. In the passage are 
some hieroglyphics of doubtful mean- 
ing. 

The two brick pyramids are very 
much degraded. The northernmost, 
which was, according to Col. H. Vyse, 
350 ft. square, and 215 ft. 6 in. high 
is now reduced to less than 90 ft. in 
height; and the southernmost from 
being 342 ft. 6 in. square, and 267 ft. 
4 in. high is now only 156 ft. high. 
The bricks, which are crude, are 
about sixteen inches long, eight wide, 
and four and a half to five and a half 
thick, some with and some without 
straw. Although the outer part of 
the pyramid has crumbled away, the 
way in which the bricks have kept 
their place in what remains shows 
how well it was originally constructed. 
Herodotus tells us that, according to 



ROUTE 7.— CAIRO TO THE SUEZ CANAL. 215 



Egypt. 

the priests, a King named Asychis, 
the same who built the most beautiful 
of the four gateways of Phtah at 
Memphis, succeeded Mycerimis, and 
that, desirous of eclipsing all his pre- 
decessors, he left a pyramid of brick, 
as a monument of his reign, with the 
following boastful inscription en- 
graved on the stone : " Despise me not 
in comparison with the stone pyramids ; 
for I surpass them all, as much as Zeus 
surpasses the other gods. A pole was 
plunged into a lake, and the mud 
which clave thereto was gathered; 
and bricks were made of the mud, and 
so I was formed." Which of the brick 
pyramids still standing bore this in- 
scription is uncertain, but it is probably 
one of these two, or of the two in the 
Fyoom, at Illahoon and Howarah. 
There are no inscriptions by which 
the age of either of these brick pyra- 
mids can be fixed. Asychis is con- 
jectured to have been . Sheshonk I. 
(Shishak), of the XXVIth dynasty. 
The exterior of these brick pyra- 
mids has been cased with blocks of 
stone, some of which still remain. In 
front of the northernmost one are the 
remains of a temple ; on some of the 
fragments are hieroglyphics. 

Large groves of sont, or acanthus, 
extend along the edges of the culti- 
vated land in the neighbourhood of 
Sakkarah and Dashdor, and have suc- 
ceeded to those mentioned by Strabo ; 
though the town of Acanthus, if Dio- 
dorus is right in his distance of 120 
stadia from Memphis, stood much 
further to the S. 



ROUTE 7. 

CAIEO TO THE SUEZ CANAL, BY ISMATLIA, 
LAKE TIMS AH, THE BITTEE LAKES. 
SUEZ, AND POET SAID. 

a. Hints for the Excursion.—?). Cairo 
to Suez.— c. Town of Suez. — d. 
Egyptian coast of Eed Sea. — e. An- 
cient canals of communication be- 
tween the Mediterranean and Eed 
Seas. — /. Various modern projects 
for connecting the two Seas. — g. Fi- 
nancial and political history of the 
present Maritime Suez Canal.— ft. 
Suez to Port Said by the Canal. 

a. Hints for the Excursion. — This 
excursion will occupy from 4 days to 
a week. Those who are going to Mount 
Sinai or Syria will be able to take it 
on their way, and so save time. The 
best plan to pursue is to go direct from 
Cairo to Suez by rail. This will oc- 
cupy the best part of 1 day, leaving 
perhaps time after arriving at Suez to 
look about the town, and pay a visit 
to the Fresh Water Canal. The next 
day may be devoted to inspecting the 
new docks and breakwater, the en- 
trance to the Maritime Canal, &c. ; and 
those whose curiosity on these points 
is soon satisfied, and who are energetic, 
may manage a visit to the wells of 
Moses in the same day ; otherwise 
these must be left to the morrow. 
Leave Suez on the 3rd or 4th day, as 
the case may be, and return to Ismailia 
by train, or, if possible, in a steamer 
through the Maritime Canal, which is 
well worth traversing in this part, for 
the purpose of seeing the cutting of 
Shaloof, and the Bitter Lakes. The 
remainder of the day after arriving at 
Ismailia may be fully occupied in 



216 



EOUTE 7. — CAIRO TO THE SUEZ CANAL. 



Sect. IT. 



visiting different points of interest, fled from Antiochus, king of Syria, 
which will be specified further on. took refuge at Alexandria in the time 
On the following morning leave by j of Ptolemy Philometer. Seeing that 
the early post-boat for Port Said. The 1 Judaea was oppressed by the Mace- 
stay at Port Said, and the time of { donian kings, and being desirous to 
leaving, will depend upon the direction acquire celebrity, he resolved to ask 
in which the traveller's road lies; leave of Ptolemy and Cleopatra ti 
whether he is g^ing on by sea to Syria build a temple in Egypt, like that of 
or to Alexandria, or whether he is re- j Jerusalem, and to ordain Levites and 
turning by land to Alexandria or priests out of their own stock. To 
Cairo, or going by the short desert to this he was also stimulated by a pro- 
Syria. If he is going anywhere by 1 phecy of Isaiah, who predicted that 
sea, he will have timed his move- ; there should be a temple in Egypt 
ments so as to suit the departures of built by a Jew. He therefore wrote 
the steamers : if he is returning to J to Ptolemy, expressing this wish, and 
Lower Egypt by land, he can take the saying he had found a very fit place 
daily post-boat to Ismailia : and if he in a castle that received its name from 
is going by the desert, he will have the country, Diana. He represented 
arranged for his camels either to wait it as abounding with sacred animals, 
for him at Ismailia, or meet him at full of materials fallen down, and 
Kantara. Those who are going to belonging to no master. He also in- 
Sinai had better go in the first in- timated to the king that the Jews 
stance to Port Said, and thence to j would thereby be induced to collect in 
Suez, taking Ismailia either going to Egypt, and assist him against Anti- 
or returning from Port Said. No dra- ochus. Ptolemy, after expressing his 
goman is required, nor need any pre- ; surprise that the God of the Jews 
paration be made for this excursion, 1 should be pleased to have a temple 
as there are very fair hotels at Ismailia, built in a place so unclean, and so full 
Port Said, and Suez, — the two first of sacred animals, granted him per- 
French, and the last English, — and mission ; and the temple was accord- 
their commissionaires will be found ing erected, though smaller and poorer 
at the stations. j than that of Jerusalem. Josephus 

' afterwards states that the place was 

b. Cairo to Suez by Railway, 150 m. i 180 stades distant from Memphis; that 
— The train for Suez leaves the central | the nome was called of Heliopolis ; the 
terminus stat. near the Shoobra road temple was like a tower (in height ?), 
every morning about 9 a.m. For the of large stones, and 60 cubits high ; the 
exact time refer to the local time-table, entire temple was encompassed by a 

| wall of bm-nt brick, with gates of stone. 

Kalioob Stat., 10 m. The train here In lieu of the candlestick he made a 
leaves the main line to Alexandria lamp of gold, suspended by a golden 
(lite. 6), and turns off eastward, pass- chain. Such is the substance of the 
ing through a fertile country to not very clear description given by 

Shibeen el Kanater Stat., llf m. Josephus. It is sufficient to settle the 
About a mile from this village are position of the place ; and we may sup- 
some ruins called Tel el YahuodeJi, pose that Onias chose this neighbour- 
" the Mound of the Jew." They are hood for other reasons, which he could 
supposed to mark the site of the city not venture to explain to an Egyptian 
founded by the high-priest Onias, and king surrounded by Egyptians; per- 
called after him Onion or Onia (Metro- haps because it had associations con- 
polis Onias.) nected with the abode of the ancestors 

Josephus gives a curious account of of the Jews in Egypt, whence they 
the foundation of Onion, and the started with a high hand, and freed 
building of the temple there. The themselves from the bondage of Pha- 
son of Onias the high-priest, who bore raoh. 

the same name as his father, having Other Jewish cities seem afterwards 



Egypt. 



BOUTE 7. CAIRO TO SUEZ BY RAILWAY. 



217 



to have been built in this district ; and ' 
these whose mounds still remain, and 
are known at the present day by the 
same title as the one under considera- 
tion, are probably of the " five cities in ! 
the land of Egypt," which, according : 
to Isaiah, were " to .-peak the language 
of Canaan." They continued to be 
inhabited by Jews till a lute period. 1 
It was from them that Mithridates of 
Pergamus received so much assistance, 1 
when on his way to assist J. Caesar ; 
and the 500 who were embarked by 
iElius Gallus against Arabia appear 
to have been from the same district. 
And though Vespasian, after the tak- 
ing of Jerusalem, had suppressed their 
religious meetings in the Heliopolite 
nome, they continued to be established 
in many parts of Egypt, independently 
of the large quarter they possessed in 
Alexandria, from which they were 
expelled by the persecutions of the 
orthodox Cyril. 

Beyond ihe crumbling crude-brick 
mounds, which can be seen from the 
railway rising to a considerable height, 
and rendered especially conspicuous 
by the pinnacle-like shape they have 
in so many instances assumed, nothing 
of anv interest had been found at Tel 
el "Yahoodeh till J 870, when the fel- 
laheen of the neighbourhood, while 
engaged in carrying away the brick- 
dust, which from the quantity of nitre 
it contains forms a valuable top-dress- 
ing to the soil, came across the re- 
mains of what had evidently been a 
magnificent palace. Unfortunately no 
information was given to the proper 
authorities of this discovery, and 
everything was destroyed and broken 
up, or allowed to pass into the hands 
of petty dealers in antiquities. The 
remains were apparently those of a 
large hall paved with white alabaster 
slabs ; the walls were covered with a 
variety of encaustic bricks and tiles ; 
many of the biicks were of most 
i beautiful workmanship, the hiero- 
glyphics in some being laid-in in glass. 
The tiles are round, varying in size, 
colour, and pattern. The capitals of 
the columns were inlaid with brilliant 
coloured mosaics, and a pattern in 
mosaics ran round the cornice. Alto- 



gether it must have been a splendid 
apartment. Some of the bricks are 
inlaid with the oval of Kameses TI. ■ 
and if the building is to be referred, as 
other circumstances seem to show it 
may be, to his reign, the extra- 
ordinary freshness of the colours is 
a matter for surprise considering 
the material in which they have lain 
imbedded. Within the area of the 
hall were 2 red granite pedestals. 
A few yards to the VV. is a large 
bath hollowed out of a solid piece of 
limestone, with steps cut out of the 
interior, and cl se to it a plunging- 
bath, with signs of more alabaster 
pavement. Still further to the W. is 
a large fragment of limestone, covered 
with well-executed sculptures. Ba- 
rneses II. is seated, and 2 figures, a 
male and a female, are offering him 
a sort of circular fan, representing ap- 
parently a bush or tree with the tau 
or emblem of life in it ; the female is 
grasping a papyrus stem ; Barneses' 
outstretched right hand holds a lotus. 
The original hieroglyphs in some parts 
appear to have been covered with 
plaster, in which fresh inscriptions 
have been cut. Scattered about the 
crude-brick mounds, which are of large 
extent, are various other stone remains. 
Beport speaks of a Hebrew inscrip- 
tion, but it has not yet been discovered. 
The view from the top of the mounds 
is very pretty. To the S. are seen the 
Pyramids and Cairo, with the citadel 
standing prominently out at the pro- 
jecting angle of the Mokattam hills ; 
in the same direction is the obelisk of 
Heliopolis. A short distance to the 
E. stretches the desert; while to the 
N. and W. lies some of the most fertile 
and richly wooded land in Egypt. In 
the months of January and February, 
when the plain is brightly green with 
the growing crops, and the foliage of 
the trees, which are unusually abun- 
dant in this part and add so much to 
the beauty of the landscape, is in full 
luxuriance, a prettier bit of scenery, 
or one more unlike the typical Egyp- 
tian paysnge, can hardly be imagined. 

The best way of seeing Tel el Ya- 
hoodeh is to take the train from Cairo 
in the morning to Shibeen el Ka- 
L 



J 



218 



KOUTE 7. CAIRO TO THE SUEZ CANAL. 



Sect. II. 



nater, and return by the afternoon 
train, which passes about 4 p.m. 

Continuing our journey through a 
very fertile and wooded country, quite 
different in aspect from the monoto- 
nous plain through which the rly. 
passes between Alexandria and Cairo, 
we reach 

Belbeis Stat, 17| m. This village 
is the successor of Bubastis Agria, in 
Coptic, Phelbes. Near it passed the 
ancient canal that led to the Bitter 
Lakes and thence to the Bed Sea, 
whose bed may still be traced for a 
considerable distance in that direction. 
The new Fresh-Water Canal from Cairo, 
which is to join the old one from Za- 
gazig to Ismailia and Suez, and so 
provide water communication between 
Cairo and the Bed Sea, passes by 
Belbeis, and follows in fact the course 
of the old one above mentioned. Pass- 
ing by 

Bordein Stat., 6 m., the line just 
before reaching Zagazig runs close 
to the ruins of the ancient town of 
Bubastis, now called Tel Basta. 

Bubastis, in the hieroglyphs written 
Bahest, Bast, Ha-bahest, the Pibeseth 
of the Bible, and called in Coptic 
Poubaste, derived its name, as is ap- 
parent under all of the above forms, 
including the modern name, from the 
goddess Pasht, to whom the principal 
temple was dedicated. It was situated 
on the W. bank of the Pelusiac or Bu- 
bastite branch of the Nile, and was 
one of the most ancient cities of Egypt. 
It was of considerable importance as 
far back as the XVIIIth dynasty; 
but it rose to its greatest height 
under the XXIInd dynasty, whose 
first king, Sheshonk I. (Shishak), 
having conquered Thebes, united in 
his person the crown of Upper and 
Lower Egypt, and fixed the seat of 
power at his native town Bubastis. 
Under Amasis of the XXVIth the east- 
ern branches of the Nile were neglected 
for the purpose of bringing the foreign 
trade to Sais on the Canopic branch, 
and Bubastrs, with Tanis and Mendes, 
gradually declined ; but it retained 



enough magnificence to excite the ad- 
miration of Herodotus when he visited 
it a few years later. He describes it 
as standing higher than any other 
place in Egypt, and ascribes this to 
the fact that at one time capital 
punishments were abolished in Egypt, 
and the criminal, " according to the 
nature of his offence, set to raise the 
ground in a greater or less degree in 
the neighbourhood of the city to which 
he belonged" — a statement which, if 
true, would make it appear that the 
people of the Bubastite nome did not 
enjoy a verv good reputation, since 
their capital was raised more than 
that of any other town. The beauty 
of the temple of "the goddess Bu- 
bastis" (Pasht) induced him to give 
an unusually minute description of it. 
" Other temples," he says, " may be 
grander, and may have cost more in the 
building, but there is none so pleasant 
to the eye as this of Bubastis." He 
then proceeds to describe it. " The 
temple forms a peninsula surrounded 
by water on all sides except that by 
which you enter. Two canals from 
the Nile conduct the water to the 
entrance by separate channels without 
uniting, and then, diverging in oppo- 
site directions, fio w round it to the rt. 
and 1. They are each 100 ft. broad, 
and shaded with trees. The gateway 
is 60 ft. in height, and is ornamented 
with beautiful figures 6 cubits (9 ft.) 
high. The temple is in the middle of 
the town ; and as you walk round you 
look down upon it on every side ; for 
the town having been considerably 
raised, while the temple continues on 
the same level where it was originally 
founded, entirely commands it. It is 
surrounded by a wall of circuit, sculp- 
tured with figures, containing a grove 
of very large trees planted round the 
body of the temple itself, in which is 
the statue of the goddess. The length 
and breadth of the whole temple mea- 
sures a furlong. At the entrance is a 
way paved with stones about 3 furlongs 
long, and about 4 plethra broad, planted 
on either side with very lofty trees, 
which, after crossing the market-place 
in an easterly direction, leads to the 
temple of Hermes." 



Egypt 



ROUTE 7. — BUBASTIS — ZAGAZIG. 



219 



" This account of the position of the 
temple of Buhastis is very accurate. 
The height of the mound, the site of 
the temple in a low space beneath the 
houses, from which you look down 
upon it, are the very peculiarities 
which any one would remark on visit- 
ing the remains of Tel Basta. One 
street, which Herodotus mentions as 
leading to the temple of Mercury, is 
quite apparent, and his length of 3 
stadia (furlongs) falls short of its real 
length, which is 2250 feet. On the 
way is the square he speaks of, 900 
feet from the temple of Pasht (Bubastis), 
and apparently 200 feet broad, though 
now much reduced in size by the fallen 
materials of the houses that sur- 
rounded it. Some fallen blocks mark 
the position of the temple of Mercury 
(Hermes), but the remains of that of 
Pasht are rather more extensive, and 
show that it measured about 500 feet 
in length. We may readily credit the 
assertion of Herodotus respecting its 
beauty, since the whole was of the 
finest red granite, and was surrounded 
by a sacred enclosure about 600 feet 
square, beyond which was a larger 
circuit, measuring 940 feet by 1200, 
containing the minor one and the canal 
he mentions, and once planted, like 
the other, with a grove of trees. . . . 
Amidst the houses on the N.W. side 
are the thick walls of a fort, which 
protected the temple below; and to 
the E. of the town is a large open 
space, enelosed by a wall, now con- 
verted into mounds." — Rawlinson's 
f Herodotus.' The historic names found 
among the sculptures are those of 
Rameses II., Osorkon I., and Amyr- 
taeus. The name of the 
goddess Pasht, the lion or 
cat-headed deity whom the 
Greeks identified with Ar- 
temis, is spelt thus 

In these and other ruins of the 
Delta certain peculiarities may be 
observed, in which they differ from 
those of Upper Egypt. In the latter 
the walls of the temples are sandstone, 
and the columns built of several 
pieces, and granite is confined to obe- 
lisks, statues, doorways, and to the 
adyta of some remarkable monuments ; 



in the Delta the temples themselves 
are in great part built of granite, and 
the porticoes and vestibules have co- 
lumns of a single block of the same 
materials. 

Zagazig ( Zakazeek ) Jund. Stat., 
7 m. (Branch lines to Benha, on 
Alexandria and Cairo main line, 24 m. ; 
and to Mansoorah, 40 m.) A stop- 
page is made here of half an hour or 
more ; and a very good luncheon can 
be obtained at the restaurant in the 
station. There is nothing at Zagazig 
to detain the ordinary traveller, nor, 
indeed, are there any great facilities 
for a stay there ; but any one who is 
disposed to examine the neighbour- 
ing ruins of Bubastis, or shoot snipe 
and wildfowl in the early part of the 
year in some marshes not far off, can 
generally make arrangements for board 
and lodging with the station-master. 
Zagazig itself presents no object of 
interest. It has risen considerably in 
importance within the last few years, 
and has become the centre of the trade 
of the surrounding district, and of the 
railway system in the east of the Delta. 
A good many Europeans live in the 
town, and it boasts a certain number 
of respectable-looking houses. An old 
bridge and sluices mark the end of 
the Moez canal, which leaves the 
Damietta branch of the Nile a little 
below Benha. On the other side of 
the bridge begins the canal which 
leads to San, the ancient Tanis, and 
follows in its course the bed of the 
old Tanitic branch. 

After leaving Zagazig, the railway 
follows more or less closely the di- 
rection of the Fresh -Water Canal, 
which is the modern representative, 
during part of its course, of the canal 
cut by the ancients to serve as a means 
of communication between the Nile 
and the Red Sea, and known by dif- 
ferent names at different epochs. The 
history of this canal will be found pre- 
ceding the description of the Suez 
Canal. Passing through a rich and 
fertile country we reach 

Aboo-Hamed Stat., 10 m. From this 
point the railway may be said to form 
l 2 



220 



EOUTE 7. CAIRO TO THE SUEZ CANAL. 



Sect. II. 



the line between the cultivated land | 
and the desert. On the one side are 
nothing but sandy hillocks, stretching 
away to the horizon, while on the 
other, .a short distance from, if not 
close to, the line, is luxuriant vegeta- 
tion, produced and nurtured by the 
life-giving canal. Aboo-Hamecl is a 
pretty village, and one of the stations 
on the caravan route between Egypt 
and Syria via Salaheeyah. 

Tel el Kebeer Stat, 7 m., a charm- 
ingly situated village, in the centre of 
the fertile district called El Wady. or 
Wady et Toomilat. This district, which 
gives its name to this part of the canal, 
was purchased by the Suez Canal 
Company of Said Pasha for 74,O0OL 
and during the short time in which 
it was their property, great agri- 
cultural improvements were begun. 
In 1863, however, it was resold to 
the Egyptian Government, in accord- 
ance with the terms of the Emperor 
Napoleon's award, for 400,000Z. The 
line does not again approach the cul- j 
tivated land till passing the village of 
Gassaseen, or Bas el Wady, which 
forms the extreme point of the Wady 
district, and almost the easternmost 
limit of the Delta. Here, too, was the 
end of the Fresh- Water Canal above 
mentioned, until the continuation of it 
in 18ti0 by the Suez Canal Company 
to Ismailia, and subsequently to Suez. 

Mahsamdh Stat, 14 m. In the 
neighbourhood is a lake, formerly 
filled with water during the high 
Nile, and now utilised by the Fresh- 
Water Canal, which at this point leaves 
the railway and passes, at some dis- 
tance to the right, a place called Tel < 
el Masroota. The French have given ! 
this place the name of Barneses, con- \ 
siderin^r that it marks the site of the j 
town of that name, mentioned in j 
the Biblical narrative as one of the 1 
store-cities built by the Israelites 
for the Pharaoh that first oppressed 
them (Ex. i. 11), and also as the 
starting-point of their journey into 
the wilderness. We are \\ere in fact 
in the very centre of the Land of 
Goshen, of which Bubastis, and per- 



haps Tanis, marked the limits on the 
west. The fact of its being apparently 
called indifferently the Land of Goshen 
(Gen. xlvii. 6) and the Land of Bam- 
eses (Gen. xlvii. 11) seems to favour 
the supposition that Kameses, or Ba- 
amses, was the centre and capital of 
the district which went by either of 
these two names. There are no remains 
at Eameses worth a visit. The only 
thing of. note hitherto found among 
the heaps of pottery and broken frag- 
ments is a granite monolith having 
the name of Eameses II. Now that, 
by means of the canal, Nile water is 
once more brought through this dis- 
trict, the only thing wanting to rescue 
it from its desert state, and make it as 
fertile as of old, is inhabitants. The 
gardens near theAbbasseeyahat Cairo, 
and those at Ismailia, are a sufficient 
proof of what can be done by irrigating 
the desert with Nile water. 

Neficlie Stat, 11 m. (Short branch 
to Ismailia, m.) The special trains 
carrying the overland passengers be- 
tween Suez and Alexandria go on 
direct, but the daily ordinary trains 
run into Ismailia, and then back again 
to the junction at Nefiche. The Fresh- 
Water Canal also divides at Nefiche, 
one part continuing to Ismailia, and 
thence through two locks, gaining the 
level of the Maritime Canal, and the 
other 1 iranching off to Suez. From Ne- 
fiche is obtained the first view of Lake 
Timsah, a description of which will 
more properly enter into the account 
of the Suez Canal. 

Ismailia (pronounced Isir.aileeyah). 
Hotel cles Voyageurs ; fair food and 
accommodation. The house is very 
well situated, at a short distance from 
the railway station, and commanding 
a fine view over Lake Timsah. As 
Ismailia owes its raison d'etre entirely 
to the Suez Canal, its description will 
be more appropriately reserved for the 
account of that work. The following 
extracts from two letters describing 
journeys to Ismailia in 1863 and 1869 
respectively, may be inserted here as 
interesting to the traveller of the pre- 
sent day. 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 7. ISMAILIA. 



221 



"Feb. 20, 1863. — Leaving Alex- 
andria early in the morning, I arrived 
at Benha about three in the afternoon. 
There I had to wait two hours for the 
train to Zagazig. I spent them seated 
in the dust, beneath a solitary tree, 
close to the line — the only waiting- 
room. On the road to Zagazig a more 
serious contretemps occurred. The 
engine-driver, wanting to make up for 
lost time, put on full speed, but after 
a few minutes at a headlong rate, dur- 
ing which we were jerked and swayed 
about most unpleasantly, the speed 
began to slacken, and all at once the 
train came to a dead stop. A carriage 
had gut off the rails. The delay caused 
by this accident made us too late for 
the dahabeeah which leaves Zagazig 
every evening for Ismailia. Heaven 
save you from having to ^pend a night 
at Zagazig ! A wretched hotel, uneat- 
able food, a bed which the humblest 
pot-house would be ashamed to offer 
to its customers, and to complete the 
misery, swarms of inusquitoes buzzing 
in your ears and riddling you with 
bites— such is the fare reserved for 
the unlucky traveller whom circum- 
stances may have compelled to stop in 
this place. A sleepless night, and a 
day passed in waiting for the depar- 
ture of the Company's boat, had al- 
ready made me feel out of sorts ; and 
a voyage of seventeen hours in the 
barge set apart by the transport ser- 
vice for the use of travellers, was not 
calculated to put me right again. The 
boat is towed by two camels, whose 
drivers never think of paying the least 
attention to anything but their beast, 
and as the steerer is often asleep, the 
tow-rope is continually catching in 
bushes, stakes, sakeeyahs, and all sorts 
of obstacles, so that there are continu- 
ally sudden shocks and bumps against 
the bank ; indeed dahabeeahs have 
been known to suffer shipwreck while 
engaged at this little game, to the 
great astonishment of the occupants 
thus suddenly condemned to an in- 
voluntary cold bath. 

" At last we arrived at the end of 
the canal. Ten or a dozen boats and 
barges are moored to the bank. Some 
buildings of planks and matting indi- 



! cate the transport agency. I asked 
! for the hotel, and was told that the 
first stone had only been laid two days 
ago, and that the best thing I could 
do was to take a horse or a carriage 
and go to El Guisr, where there was a 
tolerable hotel, while at Ismailia I 
| should find nothing but an indifferent 
' restaurant. While the carriage was 
being prepared, I touk the opportunity 
of seeing the future town. I say fu- 
ture, because at the present moment 
one can hardly say what is Ismailia. 
One drags oneself along in the sand, 
which undulates at will all over what 
was pointed out to me as destined to 
be the site of the town. Five or six 
scant-looking houses, built of stone or 
brick, are to be seen scattered about 
on this desert. Blocks of stone, bricks, 
| planks, doors, and windows, heaped 
j up together, mark the site of build- 
j ings not yet begun. One spot only 
shows some signs of a plan. It is a 
square, about a hundred yards each 
way, round which are six or seven 
wooden tenements, whose timber sides 
are being filled in with crude bricks. 
Two of these houses have got their 
walls finished, but I saw no signs of 
doors, windows, floors, nor ceilings. 

" Kemembering that Ismailia was 
| to be a harbour, I wanted to see the 
I quay. The agent of the Company, 
who had been kind enough to go with 
me. took me to a low sandhill, from 
which I could see the hollow of Lake 
Timsah, with a little water just in the 
middle of its vast expanse. Stretch- 
, ing out his arm, and pointing to a line 
I of stakes which bisected a small native 
i village, consisting of huts made of 
matting and tamarisk boughs, ' that 
i is the line of the quay,' said my 
i cicerone quietly. I looked at him, but 
; he seemed to be in earnest ; and added, 
I in the same unconcerned tone, ' the 
i workmen and others will begin to 
! settle here in a month.' A few min- 
utes afterwards I sat down to eat in 
a miserable mat hovel, through the 
j numerous rents in which all the dogs 
of the neighbourhood very soon made 
their way, as though my meal had 
been the signal for a general rendez- 
i vous. A lively conversation that I 



ROUTE 7. CAIRO TO THE SUEZ CANAL. 



Sect. II. 



heard being carried on in the compart- 
ment next to mine, showed that the 
employe's already sent here to super- 
intend the works bear the situation 
philosophically. For my own part, 
I find some difficulty in believing that 
this chaos can in a few years be turued 
into a town." 

11 Aug. 1, 1869. — People were quite 
right in their reassuring statements 
with regard to the journey between 
Alexandria and Ismailia. Although 
the heat was very great, I have not 
suffered from it in the least, and am 
not a bit tired. The train which left 
Alexandria at eight this morning, 
dropped us at Benha, and continued 
its road to Cairo. The station at 
Benha is only a temporary one, but it 
has several tolerably comfortable wait- 
ing rooms, and is altogether well pro- 
vided with accommodation [*?]. How- 
ever we only had to stay there a few 
minutes, as the train for Suez was 
ready, and left almost immediately. 
At half -past one we stopped at Zagazig, 
in front of a handsome station, with a 
refreshment - room in the European 
style. The town, which could be seen 
from the station, appeared to contain 
some large, good-looking houses, and 
several important cotton-mills. 

" From Zagazig to Ismailia the train 
takes but two hours. At first it passes 
through a very fertile country, extend- 
ing to the end of the valley called El 
Wady. From this point the eye sees 
little but desert, though the Fresh- 
Water Canal dug by the Company 
runs near the line, and gives some 
show of life to the scenery. I was 
calculating the wealth that might be 
realized if the surrounding desert were 
properly irrigated when the whistle of 
the engine announced our arrival at a 
station. It was Ismailia. After cross- 
ing a small canal which supplies the 
pumps that send fresh water along 
the line of the canal to Port Said, we 
skirted a largish village, more clean 
and tidy-looking than small native 
towns in general; and then passing 
an Eumpean-looking goods store, ar- 
rived at the station, a very neat build- 
ing with a verandah. A broad mac- j 



adaraised road h ads from the entrance 
to Lake Timsah. The town has all 
the appearance of a veritable oasis. 
All the houses seem surrounded by 
bright verdure, and the whole has a 
most enchanting look of elegance and 
neatness. Immediately on reaching 
the hotel I went out to have a look at 
this wonder of the desert. Passing 
along a well-paved street, one side of 
which was occupied by shops and 
offices, I reached the Mohammed Ali 
Quay, an avenue a mile and a quarter 
long, and more than forty yards wide, 
bordered on one side by a row of trees, 
beyond which is the Fresh- Water Canal, 
and on the other by a number of edi- 
fices both curious and varied in ap- 
pearance. Going down this quay, and 
crossing the end of the Boulevard de 
lTmperatrice, leading to the station, 
the first of these edifices is the chalet 
of M. de Lesseps, the upper story of 
which in wood, painted in broad white 
and brown stripes, and with a tiled 
roof, stands out as it were from the 
midst of a garden filled with trees and 
flowers. The ground-floor, built of 
stone, is joined by a verandah to a 
suite of rooms reserved for dis- 
tinguished visitors. Beyond is a 
stable containing some ' valuable 
horses, the only luxury which is per- 
mitted himself by the owner of a 
house as proverbial for the simplicity 
of its arrangements as for the hospi- 
tality dispensed in it. Next to this 
comes a group of low buildings in the 
Oriental s'tyle, almost hidden by a belt 
of verdure, containing trees from every 
part of the world. Immediately fol- 
lowing this is the house of the Gover- 
nor-general of the Isthmus. After 
passing the house occupied by the 
contractors, and a part of the town, 
I reached the large open space on 
which workmen are busy building a 
palace for the Yiceroy. At the end 
of the quay are M. Lasseron's works 
for pumping the fresh water along the 
line of the Canal to Port Said. The 
machines are first-rate and beautifully 
kept; and the garden belonging to 
the esfahlishment is intersected in 
every direction with running water, 
and filled with the finest fruit-trees, 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 7. — SERAPETJM CHALOUF. 



223 



among which may be mentioned the 
vine, most successfully cultivated by 
M. Pierre, the director. The industrial 
part of the town, through which I re- 
turned to the hotel, has a very ani- 
mated appearance. The shops are 
aeat and well-stocked. The popula- 
tion contains specimens of many dif- 
ferent countries, but they all seem to 
live on good terms with one another. 
Leaving the street which traverses 
mis quarter my guide took me along 
one that crossed it diagonally, and 
brought me into the middle of a 
charmingly laid out square, gay with 
baskets of flowers, and alleys of trees 
yet young but growing vigorously. 
In the middle is a large fountain 
covered and surrounded by a kiosk, 
whose slight and graceful columns 
were covered with creepers .... I 
had only just time to go to the land- 
ing-stage at Lake Timsah. The first 
thing that struck me there was a sea- 
bathing establishment, with cabins, a 
restaurant, and a sort of wooden stage 
200 yards from the shore. A splendid 
sandy bottom, and water clear as cry- 
stal and quite free from sharks, might 
well induce persons to come to Ismailia 
for sea-bathing. No place in Egypt 
can compare with it for this purpose ; 
and I should not be astonished if the 
rich Cairenes and Alexandrians turned 
Ismailia eventually into a gay water- 
ing-place. 7 ' — Histoire de Vlsthme de 
Suez, by O. Ritt. 

The train returns along the branch 
line to Nefiehe, and then continues on 
the way to Suez. The country is all 
desert, a few signs of vegetation oc- 
curring now and then in the immediate 
neighbourhood of the Fresh - Water 
Canal, which is constantly to be seen 
elotie to the railway. The next station 
reached is called 

Serapeum Stat., 8J m. The village 
on the Canal to which the French have 
given this name, from the circum- 
stance of some ruins supposed to be- 
long to an old temple of Seiapis hav- 
ing been fouud in the neighbourhood, 
is about two miles from the station. 
A small branch canal leads to it from 
the Fresh- Water Canal. 



We now come in sight of the Bitter 
Lakes, or rather of the northernmost 
and larger of these inland seas. Their 
description will be found in the ac- 
count of the Suez Canal. It is curious 
to reflect that this vast expanse of 
water, on which the traveller, as he 
whirls by, will probably see several 
large steamers, was, so lately as 1869, 
a salt-marsh bordered by desert sand. 

Fa'id Stat., 10 m. Not far from the 
shore of the Great Bitter Lake. 

Geneffe' Stat, 12 m. This station 
is so named from the hills which have 
been for some time seen on the right, 
called Gebel Geneffe'. Still skirting 
these hills we reach 

Chalouf (Shaloof) Stat, 11$ m. 
The line here approaches to within a 
very short distance of the Suez Canal, 
the high banks of which may be seen 
from the carriage window, only h few 
hundred yards off. The Fresh-Water 
Canal, which runs between it and the 
railway, here enters the bed of the old 
canal of communication first cut by 
Darius between the Bitter Lakes, then 
called the Gulf of Heroopolis, and the 
Red Sea. The reader who studies 
the account given (Rte. 14, g) of the 
Exodus of the Israelites and their 
passage of the Red Sea, will find that 
it has been plausibly conjectured that 
the scene of that event mny be localized 
somewhere in the immediate neigh- 
bourhood of this place ; the Red Sea 
at that remote period having extended 
as far as the Bitter Lakes. Continu- 
ing along the high desert land, out of 
reach of the high tides which still 
sweep up ' for some distance above 
Suez, the line makes a detour to the 
right, and turns into the valley to join 
the track of the old line between Cairo 
and Suez, now done away with. The 
line is continued down to the new 
docks and landing quays close to the 
roadstead, about 1J m. farther on, 
but the passenger for Suez will get 
out at the Avretched hovel which 
serves as a station for the town. 

e. Town of Suez. 

Suez Term. Stat, 11J m. The 
i be»t hotel at Suez is The Suez Motel, 



224 



ROUTE 7. — CAIRO TO THE SUEZ CANAL. 



Sect. II. 



on the old landing quay close to tlie 
station. It is clean and comfortable, 
and fairly moderate in its charges. 
There are one or two other hotels of 
an inferior kind. 

An English Service is conducted 
every Sunday in a room of the Suez 
Hotel. 

The British Consulate. Mr. G. West, 
Consul, is situated in the street lead- 
ing from the hotel to the station. 
Letters may be addressed to his care, 
or to the hotel. There is daily postal 
communication between Suez and the 
principal towns in Lower Egypt ; and 
a regular departure of mails for Europe, 
India, Australia, &c. 

The old railway station is near 
the town landing quay, but there 
is a new and very handsome building 
at the new landing quay, opposite the 
roadstead, for the arrival and departure 
of through travellers. There are one 
or two trains daily to Cairo, Alex- 
andria, &c; and a special through 
train conveys the overland passengers 
to Alexandria, immediately on the 
arrival of the steamer. 

Telegraphic messages can be sent, 
either by the Egyptian or the English 
companies, to any part of the world. 

The principal steam packet com- 
panies are the Peninsular and Oriental : 
departures for Bombay weekly, for 
Madras and Calcutta fortnightly, and 
for China, Australia, &c. monthly. 
The Messageries Mari times : depar- 
tures for China, Cochin China, &c, and 
for Europe, fortnightly; for Beunion 
and the Mauritius, and for Pondi- 
cherry, Madras, and Calcutta, monthly. 
The Bombay and Bengal: departure 
for Bombay" fortnightly. The Aziz- 
eeyah : departure for Massowah and 
the coast of the Bed Sea three times 
a month. Many other companies, such 
as the Austrian Lloyd, the Bussian 
Steam Navigation, &c, which run 
steamers to India, &c, direct, through 
the Suez Canal, have agencies at Suez, 
from which all information can be 
obtained. The Messageries boats, 
plying between France and the East, 
ran regularly through the Suez Canal. 
The P. and O. as yet send a steamer 
through only occasionally. 



There are a few European shops at 
Suez and a native bazaar, but with 
the exception of a few curiosities from 
the Hedjaz, brought by the Mecca 
pilgrims, there is nothing to tempt a 
purchaser. 

The town of Suez is situated near 
the N. extremity of the western brand 
of the Bed Sea, called the Gulf cf 
Suez. The actual town is of com 
paratively modern date : but its posi- 
tion in ancient times was always one 
of considerable commercial import- 
ance, and the cities of Arsinoe' and 
Clysma stood somewhere in the neigh- 
bourhood. Clysma appears to have 
been a fort as well as a town, and was, 
perhaps, the spot where the troops des- 
tined to guard the sluices of the canal 
were stationed; and it is remarkable 
that the elevated height outside the 
N. gate of the modern town of Suez is 
still known by the name of Kolzim. 
It was called Castrum by Hi'erocles 
and Epiphanius: and KAuo-^a (Clysma) 
or KXeia/aa is first mentioned by 
Lucian. It appears to be the same 
as the Clysma Prsesidiurn of Ptolemy, 
though lie places it much farther 
down the coast. His positions, how- 
ever, are not always certain; and a 
garrison would be stationed here rather 
than on any other part of the coast. 
To Clysma succeeded Kolzim, which 
is probably an Arab corruption of the 
old Greek name. The name of Kolzim, 
or Kolzoom, is still given to some 
heights to the N. of Suez; and the 
position of the place is fixed by 
the mention in history of the re- 
opening of the canal by Omar to 
Kolzim on the Bed Sea. Aboolfeda 
is still more precise in his position of 
Kolzim, and leaves no room to doubt 
that it stood exactly at the spot now 
occupied by Suez. His words are " At 
the extremity of the gulf intervening 
between Tor and Egypt was situated 
the town of Kolzim, and those who go 
from Egypt to Tor are wont to follow 
the coast, from Kolzim to Tor." The 
name of " Sea of Kolzim " has also 
been given to this part of the Bed 
Sea ; and it has been conjectured that 
as Kolzim means in Arabic " destruc- 
tion," there is some reference to the 



Egypt- 



BOUTS 7. TOWN OF SUEZ. 



225 



history of the Israelites, and the over- 
throw of Pharaoh's host; but, as we 
have seen, the name is probably a cor- 
ruption of Clysma. The chief his- 
torical interest of Suez is derived from 
its having been supposed to be the 
spot near which the Israelites crossed 
the Eed Sea under the guidance of 
Moses, and the Egyptian army was 
drowned, but modern criticism tends 
to place the scene of this event farther 
N,, near Shaloof. 

After the destruction, in the 8th 
century, of the canal of communi- 
cation with the Nile, Suez became 
little better than a small fishing vil- 
lage, galvanised now and then into 
commercial life by the passage of 
caravans, going to and fro between 
Asia and Egypt. Subsequently, at the 
beginning of the 16th century, under 
Selim I. and Solyman II., it became 
a naval depot for the Turkish fleet 
in the Bed Sea ; but the utter decline 
of navigation in that sea, consequent 
on the discovery of the Cape route to 
the East in 1496, and the want of 
fresh water, from which it had always 
suffered since the destruction of the 
canal, reduced it again to a miserable 
collection of Arab huts. The visit of 
Buonaparte in 1798 to Suez, and the 
project already conceived by him of 
uniting the two seas by a direct canal, 
ended in nothing ; but in 1837, owing 
to the exertions of Lieut. Waghorn, 
the route through Egypt was adopted 
for the transit of the Indian mail, and, 
a few years after, the P. and 0. Com- 
pany began running a line of steamers 
regularly between India and Suez. 
This was followed in 1857 by the 
completion of a railway from Cairo, 
and Suez soon began to increase again 
in size and importance, and the popu- 
lation in 1860 numbered about 5000. 
It still suffered, however, from the 
want of fresh water, the European 
population being supplied with Nile 
water for drinking, brought in cisterns 
by the daily trains from Cairo, while 
the remainder of the supply was carried 
on the backs of camels from El Ghur- 
kutch and Ain Moosa. The com- 
pletion by the Suez Canal Company, 
at the end of 1863, of the Fresh- Water 



Canal from Tel el Wady to the centre 
of the Isthmus, and thence to Suez, 
brought an abundance of Nile water 
to the town; and the various works in 
connection with the Suez Canal, the 
new quays, the docks, &c, soon made 
Suez a large and busy place of 15,000 
inhabitants. With the completion of 
the Canal, the activity of the town 
somewhat decreased, but its position 
on the direct sea route between Europe 
and India must always make it a 
place of importance. 

The old town itself offers few points 
of interest. Two or three mosks and an 
open place or two, more or less dirty and 
picturesque, will present themselves 
in the course of a ramble. To the N. 
of the town are— the storehouses of the 
P. and O. Company — the lock, which 
terminates the Fresh- Water Canal and 
joins it with the gulf— the Water- 
works, which supply water from the 
canal to the whole of the town— the 
English Hospital — and, on the heights 
above the P. and O. storehouses, the 
chalet of the Khedive, from which 
there is a magnificent view : in the 
foreground is the town, the harbour, 
the roadstead, and the mouth of the 
Suez Canal ; to the right the range of 
Gebel Attakah, a most striking and 
beautiful object, with its black- violet 
heights hemming in the Eed Sea ; 
away to the left the rosy peaks of 
Mt. Sinai ; and between the two, the 
deep deep blue of the gulf. About 
two miles to the S. of the town are 
the new quays and harbours : they 
may be reached either in a boat or by 
the branch railway line. We will 
suppose the traveller to go by water 
and return by land. 

Leaving the quay in front of the 
hotel, the boat passes down the nar- 
row channel which formerly served 
as the means of communication 
between the roadstead and the town. 
On the left is a wooden pier, 
leading to the old Quarantine, where 
people sometimes land for the Wells 
of Moses. Soon after, on the right, 
begins the stone embankment lining 
the new quays and harbour, while 
the centre of the channel now marks 
l 3 



226 ROUTE 7. CAIRO TO 

the line of the Suez Canal, which \ 
may be seen stretching away to the 
left. On the right is the entrance 
to the Suez Canal Company's port, 
marked by a white light, and then a 
quay called the Waghorn Quay, on 
which has been erected, by the Suez 
Canal Company, a statue of that per- 
severing and energetic individual, to 
whose efforts are due the re-establish- 
ment, in the first instance, of the 
Egyptian route between Europe and 
the East. Bounding the point of the 
quay on which there is a green 
revolving light, corresponding with a 
similar red one, a short distance 
farther down on the left, which marks 
the position of some breakers, we come 
to the head of the roadstead, capable of 
containing 500 vessels of all sizes, and 
the entrance to Ibraheem Harbour, 
divided by a long jetty into two parts, 
one for ships of war and the other for 
merchant ships. At the head of the 
E. part is a dry dock— 460 ft. long, ' 
100 ft. broad, and nearly 36 ft. deep. 
On the jetty, close to the quays to 
which the large steamers moor, is the 
railway station, so that passengers 
embark and disembark direct. The 
whole of the ground on which the 
quays and other constructions stand, 
has been recovered from the sea, and 
the successful execution of the work 
is due to the enterprise and energy 
of the contractors, Messrs. Dussaud 
Freres, the same who built the jetties 
at Port Said. It is proposed, at some 
future time, to recover the whole of 
the swamp lying between the town 
and the new ports, through which the 
railway now passes on a slightly raised 
embankment. 

A pleasant excursion may be made 
to the Wells or Fountains of Moses, 
Ayoon Moosa, or, as it is more com- 
monly called in the singular, Ain 
Moosa. It will occupy, according to 
the route taken and the time spent at 
the place, from half a day to a day. 
The shortest way is to take a sailing 
boat, or one of the small steamers that 
ply between the town and the harbour, 
as far as the jetty which has been 
buiit out into the sea to communicate 



THE SUEZ CANAL. Sect. II. 

with the new Quarantine, lately esta- 
blished on the shore of the gulf for the 
reception of the pilgrims on their 
return from Mecca. From this point 
to Ain Moosa the distance is not 
much over a mile, and the whole time 
occupied in going about two hours ; if 
donkeys are required between the 
jetty and the wells, they must be sent 
from Suez. The other plan is to cross 
over in a boat to the old Quarantine 
jetty, about half a mile from the town, 
either taking donkeys in the boat or 
sending them on previously, and then 
to ride over the Suez Canal, which is 
here crossed by a ferry for the passage 
of caravans between Arabia and 
Egypt, and along the desert to the 
Wells. This will take from three to 
four hours. The sums to be paid for 
boats and donkeys had better be 
strictly agreed upon beforehand. 
There are two so-called hotels at Ain 
Moosa, where beds and refreshments 
can be procured, but the visitor who 
intends spending the day there had 
better, perhaps, take some food with 
him. The " Wells " are a sort of 
oasis, formed by a collection of 
springs, surrounded with tamarisk- 
bushes and palm-trees. Since it has 
become, as Dean Stanley calls it, " the 
Kichmond of Suez." — a regular pic- 
nicking place for the inhabitants of 
that town,— some Arabs and Euro- 
peans have regularly settled in it, 
and there are now a few houses, 
and gardens with fruit-trees and ve- 
getables. The water from the springs 
has a brackish taste. Most of them 
are simply holes dug in the soil, 
which is here composed of earth, sand, 
and clay ; but one is built up of mas- 
sive masonry of great age. Though 
not mentioned in the Bible, its posi- 
tion has always caused it to be asso- 
ciated with the passage of the Bed 
Sea by the Israelites, and tradition 
has fixed upon it as the spot where 
Moses and Miriam and the children 
of Israel sang their song of triumph. 
We shall see, however, when con- 
sidering the que&tion of the road 
taken by the Israelites, and the site 
of the passage (see Bte. 14, g), that Ain 
Moosa is more probably to be ideu- 



ROUTE 7. EGYPTIAN COAST OP THE EED SEA. 



Egypt. 

tified with Marah (Exod. xv. 23) ; and ' 
the Arab tradition that Moses brought 
up the water here by striking the 
ground with his stick, may be taken 
for what it is worth in corroboration 
of this view. 

d. Egyptian coast of the Bed Sea. — 
The old Optic name of the Ked Sea 
was it I O JUL rtOf<&.pI> "the Sea of 
Sari," corresponding to the Im, or Tim 
Soof, 5]1D of Hebrew, and Balir 
Soof of Arabic. For though soof is 
translated iS flags" (Exod. ii. 5), which 
do not grow in the Nile, it is here the 
same as the Arabic soof, a small sea- 
weed common in this as in other seas ; 
and so called from its resemblance to 
" wool " (soof). It is probably the 
Bytiphlcea pinastroides (Phys. Brit. r. 
85). The Greek appellation, rj iyvdpa 
OdAao-aa, the Red Sea, was originally 
applied to the Persian, and afterwards 
to this gulf, as well as to that part of 
the Indian Ocean which lies between 
them; but the name "red" was not 
from any seaweed, or coral, or colour 
about the sea, or the mountains of the 
western coast. It was probably the 
Greek literal translation of Edom, 
"red," an idea that is all the more 
likely, if we suppose the South Arabian 
nation of Himyerites to have derived 
their name from the Arabic word 
Ahmar "red." The sea would then 
have been called " red," as being the 
Sea of the Red men. 

The Red Sea extends from the head 
of the Gulf of Suez to the Straits of 
Bab-el-Mandeb, about 1400 miles, and 
its greatest width is about 200 miles. 
At Ras Mohammed it is split by the 
peninsula of Sinai into two parts ; one, 
the Gulf of Suez, about 150 miles long, 
and from 10 to 18 wide, and the other, 
the Gulf of Akabah, about 100 miles 
long, and from 5 to 10 wide. Both 
sides of the Gulf of Suez are Egyptian 
territory, and also the W. side of the 
Gulf of Akabah, the boundary line of 
Egypt being an imaginary line drawn 
from El Areesh on the Syrian coast to 
Akabah, at the head of the gulf of that 
name. 

The only port between Suez and 



the division of the sea is Tor on the 
E. shore, two days' journey from Sinai. 
The Egyptian territory extends for 
about 1200 miles down the W. side of 
the Red Sea as far as Massowah. The 
Azizieh Company run steamers, touch- 
ing at one or two of the intermediate 
ports. Opposite the end of the Sinai 
peninsula is Gebel-ez-Zeit, " the moun- 
tain of oil," close to the sea. It abounds 
in petroleum, whence its name ; and at 
Eg Gimsheh, a headland, terminating 
the bay to the S.S.W. of it, are some 
sulphur-mines, grottoes, and inscrip- 
tions in the Sinaitic character. About 
27 m. inland are the old porphyry 
quarries of Gebel-ed-Dokhan, " moun- 
tain of smoke." 

The ruins of Myos Hormos are on 
the coast in latitude 27° 24'. The 
town is small, very regularly built, 
surrounded by a ditch, and defended, 
by round towers at the corners, the 
faces, and the gateways. The port, 
which lies to the northward, is nearly 
filled with sand. Below the hills, to 
the eastward, is the Fons Tadmos, 
mentioned by Pliny. Myos Hormos 
was the principal port on the Red Sea 
in the time of Strabo. According to 
Agatharcides it was afterwards called 
the Port of Venus, under which name 
it is also mentioned by Strabo. Besides 
the ancient roads that lead from Myos 
Hormos to the westward (see Rte. 19), 
is another running N. and S., a short 
distance from the coast, leading to 
Aboo Durrag and Suez on one side, 
and to Sowakim on the S., to which 
the Arabs have given the name of 
Dthenayb el Ayr, or "the ass's tail." 

At Old Kosseir are the small town 
and port of Philotera, of which little 
remains but mounds and the vestiges 
of houses, some of ancient, others of 
Arab, date. The name of Philotera 
was given it by an admiral of Ptolemy 
Philadelphus, in honour of the king's 
sister, having been previously called 
iEnnuni. The modern town of Kosseir 
stands tin a small bay or cove, 4 J m. to 
the southward. The inhabitants are 
called Embaweeyah, being originally 
from Emba (Yambo) in Arabia, of the 



228 



ROUTE 7. CAIRO TO 



THE SUEZ CANAL. 



Sect. II. 



tribes of J ehayn and Harb. For the 
route between Kosseir and Keneh on 
the Nile see Kte. 19. 

After passing Kosseir are the ''se- 
veral ports " mentioned by Pliny, with 
landmarks to direct small vessels 
through the dangerous coral-reefs, 
whose abrupt discontinuance forms 
their mouth. These corresponding 
openings are singular, and are pro- 
bably owing to the coral insects not 
working where the fresh water of the 
winter torrents runs into the sea, 
which is the case where these ports 
are found. There are no remains of 
towns at any of them, except at 
Nechesia, and the Leucos Tortus ; 
the former now called Wddy en JS'uk- 
Jcaree, the latter known by the name of 
Esh Shdona, or, "the magazine." Ne- 
chesia has the ruins of a temple, and a 
citadel of hewn stone ; but the Leucos 
Portus is in a very dilapidated state ; 
and the materials of which the houses 
were built, like those of Berenice, are 
merely fragments of madrepore and 
shapeless pieces of stone. About half- 
way between them is another small 
port, 4 m. to the W. of which are the 
lead-mines of Gebel er Rossdss ; and a 
short distance to the northward, in 
Wady Aboo-Kaikeh, is a small quarry 
of basanite, worked by the ancients. 
About 20 m. inland from the site of 
Nechesia are the old Neccia quarries 
and emerald mines at Gebel Zobarah. 

Behind the headland of Ras Benas, 
called Ras el Unf. or Cape Nose, by 
tue Arab sailors, opposite Yembo on the 
Arabian coast, trends up a deep gulf 
at the head of which stood the old 
town of Berenice. This gulf, accord- 
ing to Strabo, was called Sinus Im- 
mundus. The long peninsula or 
chersonesus, called Lepte Extrema, 
projecting from this gulf, is mentioned 
by Diodorus, who says its neck was so 
narrow that boats were sometimes car- 
ried across it, from the gulf to the 
open sea. From the end of the cape 
may be perceived the peak of St. 
John, or the Emerald Isle, Gezeeret 
Zibfrgeh, or Seme'rgid, which seems 
to be the Ofyiwd-ns, or serpentine island, 
of Diodorus. The inner bay, which 



constituted the ancient port of Bere- 
nice, is now nearly filled with sand ; 
and at low tide its mouth is closed 
by a bank, which is then left entirely 
exposed. The tide rises and falls in it 
about one foot. 

The town of Berenice was founded 
by Ptolemy Philadelphus, and so 
called after his mother. Tt was of 
considerable size, compared to its 
rival the Myos Hormos ; but its streets 
were not laid out with the same regu- 
larity, and it was not defended by the 
same kind of fortified wall. The 
Myos Hormos indeed was very small, 
and scarcely larger than one of the 
ordinary hydreumas. The houses of 
Berenice are built of very inferior 
materials, being merely rude pieces of 
madrepore, collected on the sea-coast, 
and, as might be supposed, their walls 
are in a very dilapidated condition. 
There is a temple at the end of a 
street, towards the centre of the town, 
built of hewn stone, and consisting of 
three inner and the same number of 
outer chambers, with a staircase lead- 
ing to the summit, the whole orna- 
mented with sculptures and hierogly- 
phics in relief. It was dedicated to 
Serapis ; and in the hieroglyphics are 
the names of Tiberius and Trajan. A 
few figures of the contemplar deities 
may also be traced, on excavating the 
lower part, or wherever the stone has 
withstood the action of the atmosphere ; 
which has proved more prejudicial to 
its limestone walls than the saline and 
nitrous soil that has for ages covered 
the greater part of what now remains. 

For the old road between Berenice 
and the Nile see Rte. 19. 

Soicdkim, is a town of some size, 
doing a considerable trade with the 
opposite coast. The approach to it 
from the sea is by a very narrow 
channel 20 m. long, fringed with coral 
reefs. A caravan road leads from it to 
Berber on the Nile. 

Massowah stands on an island \ m. 
in length and J m. in breadth, sepa- 
rated from the mainland by a narrow 
but deep channel. The entrance to 
the harbour is very narrow, but the 
harbour itself is of large size, and very 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 7. ANCIENT CANALS. 



229 



safe and deep. A caravan road leads 
from Massowali to Khartoom at the 
junction of the Blue and White Nile. 

e. Ancient Canals of communication 
between the Mediterranean and Bed 
Seas. — Before entering upon a history 
and description of the present mari- 
time canal between the Mediter- 
ranean and the Bed Seas, commonly 
known as the Suez Canal, it may be 
interesting to give some slight sketch 
of the ancient canals of communi- 
cation which have at different epochs 
existed between the two seas: pre- 
mising that they all differ in an 
important respect from the present 
one, in that, while it goes direct from 
sea to sea, and is consequently entirely 
a salt-water canal, they were, with 
the exception of the part between the 
Bitter Lakes and the Bed Sea, fresh- 
water canals, deriving their supply 
entirely from the Nile, and are re- 
presented at the present day by the 
Wady Canal, and its continuation to 
Ismnilia and Suez, commonly called 
the Fresh-Water Canal. 

According to certain authors — Ari- 
stotle, Strabo, and Fliny — the tra- 
ditional Sesostris, probably Barneses II. 
first conceived and carried out the idea 
of making a water communication be- 
tween the two seas, by means of the 
Felusiac branch of the Nile from Avaris 
to Bubastis, and then by rendering 
navigable the irrigation canal which 
already existed between the latter 
town and Heroopolis ; and some 
modern writers have.seen in the frag- 
ment bearing the oval of Barneses II., 
which has been found near the pre- 
sumed course of the old canal, a con- 
firmation of this assertion. But if 
such a design was ever formed at that 
remote period, there is no authentic 
record of its having been carried out 
till some centuries later, under the 
rule of Pharaoh Necho II. (cir. 610 
B.C.), who, according to Herodotus, 
was " the first to attempt the con- 
struction of the canal to the Red Sea." 
Neeho's canal tapped the Nile at 
Bubastis, near Zagazig, and followed 
almost the lino of the modern Wady 
Canal to Heroop.jlis, the site of which 



town may, with probable accuracy, be 
placed somewhere in the immediate 
neighbourhood of the heights of Tous- 
soom and Serapeum, between the 
Bitter Lakes and Lake Timsah ; 
the Bed Sea, it must be remembered, 
reaching at that epoch much further 
inland than now, and being called in 
this upper portion (now separated 
from the main sea, and known as the 
Bitter Lakes) the Heroopolite Gulf. 
The length of the canal as given by 
Pliny, of 62 Boman miles = about 57 
English ones, would agree, allowing 
for the sinuosities of tue valley tra- 
versed, with the distance between the 
site of old Bubastis, near Zagazig, and 
the present head of the Bitter Lakes, 
in the neighbourhood of Serapeum. 
The length given by Herodotus of 
much more than 1000 stadia (114 
miles), must be considered as in- 
cluding the whole distance between 
the two seas, both by the Nile and 
the canal. The story of Herodotus 
that 120,000 men perished in cutting 
the canal, is probably an exagge- 
ration ; and the reason which he 
assigns for Neeho's desisting from 
his undertaking — the warning of an 
oracle " that he was labouring for 
the barbarian" — does not seem very 
credible. The more likely reason was 
the idea then prevalent that the Bed 
Sea was considerably above the level 
of the Delta, and that if the Nile was 
made to communicate with that sea, 
not only would a great part of the 
country be inundated by the latter, 
but the salt water would penetrate 
some way up the river, and render it 
undrinkable. This reason, however, 
would require the absence of all know- 
ledge of locks, and even sluices, by the 
ancient Egyptians. 

The work of Necho was continued by 
Darius, the son of Hystaspes ( 520 B.C.) ; 
and the natural channel of communi- 
cation between the Heroopolite Gulf 
and the Bed Sea, which already proba- 
bly in the time of Necho had begun to 
silt up, having become in the 100 years 
that had elapsed since then completely 
blocked, was cleared out and rendered 
navigable. Traces of this canal, which 
was about ten miles long, can be 



230 



EOUTE 7. CAIRO TO THE SUEZ CANAL. 



Sect. II. 



distinctly seen in the neighbour- 
hood of Shaloof, near the S. end 
of the Bitter Lakes, and the present 
Fresh- Water Canal follows its coarse 
for some distance between that point 
and Suez. Several Persian monu- 
ments were found by Lepsius in this 
part of the Isthmus, commemorating 
this work of Darius ; and on one of 
them the name of Darius is written 
in the Persian cuneiform character, 
but in a cartouche of Egyptian form. 
It will be seen, then, that up to this 
time the transit between the two seas 
was effected thus : — ships sailed up 
the Pelusiac branch of the Nile to 
Bubastis, and thence along the canal 
to Heroopolis, where their cargo was 
transhipped to Eed Sea vessels. 

This inconvenient transshipment of 
cargo was remedied by the next Egyp- 
tian sovereign, who made the water 
communication between the two seas 
his care, Ptolemy Philadelphus (285 
B.C.) In addition to cleaning out and 
thoroughly restoring the two canals, he 
joined the fresh- water canal with the 
Heroopolite Gulf by means of a lock 
and sluices, which, while it permitted 
the passage of vessels, prevented the 
salt -water from mingling with and 
spoiling the fresh. At the point at 
which the canal between the Heroo- 
polite Gulf and the Eed Sea joined 
the latter he founded the town of 
Arsinoe, a little to the N. of the modem 
Suez. 

Whether the next sovereign who 
took means to restore the line of com- 
munication between the two seas, 
which, as we know, was impassable in 
the time of Cleopatra (31 B.C.), was 
Trajan or Adrian (98-138 a.d.) is un- 
certain. The Nile had almost entirely 
deserted the Bubastite or Pelusiac 
branch, and therefore it would be 
necessary to tap it at a much higher 
point; and the traditional name of 
Amnis Trajanus given to the old 
canal which leaves the Nile near old 
Cairo, and formerly joined the old line 
of canal to the Bitter Lakes, seems to 
point to that as having been the new 
canal cut by Trajan to join the old 
one, which he also cleaned out and 
rendered again navigable. But it is 



very doubtful whether any work of 
this kind was undertaken in the time 
of the Bomans, and it is more probable 
that the new canal above mentioned 
was the work of Amer (Amrou), when 
ordered by the Caliph Omar to send 
supplies of corn to Mecca and Medina, 
and the whole of the Hedjaz then 
(639 a.d.) suffering severely from 
famine. It joined the old canal near 
the latter's former point of departure 
in the neighbourhood of old Bubastis. 

In return for the anxiety thus dis- 
played for the Holy Cities, and Arabia 
generally, Omar received the flattering 
title of "Prince of the Faithful" 
(Ameer el Momeneen), which was 
thenceforward adopted by his suc- 
cessors in the caliphate. One hun- 
dred and thirty-four years after, El 
Monsoor Aboo Gafer, the second caliph 
of the Abbaside dynasty, and the 
founder of Bagdad, is said to have 
closed this canal, to prevent supplies 
being sent to one of the descendants of 
Ali, who had revolted at Medeeneh. 
Since that time it has remained un- 
opened; though some assert that the 
Sultan Hakeni once more rendered it 
available for the passage of boats, in 
the year a.d. 1000, after which it 
became neglected and choked with 
sand. 

But though the passage of boats 
was impeded, and it was no longer of 
use for communication with the Red 
Sea, some portion still contained water 
during the inundation, until closed by 
Mohammed Ali; at which time it is 
said to have flowed as far as Sheykh 
Hanaydik, near Toossoom and the 
Bitter Lakes. 

The old canal which left the Nile at 
Cairo had long ceased to How much 
further than the outskirts of the city, 
and the still more ancient one from 
the neighbourhood of Bubastis, now 
known as the Wady Canal, extended 
only a few miles in the direction of 
the Isthmus, as far as Gassassine, 
when the necessity for supplying the 
labourers with fresh water along the 
| line of the Suez Canal, induced the 
] Company in 1861 to prolong it from 
I Gassassine to the centre of the Isthmus, 
and afterwards in 1863 to carry it on 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 7. MODERN" CANAL PROJECTS. 



231 



to Suez. In one or two places the bed 
of the old canal was cleared out and 
made to serve for the new one. Its 
level is about 20 feet above that of the 
Suez Canal, which it joins at Isinailia 
by means of two locks ; and the same 
difference of level between it and the 
Eed Sea is remedied by means of four 
locks between Nefiche and Suez. The 
average depth of water at high Nile is 
6 feet, and at low Nile 3 feet. A canal 
will soon be . completed from Boolak 
near Cairo, passing by Heliopolis and 
Belbeis, and joining the Wady Can;il 
a few miles E. of Zagazig. This will 
restore the line of water communica- 
tion between the Nile and the Red Sea 
as it existed, perhaps in the time of 
Trajan, certainly in the time of Omar ; 
but its importance as a means of transit 
will be purely local and internal. 

/. Various modern projects for con- 
necting the two seas. — We have seen 
that all the more enlightened sove- 
reigns who ruled Egypt at different 
periods paid special attention to the 
means of transit through that country 
between the East and the West ; and so 
much so, that Ptolemy Philadelphus, 
one of the chief restorers of the canal 
communication between the Mediter- 
ranean and Eed Sea, founded another 
line of route through Egypt from Myos 
Hormos and Berenice on the Bed Sea, 
to Coptos, on the Nile, near Thebes. 
And this route continued to be of great 
importance up to the time of the dis- 
covery of the Cape passage by Vasco 
da Gama in 1497, from which time all 
the overland routes between East and 
West, both through Asia and Africa, 
were gradually abandoned. 

The first in more comparatively 
modern times to take up the subject of 
a water communication between the 
two seas was Napoleon Buonaparte. 
After having in 1798 examined him- 
self the traces of the old canal of 
Necho and his successors, he ordered 
M. Lepere to survey the Isthmus, and 
prepare a project for uniting the two 
seas by a direct canal. The result of 
the French engineer's labours was to 
discover a difference of 30 ft, between 



the Bed Sea at high water and the 
Mediterranean at low; and as this 
inequality of level seemed to preclude 
the idea of a direct maritime canal, 
the following compromise was recom- 
mended: — 1. a fresh-water commu- 
nication between Alexandria and the 
Bitter Lakes in the following manner, 
(a) Canal from Alexandria to Baman- 
eeyah on the Bosetta branch. (&) 
' Bosetta branch to Cairo, (c) Canal 
from Cairo by El Wady in the old 
I line to the Bitter Lakes, which were 
to be filled with fresh water, and 
' closed at the S. end by a lock, (d) 
Sea canal to Suez. 2. Direct com- 
munication between the two seas by 
(a) The sea canal from Suez to the 
Bitter Lakes, and (&) A fresh- water 
canal from the Bitter Lakes to Pelu- 
sium. This report was not finished 
till after the evacuation of Egypt by 
the French, and circumstances pre- 
vented any attempt at its execution. 
Although, owing to the exertions of 
Lieutenant Waghorn, the route through 
Egypt was chosen in 1837 for the 
transmission of the mails between 
England and India, and the P. and 0. 
Company established a service of 
steamers between England and Alex- 
andria, and Suez and India, nothing 
more was done with regard to a canal 
till 1846, when a mixed commission, 
ineluding Stephenson, was appointed 
to inquire into the subject. They 
exploded the old error so extraor- 
dinarily confirmed by Lepere, respect- 
ing the difference of level between the 
two seas, and proved that it was in- 
appreciable, but separated without 
coming to any conclusion, leaving it 
to one of their number, M. Talabot, to 
present a project of his own. His idea 
was to follow the old canal from Suez 
to near Zagazig, avoiding the Bitter 
Lakes, then take a direct line up to 
the head of the Delta to the Barrage 
then building; carry the c.nal across 
the river at this point by means of a 
gigantic aqueduct, and then continue 
it in a direct line to Alexandria. The 
difficulties involved in this plan proved 
it to be impracticable; and the same 
verdict awaited the project of Messrs. 
Barrault, who proposed to go from 



232 



ROUTE 7. CAIRO TO 



THE SUEZ CANAL. Sect. II. 



Suez through Lake Menzaleh to Da- j 
mietta, then across the Damietta 
branch of the Nile to Eosetta, and 
so across the Kosetta branch to 
Alexandria. 

The next project was drawn up in 
1855 by M. Linant-Bey and M. Mou- 
gel-Bey, under the superintendence of 
M. de Lesseps, who had alivady re- 
ceived a first firman of concession from 
the then viceroy Said Pasha. It 
recommended a direct canal between 
Suez and Pelusium, passing through 
the Bitter Lakes, Lakes Timsah, Bal- 
lah, and Menzaleh, and communi- 
cating with the sea at each end by 
means of a lock. A fresh-water canal 
from Boolak to the centre of the 
Isthmus, and thence to Suez, with a 
conduit for conveying water to Pelu- 
sium, was also proposed. This project 
was in 1856 submitted to an inter- 
national commission, comprising re- 
presentatives from Austria, England, 
France, Italy, the Netherlands, Prus- 
sia, and Spain, and the following 
modifications introduced. The line of 
the canal to the N. was slightly altered 
and brought to a point 17| m. W. of 
Pelusium; this change being deter- 
mined on from the fact of there being 
deep water (25 to 30 ft.) at a distance 
of 2 m. from the coast at this point ; 
whereas at Pelusium the same depth 
was only found at a distance of 5 m. 
The locks were done away with, and 
the length of the jetties at Suez and 
Port Said modified, and various other 
minor details settled. This was t.ie 
project accepted, and so successfully 
carried out by the Suez Canal Com- 
pany. 

g. Financial and political history 
of the present Maritime Suez Canal.— 
In 1854 M. de Lesseps, whose father 
was the first representative of France 
in Egypt after the occupation of 1708- 
1801, and who had himself been Consul 
at Cairo from 1831-1838, obtained the 
first preliminary concession from Said 
Pasha, authorizing him to form a com- 
pany for the purpose of excavating a 
canal between the two seas, and laying 
down the conditions on which the 



concession was granted. This was 
followed by the drawing up and re- 
vision of the project mentioned above, 
and the renewal in 1856 of the first 
concession with certain modifications 
and additions. Meanwhile the British 
Government, under the influence of 
Lord Palmerston, then Foreign Secre- 
tary, endeavoured, for a variety of 
political reasons, to throw obstacles in 
the way of the enterprise, and so far 
succeeded as to prevent the Sultan 
from granting his sanction to the con- 
cession made by the Viceroy. M. de 
Lesseps, however, sanguine as to the 
result — he had, as he himself said, 
" pour principe de commencer par 
avoir de la contiance" — and encouraged 
by the favourable reception his project 
had met with in Europe, determined 
to open, in 1S58, the subscription that 
was to furnish funds for the under- 
taking. The capital, according to the 
statutes of the Company approved in 
the firman of concession, was to con- 
sist of 8,000,000Z., in shares of 20Z. 
each. Lather more than half of this 
was subscribed tor, and eventually in 
1860 Said Pasha consented to take 
up the remaining unallotted shares, 
amounting to more than 3,500,0002. 
Disregarding the opposition of the 
English Government, and the with- 
holding through its influence of the 
consent of the Porte, M. de Lesseps 
began his work in 1859 ; and on the 
25th of April in that year the works 
may be said to have been formally 
commenced by the digging, in the 
presence of M. de Lesseps and four 
directors of the Company, of a small 
trench along the projected line of the 
Canal, on the narrow strip of sand 
between Lake Menzaleh and the Medi- 
terranean. This was followed by the 
establishment of working encamp- 
ments in different parts of the Isthmus. 
But, though the first step had been 
won, difficulties of various kinds pre- 
vented the work from making very 
rapid progress, and at the end of 1862 
the actual results were only a narrow 
rigole cut from the Mediterranean to 
Lake Timsah, and the extension of the 
Fresh- Water Canal from Pas el Wady 
to the same point. The principal work 



Egypt 



ROUTE 7. THE SUEZ CANAL. 



233 



done in 1R63 was the continuation of 
the Fresh-Water Canal to Suez. At 
this point a difficulty arose, which 
threatened to stop the works altogether. 

Among the articles of concession of 
1856 was one providing that four-fifths 
of the workmen on the Canal should 
be Egyptians ; and Said Pasha con- 
sented to furnish these workmen by 
conscription from different parts of 
Egypt, the Company agreeing to pay 
them at a rate equal to about two- 
thirds less than was given for similar 
work in Europe, and one-third more 
than they received in their own 
country, and to provide them with 
food, habitations, &c. In principle 
this was the corvee or forced labour; 
the fellaheen being taken away from 
their homes and sent to work at the 
Can d, though there is no doubt that 
when there they were as well treated 
and better paid than at home. How- 
ever the injustice and impolicy of 
this clause had always been in- 
sisted on to the Sultan by the 
English Government ; and the present 
Khedive, on his accession to power in 
1863, perceived at once that the con- 
tinual drain upon the working popu- 
lation, necessary to supply the Canal 
with 20,000 fresh labourers monthly, 
was a loss to the country which no- 
thing could compensate for. Pie 
therefore in the early part of 1864 
refused to continue to send the monthly 
contingent, and the works in con- 
sequence came almost to a standstill. 
Other points of difference at the same 
time arose between the Sultan, the 
Egyptian Government, and the Com- 
pany, with regard to the large grant 
of lands made to the Company in the 
original concession, and the proprietor- 
ship of the Fresh-Water Canal from 
Kas el Wady to Suez. By the con- 
sent of all parties, the subjects in dis- 
pute were submitted to the arbitrage 
of the French Emperor, Napoleon III, 
who decided that the two concessions 
of 1854 and 1856 being of the nature 
of a contract, and binding on both 
parties, the Egyptian Government 
should pay an indemnity of 1.520,000Z. 
for the withdrawal of the fellah labour, 
1,200,000Z. for the resumption of the 



f lands originally "granted, 200 metres 
! only being retained on each side of 
the canal for the erection of workshops, 
deposit of soil excavated, &c, and 
640,0002. for the Fresh- Water Canal, 
and the right of levying tolls on it ; 
the Egyptian Government under- 
taking to keep it in repair and navi- 
gable, and to allow the Company free 
use of it for any purpose. The sum 
total of these payments amounted to 
3,360,0002., and was to be paid in 16 
instalments from 1864 to 1879. 

The Company now proceeded to re- 
place by machinery the manual labour 
whose services they had lost ; and 
thanks to the energy and ingenuity of 
the principal contractors, Messrs. Borel 
and Lavalley, that which seemed at first 
sight to threaten destruction to the 
whole enterprise, led more than any- 
thing to its being ultimately successful 
— for it may be said that without the 
machinery thus called into action, the 
Canal would never have been com- 
pleted when it was; and when we 
look at the ingenuity displayed in the 
invention of this machinery, and the 
enormous scale on which it was ap- 
plied, it must certainly be considered 
as one of the chief glories of the work. 
It may be noted that its first cost 
was 2,400,0002., and its monthly con- 
sumption of fuel 40,0002. A further 
sum of 400,0002. was realized in 1866 
by the sale of the tract of land called 
El Wady, which hud been purchased 
by the Company of Said Pasha for 
the sum of 74,00 02. And, by a new 
convention, the term for the payment 
of the remainder of the indemnity 
awarded by the Emperor Napoleon 
was shortened by ten years, and the 
whole sum was to be paid by 1869. 

The work now proceeded without 
interruption of any kind ; but at the 
end of 1867 it became evident that 
more money would be needed, and a 
subscription was opened for the pur- 
pose of obtaining 4,000,0002. by means 
of 202. shares, issued at 122., bearing 
interest at the rate of 12. per cent., 
and repayable at par in fifty years. 
Of this loan little more than a fourth 
was obtained in six months, and in 
order to get the rest Without delay the 



234 



ROUTE 7. CAIRO TO 



THE SUEZ CANAL. 



Sect. II. 



Company obtained permission to issue 
bonds, reimbursable by lottery draw- 
ings, on condition that their nominal 
value should be not less than 20Z., that 
they should bear interest at not less 
than 3 per cent, on the nominal capital, 
and that the sum annually devoted to 
prizes should not exceed 1 per cent, of 
the capital. The prospect of 40,000Z. 
a year in prizes, varying from 80Z. to 
6000Z., to be drawn for quarterly, in 
addition to the already favourable 
terms of the subscription, soon brought 
in the remainder of the loan. But 
money was again needed in 1869, and 
fresh bonds, called delegations, were 
issued for 1,200,000Z. At the same 
time the Company, for the sum of 
800,000Z., yielded up to the Egyptian 
Government its right of free passage 
and exemption from custom-house 
duties along the Fresh- Water Canal, 
agreed to take half only of whatever 
the land still belonging to it might 
fetch, and renounced entirely all spe- 
cial rights and privileges of any kind. 
For a further sum of 400,00CZ. it sold 
to the Egyptian Government all its 
establishments on the Isthmus, includ- 
ing the hospitals and their materiel, 
the quarry and harbour of Mex near 
Alexandria, and its workshop and 
establishments at Boolak and Damietta. 
This 1,200,OOOZ. however was never 
paid in hard cash, it being agreed that 
the Company should accept instead a 
renunciation on the part of the 
Egyptian Government of the interest 
on . shares held by it for 25 years. 
At this time, it may be added, the 
Company were receiving a revenue of 
about 5000Z. a month as their share, 
for the transit receipts between Port 
Said and Suez, via the Maritime Canal 
to Lake Timsah, and thence to Suez by 
the Fresh- Water Canal. 

The complicated nature of the money 
arrangements between the Egyptian 
Government and the Company, make 
it difficult to know exactly how far 
the former had actually fulfilled its 
engagements at the time of the open- 
ing ; but supposing it to have clone so 
completely, the capital received by the 
Suez Canal Company, up to the open- 
ing of the Canal in Nov. 1869, would 



amount in all to about seventeen mil- 
lion sterling, as thus : — 



Original Capital £8,000,000 

Indemnity lor withdrawal of fella-) „ oen nnn 

heen, ) ^ bl} > 000 

Sale of the el- VVady Estate . . . 400,000 

Lottery Loan 1868 4,000,000 

Additional Loan 1869 . . . . 1,200,000 



Total £16,960,000 



The addition of sums arising from 
various sources of profit would bring 
the total amount to considerably more 
than the sum stated above of seventeen 
millions. Of this amount, as may be 
seen, 13,200,OOOZ. is interest-bearing : 
but as by the agreement of 1869 men- 
tioned above, the Egyptian Govern- 
ment gave up the interest in its shares 
for 25 years, the value of the 176,602 
20Z. shares held by it(= 3,532,040Z.) 
must be deducted, and the interest- 
bearing capital would consequently 
stand thus : — 



223,598 shares at 20Z £4,471,960 

Lottery or Debenture Loan 1868 . 4,000,000 
Additional Loan 1869 .... 1,200,000 



Total £9,671,960 



On the 17th Nov. 1869 the Canal 
was opened for traffic ; not completely 
finished, it is true, but sufficiently 
so to enable 48 ships, some drawing 
18 feet of water, to pass through to 
Lake Timsah, and continue their 
voyage to Suez the following day. All 
nations may be said to have assisted 
at the ceremony ; and England forgot 
her old political jealousy of the under- 
taking, and her scepticism as to its 
success, in the prospect of the benefit 
she was likely to reap from this 
shortened route to the East. The 
vessels which took part in the opening 
procession of course paid no rates for 
passage. But immediately afterwards 
a regular traffic set in, the first ship 
to pay the dues being an English one. 
By the concession of 1856 the tariff, 
which, it is expressly stated, is to be 
the same for ships of all nations, was 
fixed at 10 francs (8 shillings) per ton, 
and 10 francs per passenger ; in 
addition to which there are extra dues 
for pilotage, amount of water drawn, 
&c. The following table will show the 



Egypt. 



ROUTE. 7. THE SUEZ CANAL. 



235 



number of vessels that have passed 
through the Canal, and the receipts 
since the opening : — 

Ships. Receipts. 



November) 
December ) 

1x70 486 
1871 765 

January ) 

February V 1872 311 
March J 



£ 

2,258 



2C6,373 
359.720 i 



The additional receipts arising from 
transit of small boats, merchandise, 
and other sources, amounted in 1S70 
to 49,1152. It was originally estimated 
that the expenses alone of keeping 
the Canal in a navigable state would 
amount to 144,000L a year. In the 
report presented to the shareholders 
at the beginning of 1872, the general 
receipts for the current year are esti- 



mated at 720,000L, and the expenses 
of every kind at 640,0002. 

The financial and political diffi- 
culties that have been encountered in 
the carrying out of this gigantic work 
have not been slight, but they have 
hitherto been successfully passed 
through; and the steadily increasing 
use made of the Canal, especially by 
English vessels, shows that the saving 
in distance and expense offered by this 
route is beginning to be appreciated, 
and that the Canal, from being looked 
upon as the " futile attempt of a clever 
enthusiast," is regarded as an accom- 
plished fact, and as affording the 
natural line for traffic between East 
and West. The following table gives 
the relative distances by the Cape 
route, and by the Canal, from Eng- 
land, America, Eussia, and France, to 
India : — 



England to Bombay (nautical miles) 
New York to Bombay , , 
St. Petersburg to Bombay , , 
Marseilles to Bombay , , 



Via Cape of Good Hope. 
, . . 10,860 
. . . 11,520 
, . . 11,610 
. . . 10,560 



Via Suez Canal. 
6,020 
7,920 
6,770 
4,620 



Saving. 
4,840 
3,600 
4,840 
5,940 



Before closing this short sketch it 
may not be inappropriate to notice how 
much Egypt has contributed towards 
the making of the Suez Canal. Some 
idea of it may be gained by sum- 
marising certain items already re- 
ferred to — 

176,602 original 201. shares 



Payment by arbitration award of ) 



£3,532,040 
3,360,000 



1864 

For re-purchase of el- Wady estate . 326 , 000 
For re-purchase of certain rights, ) 

&c, by renunciation of interest > 1,200,000 

on shares for 25 years . . . ) 

Total £8,418,040 

And when it is considered that she 
has hnd to meet these engagements by 
borrowing money at, at least, from 10 
to 12 per cent., we may add another 
2 millions and more to the account. 
It will thus be seen that the cost of the 
Canal to Egypt is altogether out of 
proportion to any benefits that she can 
possibly receive from it. From an 
economical and commercial point of 
view, the Canal can be a source of 
very little profit to the country through 
which it passes. The political advan- 
tage, however, may be considerable, as 



the Canal must very much enhance 
the geographical importance of Egypt ; 
but it may be doubted whether this 
advantage has not been dearly pur- 
chased. 

h. Suez to Port Said by the Canal. 
100 miles. 

The traveller muSt obtain informa- 
tion at Suez as to the best means of 
going through the Canal to Ismailia. 
A passage may often be obtained 
on board some large vessel passing 
through, or a small steam launch or 
sailing boat can be hired ; but it must 
be borne in mind that if there is at all 
a strong wind blowing, neither small 
steam launches nor sailing boats are 
very safe in the Bitter Lakes. If there 
is any difficulty in getting a passage 
through the Canal to Ismailia, that 
portion of the route might be seen in 
the following way. Make a day's ex- 
cursion in a boat, or on donkey, or 
horseback, from Suez to the Bitter 
Lakes and back ; the time in coming 
back may be shortened by taking the 
train from Shaloof, or you might go 



236 



ROUTE 7. CAIRO TO THE SUEZ CANAL. 



Sect. IT. 



by train to Shaloof in the morning, 
taking the donkeys with you. Then 
the next day go from Suez by train to 
Ismailia, and make an exclu sion thence 
to the N. end of the Bitter Lakes. 
For convenience' sake, however, we 
shall suppose the traveller to start from 
Suez by the Canal. 

The annexed table of the dimensions 
of the Canal may be useful for reference 
on the way : — 

Feet. 

"Width at water-line, where banks are low 328 
Widih at water-line in deep cuttings, 

where banks are high 190 

Width at base • 72 

Depth 26 

Slope of bank near water line 1 in 5, near base 
1 in 2. 

The total length is 100 miles, which 
may be divided with reference to the 
water-line width and the character of 
the soil, thus : — 

Miles. 

Plain of Suez, full width, tenacious soil . . 10 
Cutting of Shaloof, reduced width, tenacious 
soil and rocks with upper coating of sand 5 

Bitter Lakes 25 

Sortie from Bitter Lakes, full width, tena- 
cious soil, with upper coating of sand . . 2 
Serapsurn and Toussoom cuttings, reduced 

width, sand 6 

Lake Timsah 5 i 

Cutting of Guisr, reduced width, sand . . 6 [ 
Lakes Ballnh and Menzaleh. full width, 
with short sandy cuttings at El Ferdane 
and Kantarah of about 3 miles .... 41 



Total 



100 



Leaving the roadstead, the mouth of 
the Canal, which is here 900 feet wide 
and 27 feet deep, is soon reached. It j 
is guarded at its entrance by a mole 
^ a mile long, which piojects from the 
Asiatic shore, and protects it from 1 
southerly gales and from the action 
of the tide at high water. This mole . 
is built of calcareous rock from the I 
quarries at the foot of Gebel Attakah on i 
the African shore. Past this, on the j 
left, is a stone embankment facing the 1 
ground on which stand the offices and | 
workshops of the Company, and the | 
constructions belonging to the new | 
quays mentioned in the account of Suez, i 
The whole of the ground on which ! 
these buildings stand is composed of j 
dredgiugs from the channel of the , 
Canal. First the embankments were j 



built, and then the dredges with long 
ducts (a long couloir) were moved 
alongside, and the dredgings depo- 
sited behind the embankments. At 
the point where the channel of deep 
water leading up to Suez enters the 
Canal is a small dock belonging to 
the Company. Sweeping round in a 
long curve, between embankments 
built of the half-formed rock that here 
lay beneath the upper coating of sand, 
the Canal, gradually narrowing to its 
proper width, passes on the left the 
old Quarantine station, and enters 
what is called the 

Plain of Suez, a sort of marshy 
lagoon, slightly above the level of 
the sea, extending up to the heights 
of Shaloof. Both through this plain 
and the higher ground near the 
old Quarantine station a first shallow 
channel was dug by hand in 1866, 
a dam being left nearly opposite the 
station to keep out the flow of the sea 
at high tide. The channel thus cut 
was filled, partly by infiltration from 
the surrounding marshes, and partly 
by fresh water brought through a 
narrow cutting from the Fresh-Water 
Canal. Dredges were then floated in, 
to complete the excavation to the re- 
quired depth. The dredging here was 
very difficult, the soil being composed 
of veiy stiff clay and half-formed stone. 
Indeed the strain upon the machines 
was so great, and the progress made so 
slow, that it w<is found necessary at 
the end of 1868 to change the mode of 
attack along a portion of the plain, 
and proceed to excavate a sec and by 
hand-labour. Accordingly leaving a 
dam at Kilometre 148, and confining 
the working of the dredges to the por- 
tion south of this point, the water was 
pumped out of the remaining six or 
seven miles up to the heights of Shaloof 
already dug through, and closed by 
another dam, and in a short time 
15,000 men were hard at work with 
barrow, spade, pickaxe, and blasting- 
tools. The following notes written on 
the spot in April, 1869, will give some 
idea of the aspect of the work at that 
time : — " The whole scene along these 
six. or seven miles was truly wonder- 



Egypt. 



KOUTE 7. THE SUEZ CANAL. 



237 



ful ; such a number arid variety of men 
and animals were, probably, never be- 
fore collected together in the prosecu- 
tion of one work. There were to be 
seen European gangs — Greeks, Alba- 
nians, Montenegrins, Germans, Ita- 
lians, &c. generally working at the 
lower levels, and where the tram- 
ways and inclined planes carried away 
the detblais. Their only animal 
helpers were mules to draw the wag- 
gons. Then would come groups of 
native gangs, the produce of their 
pickaxes and spades borne away in 
wheelbarrows, or on the backs of 
camels, horses, donkeys, and even chil- 
dren. Of these animals the donkeys 
were the most numerous, as well as the 
most intelligent. It was curious to 
watch them. Seldom did the boy 
whose post it was to drive them think 
of accompanying them; he generally 
stood at the top of the embankment, 
and emptied the contents of their 
baskets as they arrived. Below, as soon 
as the basket was loaded, one of the 
fillers would give the animal a 
smack with the spade, and an em- 
phatic 'Empshy ya kelb! ' ( 'Get 
along, O dog '), and it would quietly 
move off, and gradually make its way 
to the top ; where the basket emptied, 
it would be dismissed with another 
' Empshy,' and proce d down again. 
These donkeys would preserve an un- 
broken line in mounting and descend- 
ing the tortuous and steep incline ; and 
if a stoppage took place, a shout from 
the men was sufficient to send them 
on again. Their only trappings were 
the open-mouthed sacks made of shreds 
of palm-leaf, flung across their bare 
backs, forming a double pannier. The 
camels had a more scientifically con- 
struct d burden, consi-ting of a pair 
of open wooden boxes closed at the 
bottom by doors fastened with a bolt." 

With a very gradual bend to the W. 
the Canal enters the deep cutting of j 
Chaloufi pronounced Shaloof ) (12£ m.). j 
The seuil, as the French call it, of j 
Shaloof (Chalouf) el Terraba is &' 
plateau of from 20 to 25 feet above 
the tea-level, and about six miles in j 
length. The surface soil down to the , 



future water-line of the Canal was ex- 
cavated by the forced contingent of fel- 
laheen in 1864. Noihing more was 
then done till 1866, when the work 
was recommenced a sec by workmen 
from all countries of Europe and such 
natives as could be procured, the soil 
being removed and discharged over 
the banks by means of a very complete 
system of tramways and inclined 
planes. A serious obstacle was here 
encountered in the shape of a layer of 
rock several feet deep, and extending 
for about 400 yards along the cutting, 
It was composed principally of sand- 
stone, with varieties of limestone and 
conglomerate; the latter in some places 
very hard, in others soft, as though 
recently formed. Eos-il remains of 
the shark, hippopotamus, tortoise, a 
species of whale, &c, were found in the 
rock. It has been conjectured, and 
not without reason, that the heights of 
Shaloof owe their origin to an earth- 
quake, which may have been so far 
felt here as to raise the soil slightly. 
According to the same hypothesis, this 
phenomenon would have been the cause 
of the first separation of the Heroo- 
polite Gulf, now the Bitter L;ikes. frorn 
the main body of the Bed Sea, only a 
narrow and shallow channel of com- 
munication being left b tween them. 
Across this channel, the combined 
action of the wind and tide, and the 
sand detritus from the neighbouring 
hills would in time form a bar, thus 
isolating completely the northern gulf ; 
and the same causes continually at 
work would, century after century, in- 
crease the size of the obstructing 
height, and push the shore of the Bed 
Sea, little by little, further south. 
Various sovereigns of Egypt attempted 
to keep open the communication be- 
tween the HeroopoliteGulfandtheBed 
Sea ; and the course of the canal first 
cut by Darius can be distinctly traced 
in the neighbourhood of Shaloof. 
Many are inclined to place the site of 
the Israelites' passage of the Bed Sea 
near this point (see Bte. 14, g). 52,000 
cubic yards of rock were blasted and 
cleared away. The sight while the work 
was going on here was a most remark- 
able one, presenting the appearance of 



238 



ROUTE 7. CAIRO TO THE SUEZ CANAL. 



Sect. II. 



a huge excavated valley, of vast depth 
and width, the bottom covered with a 
network of tramways, the sides lined 
with inclined planes, and the whole 
swarming with thousands of workmen. 
The Canal here narrows to a width at 
the water-line of only 190 feet. 

The banks gradually lower as we 
pass out of the Shaloof cutting into 
the southernmost part of the Bitter 
Lakes (3 m.), called by the French the j 
" Petit Bassin des Lacs Amers." The 
so-called Bitter Lakes are supposed to 
have formed in more ancient times the 
northern portion of the Bed Sea, known 
as the Sinus Heroopolites. Cut off 
gradually, as explained above, from 
the main sea, the waters of the gulf in 
time evaporated, leaving a dry depres- 
sion divided into two unequal parts : 
the southernmost and smallest, about 
7 miles long, and 2 wide, with an 
average depth in the centre of 15 feet 
below the old water-line ; and the 
northernmost and largest 15| miles 
long, and about 6 wide, with an aver- 
age depth in the centre of 25 to 30 
feet below the old water-line. A nar- 
row isthmus about a mile in length, 
and rising at its highest point to about 
sea-level, formed the separation. The 
bottom was a species of salt-marsh, 
with water a few inches below the 
surface; but in the centre of the 
larger depression was an elliptical- 
shaped bank of salt, 7 miles in length 
by 5 in width. 

The excavating work in this por- 
tion of the Canal was very slight: 
only the neck between the two de- 
pressions had to be cut through, and 
an entrance to the channel made at 
each end, the depth in the centre be- 
ing more than sufficient. But the 
filling this vast expanse with water 
was an achievement second to none in 
the progress of the undertaking. It 
was commenced on the 17th of March, 
1869, by letting in the waters of the 
Mediterranean which had already filled 
Lake Timsah, and advanced through ' 
the Canal to the foot of the enormous j 
weir destined to regulate their flow j 
into the Bitter Lakes. This weir, the 
largest probably ever made, had been 
constructed in the west bank of the 



Canal with a curved channel leading 
from it into the lakes : the line of the 
Canal continuing in a straight' line, 
and being closed at the entrance to the 
lakes by a dam. The weir was more 
than 350 feet in length, with 25 open- 
ings, each of which had 20 doors, so 
that the flow of water could be regu- 
lated to any degree. The whole open- 
ing represented about 328 feet in 
j length by rather more than 3 in height, 
and was about 3 feet below the level 
of the water-line of the Canal, so that 
the force of the stream pouring through 
w 7 as increased by the weight of the 
water above it. In order to break the 
fall of such a nws of water and pre- 
vent its eating back under the weir, a 
solid platform was constructed, com- 
posed of piles driven in, and then joined 
together by cross beams, and filled in 
to a depth of 10 feet with hard clay ; 
over this was a stout planking nailed 
to the piles, and covered with pieces of 
stone, old iron, &c. ; while for 300 
yards along the channel below the 
weir were placed huge pieces of 
rock to break the force of the w T ater. 
When all the doors were raised, from 4 
to 5 million cubic metres of water 
passed through in the day. Three 
months later a similar weir, but of still 
larger dimensions, was constructed near 
Shaloof, and the water of the Bed 
Sea admitted through it into the 
southern portion of the Bitter Lake. 
As much as from 10 to 12 million 
cubic metres of water were discharged 
in a day through this weir. Altogether 
it was calculated that 19 hundred 
million cubic metres of water, allowing 
for absorption and evaporation, would 
be required to fill the Bitter Lakes. 

The ebb and flow of the tide through 
the Canal between the Bed Sea and the 
Bitter Lakes is, as will have been seen 
during the passage through, consider- 
able ; but the clayey character of the 
soil prevents its doing much mischief, 
| and its effect is almost lost in the vast 
: surface of the Bitter Lakes, on whose 
| level it has no sensible effect. There 
I is a slight continuance of the ebb 
and flow between the Bitter Lakes and 
Lake Timsah, from which point there 
is a slight uniform current into the 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 7. THE SUEZ CANAL. 



239 



Mediterranean, often however checked, 
and sometimes reversed, by the action 
of the north wind. 

The line of the Canal through 
the Bitter Lakes is marked by buoys 
at every 330 yards, forming an 
avenue of about 130 feet wide ; and 
at the northern and southern ends 
of the larger Bitter Lake or, as 
the French call it, the " Grand Bas- 
sin des Lacs Amers," is a lighthouse 
65 feet high, the tower of iron built 
on solid masonry ; the light is of the 
fourth order. The sandy, gravelly sur- 
face of the soil in the neighbourhood 
of the Bitter Lakes is strewn with 
shells, exactly corresponding with 
those now found in the Red Sea, — a 
proof that not only the depression of 
the Bitter Lakes, but the whole of the 
surrounding country, was formerly 
submerged. The only vegetation in 
the neighbourhood is composed of 
tamarisk shrubs, which often form, 
with the earth and sand at their roots, 
high mounds, and present from a dis- 
tance the appearance of trees. To the 
E. of the Bitter Lakes they extend 
over a large space, and looked so like a 
wood from a distance, that the French 
gave that part the name of the " Foret." 

After passing through the Bitter 
Lakes the Canal enters the low ground 
lying between them and the heights of 
Serapeum (28 m.). The greater part of 
this section, about a mile and a half 
long, was excavated a sec. At a short 
distance from the W. bank of the Canal 
are some remains of ancient works, 
and traces of a cutting, which may be 
followed for some considerable distance 
N. It has been conjectured that this 
cutting marks the course of the old 
canal of the Pharaohs, and the remains 
of the spot where Ptolemy built the 
species of primitive lock connect- 
ing it with the Heroopolite Gulf. 
The seuil of Serapeum has been so 
named from some supposed remains of 
a temple of Serapis found about tlie 
centre of the heights. Others are dis- 
posed to see in them the ruins of 
the old town of Heroopolis. The seuil 
itself is about 3 miles long, and from 
15 to 25 feet high, composed of sand 



with layers of lime and clay, and here 
and there a sort of half-formed rock, 
of shells imbedded in lime. The re- 
moval of the superficial soil was accom- 
plished here by a very ingenious and 
skilful contrivance. After a shallow 
channel had been dug through the 
heights, a dam being left at the north- 
ern and southern ends, a cross-cutting 
was made between this channel and 
tiie Fresh-Water Canal, distant about 3 
miles to the W. and at about the same 
level as the heights. Through this 
cutting fresh water was admitted into 
the shallow channel, and into a num- 
ber of slight depressions that existed 
on either side ; these last being thus 
turned into, as it were, closed basins 
communicating with the line of the 
Canal. At the same time dredges 
were brought up the Canal from Port 
Said to Ismailia, thence passed through 
the locks up into the Fresh- Water 
Canal, and floated along it and down 
the cross-cutting into the channel filled 
with fresh water, where they com- 
menced dredging at a height of nearly 
20 feet above the level of the sea. 
Flat - bottomed, twin - screw lighters 
received the dredgings, and deposited 
them in the artificially formed basins 
already mentioned. When the dredges 
had excavated to a depth of nearly 40 
feet, or about 20 feet below the sea- 
level, the dam at the northern end was 
cut, and the waters of the Mediterra- 
nean mingled with the waters of the 
Nile, which had thus been made to 
render a novel assistance to the making 
of the Canal. The cross-cutting had of 
course been dammed up. and the basins 
emptied themselves into the Canal, now 
fallen considerably below their base. 
It was at the southern end of the 
Serapeum cutting that the dredges en- 
countered, two or three days before the 
date fixed for the opening of the Canal, 
Nov. 17, 1869, some solid rock, which 
was with great difficulty removed suffi- 
ciently to allow of the passage of the 
vessels that took part in the opening 
ceremony. 

To the Serapeum heights succeed 
those of Toossoom (3 m.), from 15 to 20 
feet in height, and composed chiefly of 



240 



ROUTE 7. CAIRO TO 



THE SUEZ CANAL. 



Sect. II. 



loose sand. It was here that the first 
working encampment was formed in the 
southern half of the Isthmus in 1859, 
and the channel to a depth of 6 feet 
below the sea-level cut by the native 
contingent. At that time there was 
no Fresh- Water Canal to Suez, and 
all the water had to be brought from 
a long distance on camels' backs. It 
was the difficulty of providing water 
for the number of men at work here, 
that proved to the Company how im- 
possible it would be to meet the 
wants of the still greater number that 
must be employed on the sections to 
the south of the Bitter Lakes, and 
determined it to continue the Fresh- 
Water Canal from Nefiche to Suez. 
The remaining work in this cutting 
was done by dredges; the material 
being carried away by fiat-bottomed 
lighters, and discharged near the 
shore of Lake Timsah. Close to 
the station of Toossoom is a Muslim 
saint's tomb called Sheykh Hanay- 
dik near which may be traced the 
course of the old canal ; and a little 
further to the S. are a few ruins. The 
bauks gradually lower after passing 
Toossoom, and the view spreads out 
over tamarisk-tufted sand-hills, with 
here and there a creek opening from 
the Canal. These creeks gradually 
become larger, and announce the be- 
ginning of Lake Timsah, which soon 
widens out, with the town of Ismailia 
in front of the vessel as it advances 
to take up its moorings in the centre 
of this inland harbour. 

Lake Timsah was formerly, accord- 
ing to the more generally received 
view, a fresh-water lake, receiving by 
means of the old canal from the Pelu- 
siac branch of the Nile at Bubastis 
— traces of which have already been 
mentioned as apparent in various 
places — the overflow of the Nile at the 
time of the inundation ; and this theory 
is supported by the nature of the soil 
at the bottom of the lake, by the vege- 
tation on its banks, and, above all, by 
its name in Arabic, Bohr el Timsah, 
the Sea of the Crocodile, which seems 
to show it to have been a favourite 
resort of that fresh - water monster. 



Others, however, contend that the bed 
of this lake was once in communication 
with the Bitter Lakes, thus forming 
part of the Heroopolite Gulf, and in- 
deed of the Red Sea, and that the 
name Bahr el Timsah was applied, 
not to this particular part, but to the 
whole gulf, and was given on account 
of the shape of the whole gulf resem- 
bling that of a crocodile. Both these 
theories are, no rloubt, right in the 
main. It is probable that at some re- 
mote period the Mediterranean and Red 
seas met across what is now the Isth- 
mus of Suez, and that the first sepa- 
ration took place when the heights of 
El Guisr, to the north of the present 
lake, were upheaved by some subter- 
ranean commotion. This would place 
the then limit of the Red Sea where 
the lake now is. The same, or more 
probably a subsequent, upheaving pro- 
duced the heights of Serapeum and 
Shaloof, and gradually drained off 
the Red Sea to its present limit, leav- 
ing two inland lakes, the northernmost 
of which, from its proximity to the 
Nile, soon filled with fresh water. 
The abandonment of the eastern 
branches of the Nile, and the conse- 
quent drying up of the canals in that 
part of the Delta, deprived the lake of 
its source of nourishment ; and, except 
when an unusually high inundation 
sent a large overplus of water down 
the Wady canal, and along the old 
course into the lake, it was almost dry. 
The depth of the depression was about 
22 feet below the sea-level, and the 
circumference, judging from the mark 
of the old water-line, about 9 miles. 
The systematic filling of the hollow 
with water from the Mediterranean, 
through the channel that had been 
already cut from Port Said, began on 
the 12th Dec. 186t>, and was com- 
pleted by the end of April, 1867. A 
weir was used, similar to that after- 
wards used at the Bitter Lakes, but 
of smaller size. Nearly 100 million 
cubic metres of water were required to 
fill the lake. The remaining 6 feet of 
depth required for the channel of the 
Canal through the lake were dredged 
out ; as also was a large area in the 
centre, to serve as a harbour. The 



Egypt 



ROUTE 7. — THE SUEZ CANAL ISMAILIA. 



241 



course is buoyed as in the Bitter Lakes. 
On the W. shore is a lighthouse, and 
on the N. is another, slightly to the 
E. of the landing-place for the town of 
Ismailia. 

Ismailia (pronounced Isroaileeyah), 
4i m. (Pop. 3000. Hotel des Voy- 
ageurs, very fairly clean and com- 
fortable). A broad road, lined with 
trees, leads up from the landing-place 
on the lake, and across the Fresh- 
Water Canal to the Quai Mehemet 
Ali, a broad avenue bordered on one 
side by the Canal, and on the other 
by the houses of the principal inhabi- 
tants. A short distance further on to 
the left, after crossing the bridge, is 
the hotel. 

A general idea of Ismailia has been 
already given in describing the route 
from Cairo to Suez. It only re- 
mains to notice some of the principal 
features of interest that may be seen 
during a few hours' stay. The town 
may be divided into two parts, the east 
and west, separated by the road leading 
from the landing-place to the station-. 
In the W. part are the hotel, the station, 
the landing quays of the Fresh- Water 
Canal and large blocks of warehouses 
adjoining, and beyond them the Arab 
village. There is nothing here to stop 
the visitor in his walk. In the E. 
part are the houses and offices of the 
employes of the Company, the shops, 
the palace of the Viceroy, the water- 
works for sending water along the line 
of the Canal to Port Said, and the 
principal streets and squares. In 
walking down the Quai Me'hemet Ali 
from the hotel, the visitor will notice 
with interest a sort of Swiss chalet, 
the residence of M. de Lesseps, and 
the first constructed house at Is- 
mailia. Some way further down is 
the Viceroy's palace, run up in a few 
months for the purpose of enabling 
him to entertain his illustrious visi- 
tors at the opening of the Canal. 

At the end of the quay are the 
Waterworks. These are worth a 
visit. The water reaches them by 
means of a small canal derived from 
the Fresh-Water Canal at a point be- 
yond the Arab village. It is carried 

{Egypt.'] 



all round the town, to which it forms, 
as it were, the northern boundary, and 
being thickly planted with willows, 
the sand from the desert on that side 
can neither choke it up, nor pass over 
it into the town. Simultaneously with 
the completion of the Fresh -Water 
Canal to Ismailia and Suez, it was 
found necessary to provide Port Said 
and the line of works along the 
northern portion of the Canal with a 
regular supply of water that could be 
depended on. Two powerful pump- 
ing-engines were accordingly erected 
at Ismailia, and a double row of 
cast-iron pipes laid the whole length 
of - the Canal to Port Said, a distance 
of 50 miles, through which water is 
continuously pumped. At all the 
principal stations there are reservoirs 
for storing the water, and drinking- 
* fountains from which any one can 
draw, while at every 2 h miles are open 
self - filling cisterns for the use of 
man and beast. One of the features 
of these waterworks are the gardens, 
very prettily laid out with cascades 
and walks, and filled with all kinds 
of choice fruits and flowers. Indeed 
the luxuriance and beauty of the 
gardens is one of the chief features 
of this town, whose site in 1860 was a 
barren waste of sand. But it seems 
only necessary to pour the waters of 
the Nile on the desert to produce a 
soil which will grow anything to per- 
fection. 

The walk or ride may be prolonged to 
the point where the Fresh-Water Canal 
joins by a lock a short branch from the 
Maritime Canal, and thence to the 
heights of El Guisr, whence is a good 
view of the deep cutting the Canal 
there passes through, and a really 
magnificent coup oVozil across Lake 
Timsah, with the Bitfer Lakes and the 
heights of Gebel GenefFeh beyond, and 
far in the distance the hazy blue out- 
line of Gebel Attakah on the right, and 
the granite peaks of Sinai on the left. 
The return ride from El Guisr may be 
made straight across the desert, and 
through the industrial part of the 
town, where there are some good shops. 
The stone used in building the houses 
was brought from quarries on the 
M 



242 



KOTJTE 7. CAIRO TO THE SUEZ CANAL. Sect. II. 



E. side of the lake, called by the 
French "les Carrieres des Hyenes," 
Hyena Quarries, from some of these 
animals having been found in the 
neighbourhood. 

The marshes round the W. side 
of the lake abound in water-fowl of 
various kinds, and gazelles are very 
frequently met with in the neigh- 
bouring desert. Any traveller who 
is fortunate enough to have an in- 
troduction to one of the chief em- 
ployes of the Company at Ismailia 
will readily obtain any information as 
to sport, and, should he stay long 
enough, very probably have an oppor- 
tunity given him of joining in a gazelle 
hunt. The sanitary advantages of 
Ismailia as a residence are thought 
very highly of by medical men resident 
in Egypt. The climate is extremely 
dry and temperate ; there being always 
a fresh breeze from the lake to moder- 
ate the noonday heat, and the nights, 
even in summer, are fresh and cool. 
The humidity is very slight, and there 
is hardly any dust. An additional re- 
commendation may be found in the 
possibility of enjoying sea-bathing in 
the lake all the year round. The town 
is well supplied with articles of food by 
the Railway and the Canal, and the 
fish, which abound in Lake Timsah, 
are finer and better flavoured than 
those caught in the Mediterranean. 

The traveller may continue his 
voyage from Ismailia to Port Said 
either in some large steamer on her 
way through the Canal, or in the small 
steam launch which runs daily. In- 
formation as to the hours of departure, 
&c, had better be obtained at the 
transit office of the Company. 

Passing out at the N.E. corner of 
Lake Timsah, the Canal enters almost 
immediately the heights of El Guisr. 
On the right is seen the entrance of a 
small canal leading to the stone quar- 
ries in the Plateau des Hyenes, and 
on the left the branch canal which 
joins the Maritime Canal to the Fresh- 
Water Canal. The difference of level, 
17 feet, is adjusted by means of two 
locks, one just below Ismailia, and 
the other near the upper part of the 
town. By^ means of this connecting 



canal between the channel already 
dug from Port Said to Lake Timsah 
and the Fresh- Water Canal, water 
transit between the two seas was be- 
gun in 1865. During the Abyssinian 
war extensive use was made of this 
route for the conveyance of stores. 

The seuil of El Guisr (pronounced 
Geersh) (5.^ m.) is the highest point 
in the Isthmus. It is about 6 miles 
'long, and from 60 to 65 feet above the 
level of the sea. The soil is composed 
almose entirely of loose sand, inter- 
spersed with a few beds of hard sand 
and clay. The upper surface was 
removed by the forced contingent of 
fellaheen, who, with the primitive 
tools common to the Egyptian la- 
bourer, viz., hands for grubbing up the 
soil, and baskets for carrying it away, 
excavated a channel from 25 to 30 feet 
wide, and about 5 feet below the level 
of the sea. When they were with- 
drawn, the work was continued by M. 
Couvreux, who completed the cutting 
to its full width, and. to a depth of 10 
feet below the sea-level by means of 
machines of his own invention, called 
excavateurs. The escavateur was a 
species of locomotive engine, working 
behind it a chain of dredge-buckets 
on an inclined plane ; on reaching the 
top of the plane, the buckets opened at 
the bottom and discharged their con- 
tents into waggons ; these were drawn 
by locomotives to the top of the em- 
bankment, along a well-arranged net- 
work of railways. The remaining 16 
feet of depth were dredged out in the 
ordinary way; the soil being taken 
away in screw-lighters and discharged 
in the shallows of Lake Timsah. At 
the top of the embankment, on the W. 
side, is the encampment of El Guisr, 
reached from the Canal by a staircase 
of a hundred steps. When the cutting 
was in progress, it presented a very 
lively and busy scene, being one of 
the largest stations on the line, and 
arranged with great taste and an eye 
to effect. The gardens were a sight 
in themselves, and they were entirely 
the result of the water pumped from 
Ismailia. 

On issuing from the heights of El 
Guisr, the Canal runs a short way along 



Egypt 



ROUTE 7. — THE SUEZ CANAL. 



243 



the edge of an offshoot of Lake Bal- 
lah, and then enters the cutting of El 
Ferdane (4J m.), a sandy promontory 
running out into the lake, about 1J m. 
long. This cutting was excavated in 
the same manner as that of El Guisr. 
A rather sharp turn now leads into 
Lake Ballali, the principal among a 
series of shallow lakes, dotted here and } 
therewith sandy tamarisk-tufted islets, | 
through which the Canal passes before 
entering the low sand-hills of Kan- 
tarah. These lakes are more or less 
full of water, according to the time of 
year ; full in the winter after the in- 
undation, shallow in the summer. 

The small passenger-boats generally 
stop long enough at Kantarah (11 m.), 
to admit of refreshment being obtained 
at the restaurant. The station is 
situated at the highest point of the 
chain of low sand-hills which divide 
Lake Menzaleh from the smaller in- 
land lakes. It was one of the principal 
caravan stations on the road between 
Egypt and Syria, and the name Kan- 
tarah, which in Arabic means a 
"bridge" or "ford," is explained by 
its position as the point where the 
lakes and shallows that intervene 
between the eastern and western de- 
sert are crossed. This road was 
once one of the greatest highways 
of the old world, and served as 
the causeway to succeeding armies 
of Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, 
Greeks, Eomans, Arabs, and French. 
The traveller from Egypt to Syria by 
way of El Areesh and Gaza still follows 
this road, and crosses the Canal at 
this point by a ferry. Ten miles to 
the W. of Kantarah is Tel el Daph- 
neh, whose mounds mark the site of 
Daphne, the Tahpannes of the Bible. 

1J m. from Kantarah the Canal 
enters Lake Me7iznleh, and continues 
in a straight line through it for 27 m. 
to Port Said. The banks here are but 
slightly above the level of the Canal 
and the lake, and from the deck of a 
big steamer there is an unbounded 
view over a wide expanse of lake and 
morass, studded here and there with 
islets, and at times rendered gay and 
brilliant with innumerable flocks — 
regiments we might almost call them, 



in such perfect and almost unbroken 
order are they drawn up — of rosy 
pelicans, scarlet flamingoes, and snow- 
white spoonbills ; geese, ducks, herons, 
and other birds, abound. The whole 
of the channel through Lake Menzaleh 
was almost entirely excavated by the 
dredges, the soil having been in no 
instance more than a foot or two above 
the level of the lake, and in many 
instances below it. Where it was 
necessary to remove some surface soil 
before there was water enough for the 
dredges to float, it was done by the 
natives of Lake Menzaleh, a hardy and 
peculiar race, whose constant practice 
in digging canals, and making em- 
bankments to keep out the inundation, 
rendered them peculiarly apt at the 
work, especially when it came to 
digging under water. The following 
account shows their method of pro- 
ceeding : — " They place themselves in 
files across the channel. The men in 
the middle of the file have their feet 
and the lower part of their legs in the 
water. These men lean forward and 
take in their arms large clods of earth, 
which they have previously dug up 
below the water with a species of pick- 
axe called a fass, somewhat resembling 
a short big hoe. The clods are passed 
from man to man to the bank, where 
other men stand with their backs 
turned and their arms crossed behind 
them, so as to make a sort of primitive 
hod. As soon as each of these has 
had enough clods piled on his back he 
walks off, bent almost double, to the 
further side of the bank, and there 
opening his arms, lets his load fall 
through to the ground. It is unneces- 
sary to add that this original metier 
requires the absence of all clothing." 
— 0. Bitt, 'Histoire de ITsthme de 
Suez.' 

Into the channel thus cut the 
dredges were floated. Some of the 
inventions in connection with the 
working of these dredges deserve 
mention. They were not exclusively 
employed in this part of the Canal, 
but as it was where they were first 
tried, and where they did the most 
work, it seems the most fitting place 
to speak of them. First among them 
m 2 



244 



ROUTE 7. CAIRO TO THE SUEZ CANAL. 



Sect. II. 



was the long couloir (long duct), an ; 
iron spout of semi-elliptical form, 230 ; 
feet long, 5| wide, and 2 deep ; by 1 
means of which a dredger working in 
the centre of the channel could dis- 1 
charge its contents beyond the bank. \ 
This enormous spout was supported j 
oh an iron framework, which rested 
partly on the dredge and partly on a j 
floating lighter. The dredgings, when i 
dropped into the upper end of this J 
spout, were assisted in their progress 
down it by water supplied by a rotary j 
pump, and by an endless chain, to ! 
which were fixed scrapers — large pieces j 
of wood that fitted the inside of the! 
spout, and forced on pieces of stone j 
and clay. By these means the spouts 
could deliver their dredgings at almost ! 
a horizontal line, and the water had 
the further good effect of reducing the 
dredgings to a semi-liquid condition, 
and thus causing them to spread 
themselves over a larger surface, and 
settle down better. The work done 
by these long-spouted dredges was 
extraordinary : 80,000 cubic yards of 
soil a month was the average, but as 
much as 120,000 was sometimes 
accomplished. When the banks were 
too high for the long spouts to be 
employed, another ingenious machine, i 
called an elevateur, was introduced. I 
This consisted of an inclined plane 
running upwards from over the water 
line, and supported on an iron frame, 
the lower part of which rested over 
the water on a steam float, and the 
upper part on a platform moving on 
rails along the bank. The plane car- 
ried a tramway, along which ran an 
axle on wheels, worked by the engine 
of the steam float. From this axle 
hung four chains. As soon as a 
lighter containing seven huge boxes 
filled with dredgings was towed under 
the lower part of this elevateur, the 
chains hanging from the axle were 
hooked to one of the boxes, and the 
machine being set in motion the box 
was first raised, and then carried along 
swinging beneath the axle to the top 
of the plane; then, by a self-acting 
contrivance, it tilted over and emptied 
its contents over the bank. It was 
then run down again, dropped into 



its place in the lighter, and the 
operation repeated with the next box. 
No such dredging operations had ever 
been undertaken before : those on the 
Clyde took 21 years to accomplish, 
and the whole amount only equalled 
about three and a half times as much 
as was here often done in a month. 
M. de Lesseps, in one of his lecturt s, 
illustrated the amount of excavation 
done in one month — 2,763,000 cubic 
yards— by the following graphic com- 
parison : — " I dare say few amongst 
you realise what is represented by this 
enormous amount of excavation. Were 
it plactd in the Place Vendome it 
would fill the whole square, and rise 
five times higher than the surrounding 
houses; or, if laid out between the 
Arc de Triomphe and the Place de la 
Concorde, it would cover the entire 
length and breadth of the Champs 
Elysees, a distance equal to a mile 
and a quarter, and reach to the top of 
the trees on either side." 

The course of the old Pelusiac 
branch of the Nile is crossed at Kil. 
34, a few miles before reaching i?as 
el HcJi (pronounced Aysli) (18 m.), the 
next station to Kantsrah. It is a 
small islet of oozy mud, whose height 
has been raised above the level of the 
inundation by dredgings from the 
Canal. Not far off to the left in 
the lake are the islands of Toonah 
and Tennes (Tennesus), both with 
remains. Some way to the right, 
beyond the marshy plain and near 
the sea, are some ruins marking the 
site of Pelusium. 

Nothing of interest occurs to break 
the monotonous course of the Canal, 
until, bending gradually to the E. and 
opening out to a width of nearly 
1000 feet, it enters the harbour of Port 
Said, and, passing the port and the 
town on the left, joins the open sea 
beyond the breakwater. 

Port Said (10 m.) (Pop. 8,000 : 
Hotel du Louvre ; Grand Hotel de 
France; but neither is to be recom- 
mended). English Vice-Consul, Dr. 
Zarb, on the Marina, facing the sea. 

The through steamers between Eu- 
rope and the East, of the P. and O. Co., 



Egypt 



ROUTE 7. — THE SUEZ CANAL— PORT SAID. 



245 



the Messageries, the Austrian Lloyd, 
the Eubattino, and others, all stop at 
Port Said. The steamers of the Mes- 
sageries, Austrian Lloyd, Eussian 
Steam Navigation and Azizieh Cos., 
between Alexandria, the Syrian coast, 
and Constantinople, call at Port Said, 
in 18 hours from Alexandria, and 15 
from Jaffa, and generally stay from 
8 to 10 hours in the harbour. " Tick- 
ets, with information as to times of 
sailing and rates of passage, can be 
procured at the offices of the respective 
companies in the town ; but the tra- 
veller will do well to inform himself 
on these points before leaving Cairo or 
Alexandria. To the general visitor 
Port Said offers few objects of interest 
in its present state, and a walk of two 
or three hours on shore during the 
stay of the steamer will more than j 
satisfy the curiosity of most people. 
The chief interest of the place lies j 
in its position, and the story of its j 
foundation and growth. 

From the mouth of the Damietta ! 
branch of the Nile to the Gulf of j 
Pelnsiura there stretches a low belt ! 
of sand, varying in width from 200 to ! 
300 yards, and serving to separate the ! 
Mediterranean from the waters of the j 
Lake Menzaleh; though often, when j 
the lake is full and the waves of the \ 
Mediterranean are high, the two meet 
across this slight boundary line. In I 
the beginning of the month of April j 
1859 a small body of men, who might 
well be called the pioneers of the Suez 
Canal, headed by M. Laroche, landed 
at that spot of this narrow sandy slip, 
which had been chosen as the starting- 
point of the Canal from the Mediter- 
ranean, and the site of the city and 
port intended ultimately to rival Alex- 
andria. It owed its selection not to its 
being the spot from which the shortest 
line across the Isthmus could be drawn 
—that would have been the Gulf of 
Pelusium— but to its being that point 
of the coast to which deep water 
approached the nearest. Here S 
metres of water, equal to about 26 
feet, the contemplated depth of the 
Canal, were found at a distance of less 
than 2 miles ; at the Gulf of Pelusium 
that dtpth only exited at more than 



5 m. from the coast. The spot was 
called Port Said, in honour of the then 
Viceroy. On the 25th of April M. 
de Lesseps, surrounded by 10 or 15 
Europeans and some 100 native work- 
men, gave the first stroke of the spade 
to the future B^sphorus between Asia 
and Africa. Hard, indeed, must have 
been the life of the first workers on 
this desolate slip of land. The nearest 
place from which fresh water could be 
procured was Damietta, a distance of 
30 m. It was brought thence across 
the Lake Menzaleh in Arab boats, 
but calms or storms often delayed the 
arrival of the looked-for store ; some- 
times, indeed, it was altogether lost, 
and the powers of endurance of the 
little band were sorely tried. After 
a time distilHng machines were put 
up, and in 1863 water was received 
through a pipe from the Fresh- Water 
Canal, which had been completed to 
the centre of the Isthmus. 

The first thing to be done at Port 
Said was to make the groimd on which 
to build the future town. This was 
done by dredging in the shallows of 
the lake close to the belt of sand : the 
same operation serving at once to form 
an inner port, and to extend the area 
and raise the height of the dry land. 
When the fellaheen were withdrawn, 
and recourse had to machinery for 
supplying their place, great impetus 
was given to Port Said. It soon be- 
came perhaps the largest workshop in 
the world. The huge machines, which 
were to do the work hitherto done by 
hands and baskets, were brought piece 
by piece from France, and put to- 
gether in long ranges of sheds erected 
along the inner port. In another part 
sprang up the works where Messrs. 
Dussaud were to make the huge con- 
crete blocks for the construction of the 
piers of the harbour ; at the same 
time the dredging of the harbour was' 
commenced. 

Thus sprang up in 10 years, on a site 
than which it would have been difficult 
to find one more disadvantageous, a 
town of nearly 10,000 inhabitants, regu- 
larly laid out in streets and squares, 
with docks, quays, churches, hospitals, 
mosks, hotels, and all the adjuncts of 



246 



EOTJTE 7. CAIRO TO THE SUEZ CAS"AL. 



Sect. II. 



a sea-port, and with the most easily 
approached and safest harbour along 
the coast. Fresh water is supplied 
from Ismailia, and a big reservoir, 
called the " Chateau d'Eau," holding 
sufficient for three days' consumption, 
provides against a stoppage of the 
supply through accident to the pipes. 
The central harbour, lying between 
the outer port and the Canal is called 
the " Grand Bassin Ismail." Joining 
it on the TV. are the " Bassin Cherif," 
the "Bassin des Ateliers," formerly 
the busiest place in the town, but now 
very nearly deserted, and the " Bassin 
du Commerce." The principal part of 
the town lies to the N. and W. of the 
last-named. The best houses are situ- 
ated on the Marina, or " Quai Euge- 
nie," close to the sea-shore. A short 
distance beyond this to the TV. is the 
Arab village, on the strip of sand be- 
tween the sea and the lake. 

The outer port is formed by the two 
enormous breakwaters or moles, al- 
ready referred to. That on the wes- 
ternmost side juts out at right angles 
to the shore and perpendicularly to the 
line of the Canal, and runs straight 
out to sea for a distance of 2726 
yards ; the eastern mole stands about 
1500 yards to the E. of the other, and 
runs towards it in a gradually con- 
verging line for 1962 yards. The en- 
trance to the outer port is thus about 
a quarter of a mile wide, and the 
space enclosed within it a triangular 
area of about 550 acres. The depth 
of water at the entrance is 30 feet, 
and the channel through it to the 
inner harbour about 300 feet wide and 
26 deep. A red light is placed at the 
end of the TV. mole, and a green light 
at the end of the E. mole. 

At the commencement of the TV. 
mole, or rather on the sea-shore close 
to it, is the lighthouse. The tower, 
which is nearly 160 feet high, is com- 
posed of a solid mass of concrete. On 
the top is the lantern, about 20 feet 
high, containing an electric light, 
flashing every 3 seconds, and visible 
at a distance of 20 miles. Three other 
lighthouses of the same height, though 
differing in construction, have been 
erected along the 125 miles of coast j 



between Port Said and Alexandria : 
one at the entrance to the Damietta 
branch of the Nile, with a white light 
of the second order, flashing every 
minute; another at Burlos, a fixed 
light of the first order ; and the third 
at Rosetta, with a 10-second revolving 
light of the second order. 

The moles are built of concrete 
blocks. These blocks, each of which 
weighs 22 tons, and has a dimension of 
12 cubic yards, are composed of two- 
thirds sand dredged from the har- 
bour, and one-third hydraulic lime 
from Theil, in France, mixed with 
salt water. They were dropped into 
the sea from lighters three at a 
time, till the water-line was reached, 
and then lifted into their places by 
cranes. The sand, which drifts along 
the coast from the Damietta mouth 
of the Nile, has silted through the 
western mole, and formed a con- 
siderable bank along its inner side 
near the shore end ; but its encroach- 
ments are easily kept under by occa- 
sional dredging, and the bank will in 
time be itself a barrier against the 
silting in. A similar cause has con- 
siderably extended the shore seaward 
to the TV. of this mole, especially in 
the angle formed by it and the coast. 
Another bank of sand has been formed 
too in the open sea, a little to the N.E. 
of the eastern mole, by the dredgings 
from the harbour- which were brought 
out in hoppers and dropped there. 

Port Said no longer presents the 
same busy appearance that it did when 
it was the head-quarters of the en- 
gineering work of the Canal, but the 
increasing traffic through the Isthmus 
must always impart a certain activity 
to the place. In 1859, the first year 
of its existence, it was visited by 28 
vessels, with an aggregate tonnage of 
6040 tons. In 1871, the number of 
vessels that entered the harbour, ex- 
clusive of vessels of war, was 1275, 
and then- tonnage 927,796 tons. 

Pelicans, flamingoes, herons, and all 
kinds of aquatic fowl, abound in the 
shallows of Lake Menzaleh, especially 
in the months of February, March, 
and April ; and the sportsman who is 
anxious to spend a few days in their 



Egypt. route 8. — caieo to 



DAMIETTA BY WATER. 247 



pursuit may make Port Said his head- 
quarters, luring a native boat for a few 
days, and visiting - different parts of 
the lake. When the lake is full, in 
the winter months, there is a regular 
service of native boats between Port 
Said and Damietta. 36 miles distant. 



ROUTE 8. 

CAIEO, BY WATER, TO DAMIETTA. 

Miles. 

Cairo, or Boolak, to the Barrage 
at the head of the Delta (see 



Ete. 5) 16 

Bershoom, E. bank 9 

Benha-el-Assal (Athribis), E. 

bank 20 

Entrance of Canal of Moez . . 2§ 

Sahragt (Natho), E. bank . . . . 17 
Zifteh and Mit Ghumr, E. & W. 6 

Semenhood (Sebennytus), W. . . 26 
Bebayt el Hagar (Iseum), W. . . 6| 



Mansoorah and Talkah, E. & W. 6 J 
[Excursion by the Bahr es 
Sogheiyer, or Canal of Men- 
zaleh, to Menzaleh and the 
Lake.] 

Shirbin, W 22 

Faraskoor, E 22 

Damietta, E 12 

165i 

This is a very pleasant excursion 
in the months of February or March, 
especially for those who wish to get 
good wildfowl-shooting in Lake Men- 
zaleh. The time taken to reach Da- 



mietta will depend on the wind, and 
the stoppages by the way, but unless 
there is a strong N. wind blowing, 
four or five days to a week will be 
sufficient. It will be necessary at Da- 
mietta to hire a native boat for going 
on the lake to shoot, and those who 
are anxious to make a good bag 
should have a small English gig or 
punt drawing very little water. 

The point of the Delta was formerly 
a little below the palace of Shoobra, 
where the Pelusiac branch turned off 
to the N.N.E. towards Bubastis. It 
is now at the junction of the Bosetta 
and Damietta branches. These two, 
the ancient Bolbitine and Bucolic (or 
Phatmetic) branches, are said by He- 
rodotus to have been " made by the 
hand of man," and are the only two 
remaining, the others having either 
entirely disappeared, or being dry in 
summer ; which would seem to explain 
an apparently unintelligible prophecy 
of Isaiah, that man should go over the 
Nile " dry-shod." (Isaiah xi. 15.) 

Berslioom is famous for its figs ; and 
a little beyond, on the opposite bank, 
inland in the Delta, is Pharaooneeyah, 
from which the canal of Menoof, con- 
necting the two branches of the Nile, 
derived its name. This canal began 
about 4 m. further N., close to the 
village of Beershems, and, passing by 
Menoof, fell into the Bosetta branch 
at Nader. About 30 years ago it was 
found necessary to close its eastern 
entrance, in consequence of its carry- 
ing off the water into the Bosetta 
branch ; and other navigable canals 
have been used for communication 
with the interior. Four or five miles 
lower down is the canal of Karinayn, 
another noble work. At Ej J affareeyah 
it separates into two channels, one going 
to the W. to Tantah, and the other by 
Mahallet el Kebeer to the sea, which 
it enters at the old Sebennytic mouth, 
and the Pineptimi ostium, one of the 
false mouths of the Nile. The western 
channel that goes to Tantah is only 
navigable for small craft after Janu- 
1 ary ; but the other is sufficiently deep 
{ to admit boats of 200 ardebs' burthen 
I the whole year. It is, however, closed 



248 ROUTE 8. CAIRO TO 

by a bridge and sluices at Santah, 
below Ej J'fTareeyah ; and here goods 
are transferred to smaller boats for 
Nabaro, and those places with which 
the communication is kept up by other 
channels. This is the general prin- 
ciple of all the large canals of the 
Delta, and has been adopted in that 
of Mooz, and sometimes in that of 
Alexandria. 

Benha-el-Assal, " Benha of honey," 
is the successor of Athribis, whose 
mounds are seen to the N. They still 
bear the name of Atreeb. 

For description of Benha, see Ete. 
6. Bailway to Cairo and Alexandria, 
Zagazig, &c. 

To the N. of this town is the en- 
trance to the Toorat Moez, or Canal 
of Moez, which takes the water to 
Zagazig, and thence to the Lake 
Menzaleh by the old Tanitic channel. 

Continuing down the Damietta 
branch, no place of any great interest 
occurs between Athribis and Seben- 
nytus. Sahragt on the E. occupies 
the site of Natho, and is called in 
Coptic Nathopi. The isle of Natho 
was on the other side of the Nile. 
Zifteh and Mit Ghumr stand on oppo- 
site sides of the river ; they have the 
rank of bender or town. 

From Zifteh on the E. bank there is 
a railway, via Tantah and Korasheeah, 
to Mahallet, at which place branch off 
lines to Tantah (see Ete. 6) on the main 
Alexandria and Cairo line, Semen- 
hood and Talkah opposite Mansoorah, 
and Damietta (see Kte. 9), and Dessook 
(see Ete. 5). Mit Damees is the Pitern- 
sisot of the Copts. Benneh, in Coptic j 
Pineban or Penouan, has the mounds of i 
an old town, but no remains, and is now j 
a small village. Abooseer is larger, and j 
has more extensive mounds, marking j 
the site of Busiris. It is called by 
the Copts Bosiri. The mounds extend 
beyond the village to the westward, j 
and a short distance beyond is another ' 
mound, said to have belonged to the 
old town. i 

Semenlwod is a place of some size, 
with the usual bazaars of the. large 
towns of Egypt, and famous for its 



DAMIETTA BY WATER. Sect. IT. 

pottery, which is sent to Cairo. Here 
are the mounds of Sebennytus, the 
city of Sem (Gem or Gom), the Egyp- 
tian Hercules. In Coptic it is called 
Gemnouti, which implies " Gem, the 
God," and shows the origin of the 
present as well as the orthography of 
the ancient name ; and it is remark- 
able that the name of the god begins 
with the word noute in many legends. 
Semenhood is a station on the line 
between Tantah and Talkah. 

Bebayt-el-Hagar, the ancient Iseum, 
is little more than 6 m. below Semen- 
hood, opposite Weesh, and about If m. 
from the river. The remains are very 
interesting, and larger than in any 
other town of the Delta. They are 
inferior in style to those of San (Tanis}, 
being of a Ptolemaic time ; but the 
number of sculptured blocks, and the 
beauty of the granite used in this 
temple, are remarkable ; and if Bebayt 
does not boast the number of obelisks, 
which must have had a very grand 
effect at Tanis, it has the merit of 
possessing rich and elaborate sculp- 
tures. To the antiquary it is particu- 
larly interesting, from its presenting 
the name of the deity worshipped 
there, and that of the ancient town. 
Isis was evidently the divinity of the 
city, and it was from this that the 
Greeks and Eomans gave it the name 
of Ision or Iseum. By the Egyptians 
it was called Hebai or Hebait, " the 
city of assembly," which has been 
preserved by the modern inhabitants 
in the name Bebayt ; with the affix 
el Hagar, " of the stone," from its 
numerous stone remains. 

The temple, like many others in 
Egypt, stood in an extensive square 
about 1501) by 1000 ft., surrounded by 
a crude-brick wall, doubtless with 
stone gateway ; which was the temenos 
or sacred enclosure, and was planted 
with trees, as Herodotus informs us in 
describing that of Bubastis. To this 
might be applied the name of the grove 
denounced in the Bible as an abomina- 
tion to the God of Israel (Exod. xxxiv. 
13 ; Deut. xii. 3 ; 2 Kings xvii. 10). 

The temple itself was about 400 ft. 
long, or 600 to the outer vestibule, by 



Ejypt. 



ROUTE 8. — BEBAYT-EL-HAGAR. 



249 



about 200 in breadth, and built of 
granite, some red, some grey, of a 
very beautiful quality, and covered 
with sculptures, in intaglio and in 
relief. Many of the blocks are of very 
great size; and thougli the temple 
has been entirely destroyed, and the 
broken stones forcibly torn from their 
places, and thrown in the greatest 
confusion one upon the other, it is 
easy to form an idea of its former 
magnificence. 1 1 is entirely of granite 
— walls, columns, roofs, and doorways ; 
affording a striking instance of the 
use of this s:one in the Delta; for 
though the building is so large, no 
block of the ordinary kinds employed 
in Upper Egypt has here been ad- 
mitted. The whole appears to have 
been erected by Ptolemy Philadelphus, 
whose name occurs in all the dedica- 
tions, and wiio alone is seen present- 
ing offerings to the gods. The prin- 
cipal divinities are Isis (the deity of 
the place, who has always the title 
"Lady of Hebai-t"), Osiris (who fre- 
quently accompanies her, and is gene- 
rally called " Lord of Hebai-t"), 
Anubis, Savak (the crocodile-headed 
god), and some others whose legends 
are lost, and who may possibly be 
characters of Osiris. 

Unfortunately it has been so com- 
pletely destroyed that the plan cannot 
easily be recognised ; and such is the 
mass of broken blocks, that you can 
go down amongst them to the depth 
of 12 and 15 ft. ; below which are the 
numerous abodes of jackals, hares, 
and other animals, who alone rejoice 
in the ruinous state to which this 
building has been reduced. Nothing 
seems to be in its original position. 
The doorways are seen as well as 
parts of cornices, ceilings, architraves, 
and walls, but all in confusion, and 
hurled from their places; and one is 
surprised at the force and labour that 
must have been used for the destruc- 
tion of this once splendid building. 
The ceilings have been studded with ' 
the usual five-pointed Egyptian stars. I 
The cornices have the Egyptian tri- j 
glyphs with the ovals of the king be- j 
tween them , but in some the name of : 
" Isis, the beautiful mother-goddess," 



is substituted for the royal prenomen, 
and is accompanied by the nomen of 
Ptolemy. 

On one of the w T alls, about the 
centre of the temple, is represented 
the sacred boat, or ark, of Isis ; and 
in the shrine it bears the " Lady of 
Hebai-t," seated between two figures 
of goddesses, like the Jewish Cheru- 
bim, who seem to protect her w-ith 
their wings. They occur in two com- 
partments, one over the other, at the 
centre of the shrine ; and these figures 
were doubtless the holy and unseen 
contents of the sacred repository, which 
no profane eye was permitted to be- 
hold, and which were generally co- 
vered with a veil. In the upper one 
Isis is seated on a lotus-flower, and 
the two figures are standing ; in the 
other all three are seated, and below 
are four kneeling figures, one with 
a man's, the other three with jackals' 
heads, beating their breasts. At either 
end of the boat is the head of the 
goddess, and the legend above shows 
it to have belonged to her. The king 
stands before it, presenting an offering 
of incense to Isis. The stone has been 
broken, and part of the picture lias 
been taken away ; but on a fragment 
below, that appears to have belonged 
to it, is represented a sledge on trucks, 
with the usual ring attached to the 
end, for drawing it into the selcps, of 
which this doubtless marks the site. 
It was probably one of those isolated 
sanctuaries that stood near the centre 
of the naos, or body of the temple. 

The sculptures on some portions of 
the building are in relief, — an unusual 
mode of sculpturing granite, which 
shows the great expense and labour 
bestowed on the temple of the god- 
dess, and the importance of her temple. 
That it was very handsome is evident ; . 
and to it might be applied the remark 
made by Herodotus respecting the 
temple of Bubastis — that many were 
larger, but few so beautiful. Besides 
the unusual mode of sculpturing gra- 
nite in relief, the size of some of the 
hieroglyphics is remarkable, being no 
less than 14 in. long, and all wrought 
with great care. The cornices varied 
in different parts of the building; and 
m 3 



250 



ROUTE 8. — CAIEO TO DAMIETTA BY WATER. 



Sect. II. 



one, perhaps of the wall of the sekos 
itself, has the heads of Isis surmounted 
by a shrine alternating with the oval 
of the king, in which, however, the 
hieroglyphics have not been inserted. 

On the lower compartment of the 
walls, in this part of the temple, are 
traces of the. usual figures of the 
god Nilus in procession, found by Mr. 
Harris to represent the nomes of Egypt. 
Between each are water-plants, and the 
figures of the god have a cluster of 
those of the upper and of the lower 
country, alternately, on their heads. 
Not far from this are the capitals of 
large columns, in the form of Isis' 
heads, bearing a shrine, like those of 
Denderah. 

There appears to be a very great 
variety in the sculptures, which mostly 
represent offerings to Isis and the con- 
templar deities, as in other Ptolemaic 
buildings ; and in one place the hawk- 
headed Hor-Hat conducts the king into 
the presence of the goddess of the 
temple. But the battle-scenes and 
grand religious processions of old times 
are wanting here, as in other temples 
of a Ptolemaic and Koman epoch ; 
and though the sculptures are rich and 
highly finished, they are deficient in 
the elegance of a Pharaonic age,— the 
fault of all Greco-Egyptian sculpture, 
and one which strikes every eye accus- 
tomed to monuments erected before the 
decadence of art in Egypt. 

The modern village stands to the 
N.W., a little beyond the enclosure 
of the temenos ; and near it is a lake 
containing water all the year, except 
after unusually low inundations, which 
was probably once attached to the 
temple, like those of Karnak and other 
places. 

Inland from Bebayt el Hagar is 
Benoob, which occupies the site of 
Onuphis. 

Mansoorah is a large town, capital of 
the province of Dakaleeyah. Kail way 
to Zagazig (Kte. 9), and thence to 
Cairo, Suez, &c. (Kte. 7). Immedi- 
ately on the opposite bank of the river 
is Talkah, whence is a railway to 
Tantah (Rte. 6), via the towns of Se- 
menhood, Mahallet el Kebeer, and 



Mahallet el Rokh, and to Damietta 
via, Shirbin. Mansoorah was founded 
by Melek el Kamel in 1221, as Abool- 
feda states, at the time of the siege 
of Damietta, to serve as a point 
d'appui, and was called Mansoora, 
"the Victorious," from the defeat of 
the Crusaders in that spot, at the time 
the city was building. It was there 
that Louis IX. was imprisoned, after 
his disastrous retreat and capture in 
1250. The spot where the Crusaders 
pitched their tents in 1221 and 1250 
is just opposite the new palace, built 
for one of the Khedive's younger 
sons. Cotton is the principal article 
of trade at Mansoorah, and there are 
several cotton-gin factories in the town ; 
cotton and linen stuffs, sail-cloth, &c, 
are also made there. 

Mansoorah has no ruins, and is not 
supposed to occupy the site of any 
ancient city. To the S. of the town 
is the entrance to the Canal of Men- 
zaleh, or, as it is called by the natives, 
the Bahr es Sogheiyer, " Little River," 
leading by Ashmoon into Lake Men- 
zaleh. It is supposed to follow the 
course of the old Mendesian branch of 
the Nile. 



MANSOORAH BY THE BAHE ES SOGHEIYER, 
OR CANAL OF MENZALEH, TO MEN- 
ZALEH AND THE LAKE. 

Miles. 

Mahallet Damaneh . . 8 
Ashmoon or Oshmoon . . 9£ 
Menzaleh 19J 

37 

The Canal of Menzaleh, or of Ash- 
moon, more commonly called the Bahr 
es Sogheiyer, though containing water 
the whole year, is only navigable the 
whole way during the winter and 
early spring. In its widest part near 
Mansoorah it is only 70 or 80 ft. broad, 
and below Ashmoon it is much nar- 
rower. Boats cannot pass into it 
from the Nile, and it is necessary 
to hire one from among those to be 
found on it at Mansoorah. If there 
are not more than one or two persons 
however, the sandal of the dahabeeah, 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 8. — CANAL OF MENZALEH. 



251 



if tolerably large and provided with, a 
sail, will hold all that is necessary for 
the excursion, a tent included for 
sleeping in at night ; and this sandal 
can be carried from the river to the 
canal. But a larger boat is better, as 
the canal being very winding and the 
banks high, it is difficult for a boat 
low in the water to catch any wind. 
The excursion is not one of any great 
interest, and Ete. 10 is an easier way 
of reaching Lake Menzaleh. 

Leaving Mansoorah the country on 
the banks of the canal is very rich 
and fertile. Especially remarkable is 
the number of trees — oaks, sycamore- 
figs, weeping and common willows, 
and mulberry-trees, recently planted. 
Numerous sakeeyahs line the banks, 
and a carefully arranged system of 
tiny ditches carries the water inland. 
The first large village is Mahallet 
Ddmaneh. A few miles inland to the 
S. are the ruins of Tel-et-Tmei. 

Tel-et-Tmei occupies the site of 
Thmuis ; which is at once pointed out 
by its Arabic name, as well as by the 
Coptic Thmoui. Some suppose it to 
be the same as Leontopolis. A large 
monolith is still standing on the site 
of Thmuis. It is of granite, and mea- 
sures 21 ft. 9 in. high, 13 ft. broad, 
and 11 ft. 7 in. deep ; and within, it 
is 19 ft. 3 in. high, 8 ft. broad, and 
8 ft. 3 in. deep. In the hieroglyphics 
is the prenomen of Amasis, and men- 
tion seems to be made of the gods 
Neph and Moui (Hercules?). Jo- 
sephus says that Titus, on his way 
from Alexandria to Judaea, passed by 
Thmuis. He went by land to Nico- 
polis, and then, putting his troops on 
board long ships, went up the Nile by 
the Mendesian province to the city of- 
Thmuis. 

Abut 5 m. S.W. by S. of Ashmoon 
is Mit-Fdres, whose mounds indicate 
the site of an old town. 

Ashmoon, or, as Aboolfeda writes it, 
Oshmoom, — Oshmoom-Tanah, or Osh- 
moom-er-Roo-man ("of the pomegra- 
nates "),— was in his time a large city, 
with bazaars, baths, and large mosks, 
and the capital of the Dahkala and 



Bashmoor provinces. It is supposed 
to occupy the site of Mendes, but now 
presents nothing of interest. The 
only remains are of Roman time, con- 
sisting of a few small broken columns, 
fragments of granite, burnt bricks, and 
pottery, amidst mounds of some ex- 
tent but of no great height. 

The canal below Ashmoon becomes 
very narrow, and the trees often meet 
above it. No other place of interest 
occurs between this and Menzaleh. 
Mit-en-Nasdrah probably occupies the 
site of an ancient town, judging from 
its distinctive appellation "of the 
Christians." Berimbdl is a large vil- 
lage, with fine trees. The stream here 
is not 20 yards wide. Miniet-Silseel 
was formerly of much greater extent 
and more flourishing than at present, 
as the style of its houses, its broken 
minarets, and its brick walls attest ; 
and Gemeleeyah is distinguished from 
afar by its lofty minaret. 

On the canal grow numerous reeds 
and water-plants, among which is a 
Cyperus. It is found principally on 
the N. bank, where it has the benefit 
of the sun, and only at the eastern 
part of the canal. It has been mis- 
taken for the papyrus, and has led to 
the belief that this last grows in the 
vicinity of the lake Menzaleh. In 
Arabic it is called dus, a name given 
also to the Cyperus dives; and both 
are used for making baskets and an 
ordinary kind of mat. 

The principal produce grown in the 
immediate neighbourhood of the canal 
is flax, cotton, simsim, rice, &c. ; there 
i s comparatively little wheat, the land of 
the Delta in general being considered 
inferior as a corn-growing country to 
Upper Egypt. In consequence wheat 
is much dearer to the N. than to the 
S. of Cairo. 

Menzaleh stands on the canal, about 
12 m. from its entrance into the lake. 
It is supposed to occupy the site of 
Panephysis ; and near the point of 
land projecting to the N. into the 
lake some have placed Papremis, the 
City of Mars. Menzaleh has no re- 
mains. It is a busy lively-looking 
place, and with its minaretted mosks, 



252 



ROUTE 8. CAIRO TO DAMIETTA BY WATER. 



Sect. II. 



bazaars, and some respectable houses, j 
presents an appearance little expected 
in such an out-of-the-way place. The 
canal, which contributes so much to 
its importance, and to its very exist- 
ence as a town, also gives it a cheerful 
aspect. There is a barrier which 
renders it necessary to hire another 
boat in order to go on to Lake Men- 
zaleh. In the autumn there is some j 
fever at Menzaleh, but in winter it is 
perfectly healthy, and at all times 
more so than Damietta. Its principal 
trade is in rice and fish. The former 
is of good quality, little inferior to 
that of Damietta and of Kafr el 
Bateekh. 

The fresh-water fish mostly come 
from the different branches of the 
Moez Canal leading from Zagazig to 
the lake ; the salt-water kinds being 
brought from Matareeah. 

The canal or Bahr es Sogheiyer 
runs into the lake 4 miles below Men- 
zaleh. Matareeah can be reached 
either by land, or by boat down to the 
mouth of the canal and thence over 
the lake. For Matareeah and Lake 
Menzaleh see Rte. 10. 



There is nothing worthy of remark 
between Mansoora and Damietta. 

Damietta or Damiat, once famous as 
the principal emporium on this side of 
the Delta, has sunk in importance, in 
proportion as Alexandria has increased, 
and now only carries on a little com- 
merce with Syria and Greece. Its rice 
and fisheries, however, enable it to 
enjoy a lucrative trade with the in- 
terior. It was once famous for its 
manufacture of leather and striped 
cloths, which last, when imported into 
Europe, received from it the name of 
dimity. The houses are well built, 
though inferior to those of Bosetta ; 
and the town is one of the largest in 
Egypt, with a population of 28,000 
souls. 

Damietta is known in the history of 
the Crusaders as the bulwark of Egypt 
on that side, and its capture was always 
looked upon as the most important ob- 
ject in their expeditions against that 
country. Aboolfeda says " it stood on 



the shore, where the river runs into the 
sea ; until the danger to which it was 
exposed, from the Franks, induced the 
Egyptian caliphs to change its position ; 
and the modern town was founded 
higher up the Nile, about 5 m. farther 
from the sea." According to Abool- 
feda, the old Damietta was destroyed, 
and the inhabitants were transferred to 
the village of Mensheeyah, which was 
built in its stead, and which afterwards 
succeeded to the importance and name 
of the ancient town ; and Michaelis, on 
the authority of Niebuhr, says Men- 
sheeyah is the name of one of the 
squares, or places, of the modern 
Damietta. The time of this change of 
position, and the destruction of the 
old town, are fixed by Aboolfeda in 
the year of the Hegira 648 (a.d. 1251). 
The old Damietta had been walled 
round and fortified by Motawukkel, 
the tenth of the Abbaside caliphs 
(about a.d. 850); and the new town 
was built by Baybers, the fourth 
sultan of the Baharite Memlooks. 

The ancient name of the original 
Damietta was Tamiathis, and the 
many antique columns and blocks 
found in the present town have pro- 
bably been brought from its ruins. 
They are principally in the mosks ; 
and on a slab used for the ablutions of 
the faithful, in the mosk of Aboolata 
(a short' way outside the town, on the 
E.), is a Greek inscription with the 
name of Tennesus. 

The Boyhaz, or mouth of the Nile 
where it joins the sea, is some little 
distance from Damietta. Damietta is 
perhaps the best head-quarters for 
shooting on Lake Menzaleh. For 
description of Lake Menzaleh see 
Bte. 10. 

It will be seen by a reference to 
Rte. 9, (a) and (13), that there are 
various places on the river at which 
the dahabeeah can be joined by rail. 



Egypt. route 9. — caiko to damietta by railway. - 



253 



ROUTE 9. 

CAIRO, BY RAIL, TO DAMIETTA, 

There are two routes to choose from : 
(a), via Zagazig and Mansoorah ; (J£), 
via, Tantah. 

Miles. 

(a) Cairo to Zagazig (see 

Rte. 7) 51| 

Zagazig to Mansoorah . . 46f 
Talkah (opp. Mansoorah) to 
Damietta 39 

137| 

The railway from Cairo to Zagazig 
Las been already described. On 
arriving at Zagazig there is a delay 
of an hour and a half hefore the train 
starts for Mansoorah, giving time for 
a brief visit to the ruins of Bubastis. 

There are no places of any interest 
or importance on the line from Zagazig 
to Mansoorah. 

Heheeyah Stat., 8 m. Short junction 
to Tel Phakoos, the ancient Phacusa. 

Aboo Kebeer Stat., 7 m. A short 
distance before reaching this station on 
the right is 

Harbayt or Heurbayt.. the ancient 
Pharbsethus, and the capital of a nome, 
to which it gave its name, between 
12 and 13 m. to the N.E. of Bubastis. 
It presents nothing to repay the trou- 
ble of a visit, and is of far less extent 
than the capital of the adjoining nome. 
The only stone remains are shafts of 
red granite columns of Roman time, 
and fragments of fine grey granite, 
apparently of an altar, and part of a 
statue ; which, with mounds and crude- 
brick ruins, are all that remain of the 
city. It stood on the Tanitic branch, 
and was a town of some consequence 
till a late time, and an episcopal see 
under the Lower Empire. It is still 



occupied in part by the modern vil- 
lage, which has retained the ancient 
name. 

Harbayt and Tel Phakoos are both 
situated on a canal that runs from 
Zagazig to San, and the latter place 
may be reached in a boat from Tel 
Phakoos; but the canal is navigable 
the whole way only in the winter 
months. 

El Booka Stat., 3 m. On the main 
branch of the Moez Canal leading to 
San. Boats may be hired here. 

Aboo Sliekook Stat, 6| m. The vil- 
lage is about i m. from the station, 
which is on the E. bank of one of the 
large canals running from Zagazig to 
San, all of them branches of the main 
Moez Canal. The Menzaleh fishermen 
use this canal principally for bringing 
up their fish from the lake ; at Aboo 
Shekook it is transferred to the rail- 
way, and sent to Cairo and other 
towns. 

Sembelknoein Stat, 9 m. Not far 
off to the S. are the ruins of Tel-el- 
Tmei, the ancient Thmuis (see Rte. 8). 

Mansoorah Terminus Stat., 13J m. 
For description of Mansoorah, see 
Rte. 8. 

The traveller who arrives at Man- 
soorah by rail, and wishes to visit the 
ruins of Bebayt el Hagar (see Rte. 8), 
can do so by hiring a donkey at Man- 
soorah, and riding up the right bank 
of the Nile for about 2 m. till the first 
ferry is reached. Cross the river here 
to a village on the opposite side, and 
ride through it, and along the Tantah 
and Talkah railway for about 3 m. ; 
then turn to the right, and a mile 
farther in a W. direction are the 
mounds of the old town. A change in 
the roacl may be made coming back, 
by riding straight from the ruins to 
the river, crossing at what is the 
second ferry above Mansoorah, and 
then continuing along the river-bank. 
This is perhaps the pleasanter way of 
the two. This excursion will require 
about 6 or 7 hours. 

The traveller must hire a ferry- 
boat for crossing the river from Man- 
soorah to Talkah. 

| There is nothing of interest between 



^254 



ROUTE 10. — CAIEO TO SAN. 



Sect. II. 



Talkah and Damietta. The names of 
the intermediate stations will be found 
below. 



Miles. 

(/3) Cairo to Tantah (see 

Kte. 6) 54J 

Tantah to Talkah . . . . 33 
Talkah to Damietta . . . . 39 

126§ 

This route is perhaps more con- 
venient than (a), as it saves the trouble 
of crossing the river between Man- 
soorah and Talkah. Cairo to Tantah 
has been already described in Kte. 6. 
After leaving Tantah the train stops 
at 

Mahallet Rohh Stat, 10 m. (branch 
to Dessook and Zifteh). 

Mahallet el Kebeer Stat., 6J m. 
Semenhood Stat., 4| m. (see Ete. 8). 
Talkah Stat., 12 m. 
Shirbeen Stat.. 15 m. 
Kafr Terrash Stat, 8 m. 
Damietta Stat., 16 m. 



ROUTE 10. 

CAIRO TO SAN, THE ANCIENT TANIS, 
AND LAKE MENZALEH, BY KAIL AND 
WATER. 

Miles. 

Cairo, by rail, to Zagazig 
(see Rte. 7) 51f 

Zagazig to San, partly by 
rail and partly by water, 
about 50 

San to Matareeah, on Lake 
Menzaleh, about .. .. 12 

113| 

This excursion should be made not 
later than February, as after that 
month the canals are low, and often 



dammed up a few miles from their 
mouth to keep the water for irrigation. 
Those who wish to be comfortable had 
better take tents, beds, &c, with them, 
as the boats on these canals have no 
sleeping accommodation, are very dirty, 
and stink of fish. Some provisions too 
should be taken, as milk, eggs, and 
chickens are the only things procurable 
at the villages on the canals. But each 
traveller will make such arrangements 
as desire for comfort may require. 

There are 3 or 4 routes to choose 
from in going from Zagazig to San. 
1. By rail to Tel Phakoos, and thence 
by boat. 2. By rail to El Booka, 
and thence by boat : and 3. By rail 
to Aboo Shekook. and thence by 
boat. All these stations are situated 
on canals leading from Zagazig to 
San. Formerly it was possible to go 
the whole way from Zagazig by one of 
these canals, but now there are bridges 
and sluices at different points which 
prevent the passage of anything but 
qnite small rowing-boats. Inquiry 
had better be made at Zugazig as to 
which of the above three roads should 
be chosen, as some alterations in the 
canals, or other cause, may make one 
preferable to the other. The best way 
for those who intend to take tents, 
&c, is to send a servant on a day 
or two before; he can then secure a 
boat, and have it ready. In winter 
there are generally plenty coming up 
from the lake. They are large and 
roomy, but dirty. There is a small 
attempt at shelter in the bows, where 
a portion is covered in by a piece of 
matting. One boat will carry tents, 
servants, donkeys, baggage, &c. The 
hire of a boat to San from any one of 
the three places named above will be 
from 16s. to 1Z., which, with the same 
amount added on for Government tax, 
will make the whole cost from 30s. to 
21.; and the same for a boat back 
from San. It will take 6 or 7 hours to 
go, and 10 or 12 to come back, unless 
the wind is particularly favourable or 
adverse. There is plenty of wildfowl- 
shooting during the winter and early 
spring in the neighbourhood of San, 
but the birds are very shy and difficult 
of approach. It is easier to get at 



Egypt- 



ROUTE 10, SAN OR TANIS. 



255 



tliem in Lake Menzaleh, where in a 
small boat you may often sail up quite 
close to them. In some parts of the 
lake the shooting is farmed out, and 
the birds are taken in nets in con- 
siderable numbers ; where this is the 
case no shooting is allowed. The fish- 
ing is also farmed out. The modern 
village of San, on the E. bank of the 
canal, is a miserable dreary place. The 
inhabitants are entirely occupied in 
fishing. Twice in a week, on Tues- 
days and Fridays, the fish are sold 
by* auction, people coming with their 
camels and donkeys from the interior 
to buy. There is no good camping- 
ground near the village. The best 
place is close to the ruins, the only 
objection being that it is some little 
way from the canal, whence you must 
draw your water supply ; but at any 
rate you are free from noise and dirt. 

The city of San, whose ruins occupy 
still a considerable space on the plain, 
was one of the oldest and most con- 
siderable in the Delta. Its remote an- 
tiquity is indicated by the passage in 
the Bible (Numb. xiii. 22), which says 
that "Hebron was built seven years 
before Zoan," Zoan being generally 
identified with San. The sanctuary 
of the great temple dates back, ac- 
cording to M. Mariette, to the Vlth 
dynasty, at which time the name of 
the town is conjectured to have been 
Ha-awar or Pa-awar, perhaps the 
Avaris of Manetho. The names of 
kings of the XHth and XHIth dynas- 
ties, Amenemha I., Osirtasen I. and II. 
and others, found on colossi and other 
monuments discovered at San, and now 
in the Museum at Cairo, prove the ex- 
istence and importance of the city at 
that epoch. Soon after this it suffered 
with the rest of the North of Egypt 
from the invasion of the Shepherds or 
Hyksos, as they were called by Mane- 
tho ; but it rose into importance again 
under the rule of the kings of the 
XVIIth dynasty, the descendants of 
these invading Hyksos, who, as the 
monuments found at San, and now in 
the Cairo Museum, prove, had adopted 
Egyptian customs, manners, and re- 
ligion. It is probable, says M. Ma- 
riette, whose discoveries at Tanis have 



thrown great light on this epoch of 
Egyptian history, that it was during 
the reign of one of these pastor kings 
reigning at Memphis that Joseph was 
sold into Egypt, and the story told 
in the Bible was enacted. The 
Pharaoh whom Joseph served was not 
a pure-born Egyptian, but of foreign 
origin and shepherd descent like him- 
self ; and his conduct to him is on this 
supposition the more easily explained. 
Amosis the 1st kiug of the XVIIIth 
dynasty, of pure Theban blood, drove 
out the greater part of the Hyksos, 
and, while suffering a large colony of 
them to remain, reduced the impor- 
tance of what had been their border 
fortress — Zoan. Under the XlXth 
dynasty a different policy was pursued, 
and the monuments show us Kameses 
II. restoring the magnificence of the 
temples, and adopting the founder of 
the Hyksos dynasty as an ancestor. 
The reign of his son and successor 
Menephtah, the " Pharaoh who knew 
not Joseph," of whom a statue found 
at San is now in the Cairo Museum, is 
an interesting stage in the history of 
the city, for we read in Ps. lxxviii. 12, 
43, that the wonders and miracles 
done by Moses, which ended in the 
deliverance of the Israelites, were 
wrought in " the field of Zoan.'" 

Under the XXIst dynasty Zoan, or, 
as it is best known under its Greek 
name, Tanis, became the nominal 
capital of Egypt, and gave its name 
to the dynasty which Manetho calls 
Tanite, and also to the branch of the 
river on which it stood. Yarious 
remains prove that under this dynasty 
the city and temples were restored 
and beautified. During the period 
extending from the XXIInd to the 
XXVIth dynasty Tanis was a city of 
great importance, and indeed Mariette 
again gives the name of Tanite to the 
XXIIlrd dynasty. That towards the 
end of this period (cir. 700 B.C.) it was 
considered as the capital city of the 
Delta may be inferred from Is. xix. 11, 
13, where "the princes of Zoan" and 
" the princes ot'Xoph " (Memphis ) are 
spoken of as though those two cities 
were the principal in Egypt ; and 
again another passage, Is. xxx. 4, 



256 



ROUTE 10. — CAIRO TO SAN. 



Sect. IT. 



speaks of the princes (of Egypt) as 
being " at Zoan." Ezekiel, on the 
occasion of the invasion of Egypt by 
Nebuchadnezzar (cir. 600 B.C.), pro- 
phesies its downfall, and says that 
"fire" shall be set "in Zoan." The 
importance of Tanis began to decline 
undar the XXVIth dynasty, and 
Amosis, by directing the whole trade 
of the Mediterranean to Naucratis 
and Sais, ruined the towns in the 
eastern half of the Delta. In Strabo's 
time it was still a large town, but 
according to Josephus it had dwin- 
dled in tue age of Titus to an insig- 
nificant place. The utter ruin and 
destruction of its temples is, however, 
probably due to the fanatical outburst 
against the pagan monuments that 
followed the edict of Theodosius. 

At the present day the scene of de- 
solation, round what the remaining 
ruins are sufficient to prove to have 
been a most splendid city, is complete. 
The " field " of Zoan is now a barren 
waste ; a canal passes through it with- 
out being able to fertilize the soil : 
" fire " has been set " in Zoan ; " and 
one of the principal capitals or royal 
abodes of the Pharaohs is now the 
habitation of fishermen, the resort of 
wild beasts, and infested with reptiles 
and malignant fevers. " Many," says 
Mr. Macgregor, " as are the celebrated 
ruins I have seen, I do not recollect 
any that impressed me so' deeply with 
the sense of fallen and deserted mag- 
nificence." 

The mounds which mark the site of 
this ancient town are remarkable for 
their height and extent, reaching as 
they do upwards of a mile from N. to S., 
and nearly f of a mile from E. to W. 
The area in which the sacred enclosure 
of the temple stood is about 1500 ft. by 
1250, surrounded by mounds of fallen 
houses, as at Bubastis, whose in- 
creased elevation above t.ie site of the 
temple was doubtless attributable to 
the same cause— the frequent change 
in the level of the houses to protect 
them from the inundation, and the 
unaltered position of the sacred build- 
ings. The enclosure or temenos sur- 
rounding the temple is 1000 ft. long 
by about 700 broad, not placed in the 



centre of this area, but one-third more 
to the northward; while the temple 
itself lies exactly at an equal distance 
from the northern and southern line 
of houses — one of the numerous in- 
stances of Egyptian symmetrophobia. 
The enclosure is of crude brick ; and 
a short way to the E. of the centre, on 
its northern side, is a gateway of 
g 'unite and fine gritstone bearing the 
name of Eameses II. ; to whom the 
tern 3e was indebted for its numerous 
obelisks, and the greater part of the 
sculptures that adorned it. 

From the wall of the enclosure to 
the two front obelisks is 100 ft. ; 150 
beyond which, going towards the net os, 
are fragments of columns, and proba- 
bly of two other obelisks, covering an 
area of 50 ft. ; beyond these, at a dis- 
tance of 120 ft., are several fragments 
of sculptured walls, two other obelisks, 
and two black statues, extending over 
a space of 30 ft. ; and after going 100 ft. 
further you come to two other obe- 
lisks ; and then two others 86 ft. be- 
yond them; and again, at a distance 
of 161 ft., two other large obelisks, 
from which to the naos front is 150 ft. 

Though in a very ruinous condition, 
the fragments of walls, columns, and 
fallen obelisks sufficiently attest the 
former splendour of this building ; 
and the number of obelisks, evidently 
10, if not 12, is unparalleled in any 
Egyptian temple. They are all of the 
time of Eameses II. ; some with only 
one, others with two lines of hierogly- 
phics. The columns had the papyrus- 
bud capital ; and their appearance, as 
well as the walls bearing the figures of 
deities, seems to prove that some, at 
least, of the obelisks stood in cour ts or 
vestibules, forming approaches to the 
naos. The obelisks vary in size : some 
have a mean diameter of about 5 ft., 
and when entire may have been from 
50 to 60 feet high : and those at the 
lower extremity of the avenue, farthest 
from the naos, measured about 33 ft. 
Some of the obelisks are of dark, others 
of light red, granite, which might 
appear to have a bad effect, if we did 
not recollect that the Egyptians 
painted their monuments, sometimes 
even when of °ranite. 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 10. — SAN OR TANIS. 



257 



The sanctuary, or naos, bears, as has 
been sail, the name of a king of the 
Vlth dynasty. The other principal 
names "found on the monumental re- 
mains belonging to, or forming part of, 
the temple, are Osirtasen I., II., and 
III.. Ranieses II., Menephtah, and 
Tirhakah. Outside the enclosure to 
t lie E. are two granite columns which 
formed part of another temple, built 
like the former entirely of granite. 
These columns are 2 ft. X in. mean 
diameter, and nearly 23 ft. high with- 
out the dado, and have palm-cfipitals 
of beautiful style. They bear the 
name of Ranieses II., by whom the 
temple was built. In some places the 
name of Eameses has been effaced and 
that of Osorkon, a king of the XXIInd 
dynasty, substituted. Nearly J a mile 
from the great temple, in the direction 
of S.E. by S., are several large round 
blocks of granite, placed on the ground 
in two parallel lines, so as to form an 
avenue. They have no foundation, 
and this circumstance, together with 
the complete absence of any vestiges 
of the plan of a building beyond them, 
seems to preclude the possibility of 
their having served as an approa -h to 
another temple. A fragment of basalt, 
bearing the name of a Ptolemy, has 
been found near them. 

The principal divinities worshipped 
at Tanis were Phtah, Ammon, and 
the god Set, or Sutekh, an Asiatic 
divinity introduced by the Hyksos, 
but subsequently cL>tked by them 
with the attributes of the Egyptian 
sun-god, and worshipped under the 
forms Ra, Armaehis, Horns. &c. 

The excavations of M. Mariette at 
San have thrown a good deal of light 
on that more than usually obscure 
part of Egyptian history, known as 
the Period of the Hyksos or Shepherds. 
Many of the monuments f mud by him, 
and now in the Cairo Museum, seem 
to show that however disastrous the 
first invasion of these Asiatics may 
have been, they subsequently became 
peaceably settled in the country, and 
adopted the Lmguage, customs, and 
religion of those they had conquered. 
Statues and sphinxes, unmistakably 
belonging to the Hyksos period, have 



! the legends on them written in the 
! Egyptian language, and the name of 
the Hyksos king euclosed in an oval, 
■ and with the official Egyptian titles. 
In the features of the magnificent 
sphinx No. 869 in the Cairo Museum, 
M. Mariette traces a great resem- 
blance to those of the people living on 
the borders of Lake Menzaleh at 
I the present day : round angular face, 
| small eyes, fiat nose, supercilious mouth, 
| differing entirely from the Egyptian 
I type, and showing evident signs of a 
j Semitic origin. 

The triliugual stone, similar in cha- 
j racter to tiie Rosetta Stone, found at 
| San in 1865, is now in the Cairo Mu- 
j seuni (see Description of Cairo, § 17). 

A good general view of the ruins 
! and the surrounding country may be 
! obtained from the highest mound, on 
j which is a sheykh's tomb. It has 
! been thus described : — " The horizon is 
j nearly a straight line on every side ; 
i and looking west, the tract before us 
I is a black rich loam, without fences or 
towns, and with only a dozen trees in 
I sight. This is ' The Field of Zoan.' 
i Behind is a glimmer of silver light oa 
the far-away shore of Lake Menzaleh. 
Across the level foreground winds 
most gracefully the Mushra (canal ?). 
But between that winding river (canal)' 
and the mound we look from, there is, 
lying bare and gaunt, in stark and 
silent devastation, one of the grandest 
and oldest ruins in the world. It is 
deep in the middle of an enclosing am- 
phitheatre of mounds, all of them'abso- 
lutely bare, and all dark -red, from the 
j millions of potsherds that defy the 
j winds of time and the dew and the 
I sun alike to stir them, or to even melt 
j aw.ty their sharp-edged fragments." — 

Macgregor. 
j If the traveller wishes, he may extend 
this excursion by continuing down the 
canal to Matareeah on Lake Menzaleh, 
about 12 miles farther on. The coun- 
try is low and marshy, abounding in 
reecls and stunted tamarisk - bushes, 
among which boars may sometimes be 
found, and the abundance of various 
kinds of waterfowl is extraordinary. 
The banks are very low, and the 
whole is flooded during the inunda- 



258 



EOUTE 10. CAIRO TO SAN. 



Sect. n. 



tion. Here are the pastures for cattle, 
which, like similar lowlands on the 
borders of the Lake Brulos, hence 
received, in ancient times, the name 
of Bucolia, and were comprehended 
under the denomination of Elearchia, 
or the marsh district. They were 
also called Bashmoor, as at the pre- 
sent day ; and the same name was 
applied to a dialect of the Coptic, 
which differed both from the Thebaic 
and Memphitic, and was spoken in 
this part of the Delta. 

Aboolfeda comprises under the 
name of Bashmoor the whole of the 
island between the canal of Ashmoon 
(or as it is now called, of Menzaleh) 
and the Damietta branch, and con- 
siders Ashmoon the capital of this 
district. 

Matareeah stands upon a point of 
land projecting into the lake, and is 
joined to another village called El 
Ghuznah by a dyke or causeway, 
only six feet wide. The place is all 
fish ; — the boats, the houses, the 
streets, the baskets, the people's hands, 
all are full of fish. They catch fish, 
they salt fish, they live on fish and 
by fish ; and one would think it had 
been founded by the Ichthyophagi 
themselves. 

Lake Menzaleh is the largest lake in 
Egypt, having a superficial area of 
about 500,000 acres. Its outline is 
very irregular, especially on the 
southern side. The northern side is 
separated from the sea, with which it 
communicates through several open- 
ings called Boghaz, or passes, by 
narrow banks or ridges of sand. The 
depth of water is never very great, 
even during the inundation, and in 
the spring and summer the navigation 
along the channels deep enough to 
float a boat is very intricate and 
difficult. The surface is dotted with 
numerous islets, which more or less 
disappear when the water is high, and 
increase wonderfully in size and num- 
ber when it is low ; but they are most 
of them little better than sandy mud- 
banks. Two of the principal islands 
are Toona and Tennes. Toona is due 



E. of Matareeah ; it has a small vil- 
lage called Sheykh Abdallah, where 
there are few old ruins. The most 
interesting island to an antiquary is 
that of Tennes, the ancient Tennesus. 
The remains there are of Boman time, 
and consist of baths, tombs, and sub- 
structions. The tombs are vaulted 
and painted, mostly red on a white 
ground. There are also earthenware 
pipes, stamped with a letter or mark, 
either of the owner or the maker. 
These islands are very convenient for 
the sportsman to pitch his tent on for 
the night, instead of remaining on 
board his boat ; but care must be taken 
to choose a dry spot, as far as possible 
away from the lake exhalations, which 
are very apt to bring on fever in the 
late spring and summer. 

As has been said, wildfowl literally 
swarm upon the lake. " We had been 
told of the enormous flocks of wild- 
fowl to be seen on this lake, and 
especially in winter. I had seen 
thousands, myriads of these, and 
wondered at the multitude in the air. 
But I never expected to see birds so 
numerous and so close together that 
their compact mass formed living 
islands upon the water ; and when the 
wind now took me swiftly to these, 
and a whole island rose up with a 
loud and thrilling din to become a 
feathered cloud in the air, the impres- 
sion was one of vastness and innumer- 
able teeming life, which it is entirely 
impossible to convey in words. The 
larger geese and pelicans and swans 
floated like ships at anchor. The long- 
legged flamingoes and other waders 
traced out the shape of the shallows 
by their standing in the water. Smaller 
ducks were scattered in regiments of 
skirmishers about the grand army, but 
every battalion of the gabbling shriek- 
ing host seemed to be disciplined, 

orderly, and distinct To the 

bird-fancier, or the scientific ornitho- 
logist, one might well suppose that 
a month on Lake Menzaleh would be 
the very least he could give." — /. 
Macgregur. 

The following are the names given 
to some of the birds by the natives of 
Lake Menzaleh : coot, goohr ; heron, 



Egypt. route 11. — cairo to the natron lakes, etc. 259 



balashon ; spoonbill, midwds; pelican, 
begga; flamingo, bashardos. The Nile 
name of this last bird, gemel el 
bahr, " water-camel," is much more 
expressive. 

It has already been mentioned that 
the fishing, and in some places the 
shooting, on the lake is farmed out by 
the Government. The fishing is let 
for an annual rental of 60,OOOZ. It 
gives employment to 3000 or 4000 
persons, and some 400 boats of various 
kinds are used in it. 

Lake Menzaleh may be visited from 
Matareeah, Port Said (see Ete. 7), 
Menzaleh (see Rte. 8), or Damietta 
(see Rte. 8) ; but the sportsman or bird- 
collector will probably find Damietta 
the most convenient, as he will be 
able to take all his stores and appli- 
ances straight there from Cairo in a 
dahabeeah, together with the small 
English boat, which is indispensable 
to much success in shooting ; and he 
will then have the dahabeeah as 
head-quarters to which he can return 
whenever the occasion requires. 

Menzaleh can be reached from Ma- 
tareeah either by the lake, and then 
4 miles up the Bahr Sogheiyer (see 
Rte. 8 j, or by land, across a barren 
nitrous marsh. 



ROUTE 11. 

CAIKO TO THE NATRON LAKES AND 
MONASTERIES. 

Miles. 

Cairo, by water, to Teraneh 

(see Rte. 5) 50J 

Teraneh to Zakook .. .. 36| 

87 

The usual route from the Nile to 
the valley of the Natron Lakes, or 
Wady Natroon, is from Teraneh. 



The journey to Zakeek, or Zakook, the 
most northerly inhabited spot in the 
Natron valley, occupies about 12 hours 
on camels. 

The road, on quitting the Nile, at 
the distance of about 1J mile from 
Teraneh, passes over the ruins of an 
ancient town, which have of late years 
been turned up in every direction for 
the purpose of collecting the nitre 
that abounds in all similar mounds 
throughout Egypt. These ruins are 
of great extent, and apparently, from 
the burnt bricks and small decom- 
posed copper coins occasionally found 
amidst them, of Roman time. Some 
columns, one of which is about 2J ft. 
in diameter, have also been met with ; 
but no object of value has presented 
itself to indicate a place of much con- 
sequence ; and it is therefore probable 
that its size was rather owing to its 
having been the abode of the many 
persons employed in bringing the 
natron to the Nile than to the import- 
ance it possessed as an Egyptian 
town. This opinion is in some degree 
confirmed by the appearance of a 
large road leading to it from the S. 
end of the Natron valley, which is still 
used by those who go from that part 
of the country to the Convent of St. 
Macarius. Though Teraneh has suc- 
ceeded to, and derived its name from 
Terenuthis, it is probable that these 
mounds occupy the site of the ancient 
town, and that its successor was built 
more to the E., in consequence of a 
change in the course of the river. 
Momemphis'and Menelaiurbs also stood 
in the vicinity of Terenuthis ; and the 
ancient road to Nitriotis is said by 
Strabo to have left the Nile not far 
from those places. 

The village of Zakook occupies the 
site of an ancient glass-house. This 
is still visible beneath, and close 
to the house built many years ago 
by some Europeans, who there esta- 
blished works for drying the natron, 
and who then founded the village. 
The glass-house is probably of Roman 
time. It is built of stone, and the 
scoria of common green glass, and 
pieces of the fused matter attached to 
the stones, sufficiently indicate its site, 



2G0 ROUTE 11. — CAIEO TO THE NATRON LAKES, ETC. Sect. II. 



as their rounded summits suggest the 
form of three distinct ovens. 

The natron is found both in the 
plain and in two or three of the lakes. 
There are 8 lakes which contain water 
all the year, and are called Mellahat. 
The largest and most southerly, Mella- 
hat-om-Keesheh, produces only mu- 
riate of soda, or common salt. Next 
to this in size is Mellahat-ej-Jaar, also 
a salt lake ; the El Goonfedeeyah and 
Mellahat - el - Hamra, or Dowar - el - 
Hainra (from its round form), both of 
which contain natron ; then the larger 
Mellahat-ej-Joon, a salt lake ; then er- 
Easooneeyah, another salt lake ; and 
last El Khortai, and the lesser Joon, 
which two produce natron, and are 
much inferior in size to the preceding. 
There are also two ponds (birlteh), 
the Birket-esh -Shookayfeh, and the 
Birket-er-Rumaed, which contain water 
the greater part of the year, but are 
dry in summer ; and a few other pools 
not worthy of notice, some of which 
yield natron of indifferent quality. 
In those lakes which contain nation, 
or the subcarbonate, as well as the 
muriate, of soda, the two salts crystal- 
lize separately : the latter above in a 
layer of about 18 in., and the natron 
below, varying in thickness, according 
to the form or. depth of the bed of the 
lake, the thinnest being about 27 in. 
All the lakes contain salt, though few 
have natron. 

The water in the lakes varies much 
in height at different seasons of the 
year. They begin to increase about 
the end of December, and continue to 
rise till the early part of March, when 
they gradually decrease, and in May 
all the pools and even the two larger 
Birkehs are perfectly dry. The abun- 
dance of water in winter renders them 
less salt than in the subsequent months, 
and even the height of the Mellahat 
diminishes greatly in summer, leav- 
ing the dry part covered with an in- 
crustation of muriate or of subcarbo- 
nate of soda, according to the nature 
of the salt they contain. The differ- 
ence between the bed of the Birkehs 
and of the salt and natron lakes is 
that the former, when the water has j 
evaporated, is mud, and the two latter j 



a firm incrustation ; and it is at this 
time that the natron called Soltdnee is 
collected. 

The natron consists^ of two kinds — 
the white and the Soltdnee ; the latter 
taken from the bed of the lakes as the 
water retires, and the former from 
the low grounds that surround them, 
which are not covered by water. 
This is the best quality. It is pre- 
pared for use at the village by first 
washing and dissolving it in water, 
and then exposing it to the sun in an 
open court, from which it is removed 
to the oven, and placed over the fire in 
a trough, till all the moisture is ex- 
tracted. It is then put into a dry 
place, and sent to the Nile for ex- 
portation to Europe ; but the Soltdnee 
is taken, in the state in which it is 
found, direct to Cairo. In measuring 
the specific gravity of the water, that 
of the lakes containing nation and 
salt is found to mark 35 keerat (carats) 
in summer, immediately before it diies 
up; in January and February, about 
24 ; the well-water of the village being 
1, and that of the Nile 0. 

The Wady Natroon is not the only 
district in which natron is produced. 
It is found in the valley of Eileithyias, 
now El Kab, in Upper Egypt, where 
it crystallizes on the borders of some 
small ponds to the eastward of the 
ancient town. The shores of the lake 
Mceris are also said to yield it, as well 
as u the vicinity of Alexandria, ne ar 
the lake Mareotis, and the Isthmus of 
Suez." Some is also brought by the 
caravans from Darfoor. It is much 
sought to give a pungency to snuff. 

There are several springs of fresh 
water in the Natron valley, the purest 
of which are at the convents (or mo- 
nasteries) to the S. ; that of Dayr 
Baramoos being slightly salt. The 
water rises from and reposes on a bed 
of clay, close to Zakook, and at the 
base of the hills to the westward ; and 
it probably percolates beneath the 
mountains which separate the Wady 
Natroon from the Nile, and, being 
carried over the clay which consti- 
tutes the base of the Libyan chain, 
finds an exit in these low valleys, 
forming springs of fresh water in 



Egypt. BOTJTE 11. — WADY NATROON AND MONASTERIES. 



261 



places where the soil is free from all \ 
saline matter, and salt - springs or! 
ponds of natron when the earth, j 
through which it passes from the clay 
to the surface, presents thit foreign 
substance deposited of old in the \ 
neighbouring strata. The same is the j 
case in many parts of Egypt, and it 
may be stated in support of this 
opinion that the water of all the salt 
w T ells becomes much sweeter when a 
quantity has been quickly taken out ; 
proving the water itself to be ori- 
ginally fresh, and rendered salt by 
contact with earth containing saline 
matter. 

It seems singular that the lakes 
should rise so long after the high I 
Nile, a period of nearly 3 months ; 
and this can only be explained by the : 
slowness of the water's passage through \ 
the strata of the mountains inter- 1 
vening between the river and this j 
distant valley ; which, judging from 
the time the Nile water takes to ooze 
through the alluvial deposit of its 
banks to the edge of the desert, fre- 
quently not more than a mile or two 
off, appears to be proportionate to the 
increase of distance. The dip of the 
strata that border the Natron valley 
is towards ihe N.E., whence it is that 
the descents to it and the adjacent 
Wady Fargh are more rapid to the 
west than to the east ; and this is 
consistent with the lower level of the 
former valley. 

The Wady Natroon boasts a very 
small population; the village of Za- 
kook and the four monasteries con- 
taining altogether not more than 300 
inhabitants. The names of the four 
monasteries are Dayr Suriani, Aboo 
Macar, or St. Macarius, Amba Bishoi, 
and Dayr Baramods. The inmates are 
Copts, though Dayr Baramods is said 
to be of Greek, as the Suriani of 
Syrian, origin. They offer little to 
interest a stranger, and are inferior in 
size and importance to those of St. 
Antony and St. Paul, in the eastern 
desert, to which they also yield in 
point of antiquity. They are. how- 
ever, quite as well built; and some 
portions of them, particularly the 



churches in the tower of St. Macarius, 
are, perhaps, superior in point of con- 
struction. Indeed, the slender marble 
columns that adorn its upper church 
are very elegant, and many of the 
arches in the lower part of the con- 
vent are far better than we should 
expect to find in these secluded re- 
gions. 

Each community is governed by a 
superior ; some of the monks are pri. sts, 
with the title of father (Aboona), and 
the rest lay -brethren. 

The chief interest of these convents 
lay in the valuable MSS. which they 
w T ere supposed to possess. The Duke 
of Northumberland and M. Linant- 
Bey first discovered a vault in the 
Dayr Suriani full of the remains of 
the old Syriac library. Some of the 
MSS. in this vault were brought away 
by Lord De la Zouche in 1833. The 
remainder were procured by Dr. 
Tattam and others at different inter- 
vals, and now form a collection of 
about 1000 volumes in the British 
Museum. The oldest, which contains, 
among other things, some works of 
Eusebius, is conjectured to have been 
written about a.d. 411. 

Each monastery does or ought to 
possess a ketdb sillemee, or vocabulary, 
in which each Coptic word is placed 
opposite its equivalent in Arabic ; not 
arranged alphabetically, but under 
various heads, as parts of the human 
body, vegetables, utensils, &c, as well 
as the names of towns in Egypt. 
These last have been of great use in 
fixing the position of many ancient 
places. It is, however, to be regretted 
that some of the names are far from 
certain, owing to the ignorant pre- 
sumption of the copyists, who have 
often introduced the name they sup- 
posed the town to have had, with or 
in lieu of that in the MS. they were 
employed to copy ; e. </., in the voca- 
bulary at Dayr Macarius, Babylon is 
said to be the same as On (the ancient 
Heliopolis), and the Matareeah of the 
Arabs. 

The Natron convents or monasteries 
are all surrounded by a lofty wall, 
with an entrance on one side so low 
that you are obliged to stoop down on 



262 



ROUTE 11. CAIRO TO THE NATRON LAKES, ETC. Sect. II. 



entering ; and on the outside are two j 
large millstones, generally of granite, 
which in case of danger are rolled I 
together into the passage after the door 
has been closed, in order that the 
Arabs shall neither burn it nor break 
it open ; the stones being too heavy 
and fitting too closely to be moved 
from without, and intervening between 
the enemy and the door. Those who 
have rolled them into the passage are 
afterwards drawn up by a rope t. irough 
a trap-door above ; and the want of 
provisions soon obliges the Arabs to 
raise the unprofitable siege, which, not 
having been provoked by any outrage 
committed by the monks, seldom leaves 
in the recollection of the aggressors 
any rancorous feelings ; and it rarely 
happens that they ill-treat those whom 
they happen to meet on their way to 
the Nile. Notwithstanding the lowness 
of these doorways, the cattle that turn 
the water-wheels for irrigating the 
gardens, and the mills for grinding 
the corn, are made to pass through on 
their knees. 

As soon as the bell has announced 
the arrival of a stranger, proper in- 
quiries and observations are made to 
ascertain that there is no danger in 
opening the door for his reception; 
and no Arabs are admitted, unless, by 
forming his escort, they have some 
one responsible for their conduct. 
On entering, you turn to the right 
and left, through a labyrinth of pas- 
sages and small courts, and at last 
arrive at the abode of the superior 
and the principal monks. This part 
consists of numerous small rooms, 
each with a door serving as an en- 
trance for the inmate and his share of 
light, which is fastened up during his 
absence at prayers or other avocations 
with a wooden lock, whose key might 
serve as an ordinary bludgeon. In 
some parts of the world the bearer of 
such an instrument about his person 
might run a risk of arrest for carrying 
a dangerous weapon; and it is by no 
means certain that an Oriental ink- 
stand would not render him liable to 
a similar accusation. 

A garden with a few palms, some 
olive, nebh (Khamnus Nabeca — the 



J lotos-tree of the Lotophagi \ and other 
fruit-trees, occupies the centre of the 
j principal court : and here is frequently 
one of the churches ; — for these monas- 
teries contain more than one. and the 
tower or keep of St. Macarius has no 
less than three within it, one over the 
other ; as if additional services were 
required when the danger was great, 
the tower being the Jast place of 
refuge when the entrance has been 
forced, or the walls sc ded. Ketreating 
to this, they pull up the wooden draw- 
bridge that separates it from the rest 
of the building : a well of water and a 
supply of provisions always deposited 
there, and never allowed to decrease 
below a certain quantity, secures them 
against the risk of want of food ; and 
the time occupied in the siege, ere the 
Arabs could effect an entrance, would 
always be sufficient to enable them to 
remove everything eatable, or other- 
wise valuable, from below, and render 
the occupation of the body of the 
place totally unprofitable to the in- 
truders. 

Every civility is shown to the 
stranger during his stay at any of the 
convents. Dayr Suriani is reported to 
have the best guest-chamber ; but all 
accounts agree in noticing the presence 
of numerous insects of prey, so that 
the tent is to be preferred as a sleeping- 
place to the convent. 

The Dayr Suriani was built by one 
Honnes ("John"), a holy personage, 
who;e tree is still seen about a couple 
of miles to the southward, near the 
ruins of two other convents. It is 
supposed to resemble Noah's ark in 
form, though in no other respects; 
for here, as at other Coptic monaste- 
ries, the admission of women is strictly 
prohibited, to the great discomfiture 
of any ladies who may happen to 
visit thpse regions. But though stern 
and inflexible, like other monks, re- 
specting the admission of women, and 
in refusing to all but the unmarried 
the privileges of a monastic life, they 
do not exclude a widower, on his re- 
nouncing lor ever the thoughts of 
matrimony. The rules of the Coptic 
Church are even so indulgent as to 
allow a priest, who has ,not taken 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 11. MONASTERIES OF NATROON. 



263 



monastic vows, to marry once ; but 
the death of this his only wife con- 
demns him to future celibacy, though 
it should happen a few weeks after 
the celebration of the marriage rites. 
They take the same view of the com- 
mand in 1 Tim. iii. 2-12, as the 
Greeks. 

The title of the superior of a mo- 
nastery is Kummus. He is next in 
rank to a bishop. The head of the 
Coptic, like the Greek and other 
Eastern churches is the patriarch, who 
answers to the pope of Rome, and is 
elected to this high office from among 
the fathers of St. Antony, or some 
other monastery. Next to him is the 
mitrdn (Metropolitan), who, appointed 
by the Egyptian patriarch, is sent to 
Abyssinia to superintend that offset 
of the Coptic Church. In former 
times, when the patriarch lived in 
Alexandria, there was a mitrdn at 
Cairo; but his removal to the capital 
has rendered this office unnecessary ; 
and the principal dignitary now hold- 
ing that title is the chief of the Abys- 
sinian Christians ; who at his death is 
succeeded by another from Cairo, sent 
in chains to his see, as if to demon- 
strate with full effect the truth of 
" nolo episcopari." 

Egypt, which once swarmed with 
monks, and was not less prolific in 
nuns, has now only 7 monasteries, 
and is entirely destitute of nunneries, 
whose inmates might not perhaps feel 
safe in a country in the hands of the 
Moslems. These 7 are the two in 
the eastern desert of St. Antony and 
St. Paul, the 4 of the Natron valley, 
and one at Gebel Koskam, in Upper 
Egypt. To these the name monastery 
properly belongs; and convent might 
be applied to those where women are 
admitted as well as men, as in the 
numerous Dayrs on the Nile. The 
Dayr el Adra on Gebel et Tayr, those 
of Bibbeh, Boosh, Negadeh, Aboo 
Honnes near Antiuoe, 3 in the capi- 
tal, and 2 at Old Cairo, Amba Sa- 
moeel and Dayr el Hammam in the 
Fyoum, those of Alexandria, Girgeh, 
Abydus. Ekhmim, Mellawee, Esne, 
Sook, Feesheh near Menoof, "the red 



and white monasteries " near Soohag, 
as well as others in different parts of 
Egypt, no longer have the character of 
monasteries, the priests being seculars, 
and the inmates of both sexes. They 
bear, however, the name of monaste- 
ries, and are looked upon with peculiar 
respect; the churches are visited as 
possessing peculiar sanctity, and one 
called Sitte Gamian, near Damietta, 
has the honour of an annual pilgrim- 
age, which is attended by the devout 
from all parts of the country. Tra- 
dition states then former number in 
Egypt and its deserts to have been 
3b6 — a favourite amount in traditions 
of the country, which has been given 
to the villages of the Fyoom, as well 
as to the windows of the temple of 
Dendera. 

The district of Nitria, or Nitriotis, 
is sometimes known as the desert of 
St. Macarius, whose monastery still 
remains there, a short distance to the 
S. of the Natron lakes, from which it 
is separated by a few low hills. Here 
too are the ruins of 3 other similar 
buildings, once the abode of monks ; 
and about ^ m - to the E. are mounds 
of pottery, that indicate the site of an 
ancient town. The remains of pagan 
date are rare in this valley : even the 
small stone ruin 2| m. to the S.W. of 
Dayr Suriani is of Christian time : 
and it is difficult to fix the position of 
the 2 towns of Nitriotis, the only an- 
cient remains being the glass-house of 
Zakook. and the heaps of pottery just 
mentioned. The former, perhaps, 
marks the site of Nitria, and the latter 
Sciathis, whence this district received 
the appellation of Sciathia, or Sciathica 
regio, in Coptic Skiet. 

Strabo says it contained tico pits 
(lakes) of nitre (natron), the inhabit- 
ants worshipped Serapis, and it was 
the only district of Egypt where sheep 
were sacrificed ; though Herodotus 
tells us the Mendesians had also the 
custom of immolating them to the 
deity of their city. The Coptic name 
of the town of Nitria was Phanihosem, 
that of the district Pmam-pihosem. 
Hosem means " natron." 

Other ruined convents may be seen 
about 2 m. to the S. of the Dayr 



264 ROUTE 11. CAIEO TO THE NATRON LAKES, ETC. Sect. II. 



Suriani; and the vestiges of a few 
others may be traced here and there 
in the Natron valley ; but it would be 
difficult now to discover the sites of 
the 50 mentioned by Gibbon, or even 
half that number. The modern monks 
are little interested about the ruined 
abodes of their predecessors : they 
are ignorant even of the history of 
their church; and it would be difficult 
to find any one to point out the con- 
vent where the ambitious Cyril passed 
some years under the restraint of a 
monastic life. 

The productions of the Wady Na- 
troon are few, and from its dreary ap- 
pearance it might be supposed to 
boast of nothing but the salt and 
natron for which it is indebted to 
its barrenness and its name. Two 
other articles, however, of some im- 
portance are grown there, and ex- 
ported thence to the Nile, — the rushes 
(soomdr), and bulrushes (beerdee)., used 
for making the well-known mats of 
Egypt, that tend so much to the com- 
fort of the Cairenes. Of the former 
the best kind are made, called Me- 
noofee, from the town where they ;sre 
manufactured : of the latter an infe- 
rior quality, most commonly used at 
Cairo ; the Menoofee being principally 
confined to the houses of the rich. 
But it is not to the Natron valley that 
the Menoofee mats are indebted for 
the best rushes ; those of El Maghra 
or Wadee es Soomar (" the valley of 
rushes ") are greatly superior, and are 
brought across the desert expressly for 
this manufacture. Wadee el Maghra 
is on the road to Se'ewah from the 
Nile, and is 3 days from the Natron 
lakes. The name beerdee, or burdee, 
is also applied to the papyrus ; but 
that of the Natron lakes is a common 
bulrush, or typha. 

The aspect of the Natron valley is 
no less gloomy from the sands that 
have invaded it, than from the cha- 
racter of the few plants it produces. 
No trees, no esculent vegetables, re- 
lieve the monotony of the scene, or 
reward the labour of him who attempts 
to rear them ; the palm, which seems 
to belong to every district of Egypt 



where water can be found, is here a 
stunted bush, and no attempt has 
been successful to enable it to attain 
the height or character of a tree. The 
few that are found between Zakook 
and Dayr Baramods, and to the E. 
of Dayr Macarius, seem only to rise 
above the earth to bear witness to the 
barrenness of the salt and sandy soil 
which condemns them to associate 
with its other stunted productions. 
These, too, which are of the most 
humble species common to sandy dis- 
tricts, are smaller than in other de- 
serts ; even the tamarisk is rare here, 
and nothing appears to flourish except 
mesembryanthemum and bulrushes. 
These last grow both in the water and 
at a distance from the lakes, amidst 
the sand-hills of 1he plain. In the 
water they reach the height of 10 ft. 

The animals that frequent this dis- 
trict are the gazelle, bukkar-el-wdhsh 
(" wild cow ") or antelope defassa, the 
jerboa, fox, and others common to the 
Libyan desert ; and some travellers 
mention the stag. 

Waterfowl abound ; ducks are in 
great numbers, and water-hens, jack 
snipes, sandpipers, and other birds 
common to the lakes and ponds of 
Fgypt, frequent the shores of the 
Natron lakes. 

The length of the Wady Natrodn 
is about 22 m., its breadth, reckoning 
from the slope of the low hills that 
surround it, 5J in the broadest part ; 
though the actual level plain is not 
more than 2, and is here and there 
studded with isolated hills and banks 
of rock covered with sand. The ascent 
from it towards the Bahr-el-Fargh is 
very gradual, but the descent to this 
last is rapid, more so even than on the 
eastern side of the Natron valley ; the 
Bahr-el-Fargh is, however, less deep 
than its eastern neighbour, though 
it surpasses it both in length and 
breadth. The hills" that separate the 
two valleys, as well as the low banks 
that form the undulating ground of 
the Bahr-el-Fargh, are covered with 
rounded silicious pebbles, with here 
and there pieces of petrified wood and 
coarse gritstone, lying amidst loose 



Egypt 



EOUTE 12. CAIRO 



TO THE SEEW AH. 



225 



sand, the rocks below being a coarse 
sandstone. These agatised woods are 
the same as those that are found on the 
opposite side of the Nile, at the back 
of the Mokattam range behind Cairo, 
in what is called " the petrified forest." 
(See Cairo, Exc. iii.) The pebbles 
and woods have probably been once 
imbedded in a friable layer of sand- 
stone, which, having been decomposed 
and carried off by the wind, has left 
these heavier bodies upon the surface 
of the stratum next beneath it, while 
its lighter particles have contributed 
not a little to increase the quantity of 
sand in these districts : and indeed 
the rock immediately below is of a 
textme little more compact than that 
which has been thus removed. 

The Bahr-el-Fargh. — The Bahr- 
el-Fargh, or, as it is sometimes called, 
Bahr-bela-ma, runs towards the Wady 
es Soomar (or El Maghra), on the road 
to See wah on one side, and to the 
back of the mountains on the W. of 
the Birket el Korn in the Fyodm on 
the other ; another branch diverging 
towards the E., and communicating 
with the valley of the Nile a little 
below Abooroash, about 5 or 6 m. N. 
of the pyramids of Geezeh. The hills 
that border it are of irregular form, 
and its bed is varied by numerous 
elevated ridges, depriving it of all 
the character of a river which many 
suppose it originally to have been. 
Some have even claimed it for the 
Nile, as an old bed of that river, see- 
ing in the petrified wood within its bed 
and on the adjacent hills the remains 
of boats that navigated this ancient 
channel. But instances of similar 
hollow valleys are not wanting in 
the Oases and other parts of the lime- 
stone regions, both in the western and 
eastern deserts. 



EOUTE 12. 

CAIRO TO THE SEEWAH, OR OASIS OF 
AMMON. 

Days . 

Cairo, by water, to Teraneh (see 

Bte. 5, Sect. I., and last Boute) 1 
Natron Valley (good water), 37 m. 1 
El Maghra, or Wady es Soomar 

(brackish water) 2 J 

El Ebah. or Libba (salt water) . . f 
El Gara (good water) . . . . 3 
Town of Se'ewah (good water) . . 2 

lOf 

From El Ebah the salt water is 
taken to Alexandria, and used as 
medicine. 

a. The most usual and perhaps the 
best route to the Oasis of Ammon is 
from Cairo by Teraneh (as above); 
but there is one from Alexandria by 
Baratoon (b) ; another from Teraneh 
by Baratoon (c) ; and a third from the 
Fyodm by the Little Oasis id). 

b. The road from Alexandria goes 
by the sea-coast as far as Baratoon, 
the ancient Parse tonium, and then 
turns S. to the Se'ewah. It was the 
road taken by Alexander. Browne 
went by it in 1792, and reached 
Se'ewah in 15 days. At Baratoon 
are some ruins of Parsetoniuni, which 
Strabo describes as a city, with a large 
port, measuring 40 stadia across. By 
some it was called Ammonia. 

c. That from Teraneh goes to 
Hanimam, and thence by Baratoon 
to the Seewah; but it is a long 
round, and there is no good water 
except at Hammam. 

d. For the road from the Fyodm to 
the Little Oasis, see Kte. 16. 

From that Oasis to the Se'ewah they 
reckon 7 days, making only a total 
of 10 days from the Fyodm; but the 
journey from the Nile may be calcu- 

N 



266 



ROUTE 12. CAIRO 



TO THE SEEWAH. 



Sect. II. 



lated at 11| or 12 days, which is the 
distance given by Pliny from Mem- 
phis. In going from El Kasr, or from 
Bowitti in the Little Oasis, they 
reckon 4 days to Suttra, a small irri- 
gated spot, with salt water, bnt without 
any palms; then 1J day to Ar'rag, 
where are palms and springs of good 
water ; to the N. of which, and sepa- 
rated from it by a hill, is Bahrayn, a 
valley with palms and water. This 
is out of the road. From Ar'rag to 
Mertesek is one day. It has a few 
palms, and water under the sand. 
Thence to Seewah is one day. 

The Arabic name of the " Oasis of 
Aramon" SiwaTi, or See-waTi, is doubt- 
less taken from the ancient Egyptian. 
It consists of two parts, the eastern 
and western districts, the former the 
most fertile, and abounding in date- 
trees. According to Browne it is 6 m. 
in length, and from 4 \ to 5 in breadth ; 
but i'rom the irregular form of all 
these valleys it is difficult to 'fix the 
exact size of any one of them; and 
this measurement of 6 m. can only 
include the eastern part about the 
town of Siwah. Between 2 and 3 m. 
to the E. of Seewah is the temple 
of Amun, now called Om Baydah, 
" Mother White ;" and near it is what 
is supposed to be the Fountain of the 
Sun, which measures about 80 ft. by 
55, and is formed by springs. The 
water appears to be warmer in the 
night than the day, and is 12° heavier 
in specific gravity than that of the 
Nile. 

The ruins at Om Baydah are not of 
very great extent, but sufficient re- 
mains to show the style of building, 
and many of the sculp tures still re- 
main. 

Anmn-Neph, or Amun, with the 
attributes of the ram-headed god, as 
might be expected, is the principal 
deity. The figures of other divinities 
are also preserved, and the many hiero- 
glyphics that remain on the walls and 
fallen stones make us regret that these 
records of so remarkable a monument 
should not have been all copied. These 
remains, in a place possessing such his- 
torical associations as the " Oasis of 



Amnion," certainly offer as great an 
interest as any in Egypt ; and, judging 
from the destruction of temples in other 
parts of the country, we can scarcely 
hope for the continued preservation of 
these ruins. Baron Minutoli has given 
many curious details and views of this 
temple, which has .since been visited 
and described by Caillaud and other 
travellers. 

Near the temple is the supposed 
Fountain of the Sun above mentioned. 

Little less than f of a mile from Om 
Baydah, and about 2 m. E.S.E. by E. 
from the town of Se'ewah, is a hill 
called Dar Aboo Beree'k, in which are 
some ancient excavations, apparently 
tombs, and a little higher up the hill 
are some Greek inscriptions on the 
rock. 

Kasr Gashast or Gasham, to the E. 
of Se'ewah, on the way to Zaytoon, is a 
ruined -temple of Boman time ; and at 
Zaytoon, which is about 8 m. on the 
road from Seewah to Gara, are the re- 
mains of two temples and other build- 
ings of Koman-Egyptian date. 

Between Zaytoon and Gara, at 
Mawe, is a Boman temple in a marsh, 
and at Gara are some tombs without 
inscriptions. 

There are many other sepulchral 
excavations in the rock in the vicinity 
of Seewah ; and Gebel el Mot, or " the 
hill of death," about f of a mile from 
that town, contains numerous tombs, 
one of which appears to be of an 
Egyptian age. 

Kasr Koom, ''the Greek" (or Boman) 
palace, is a small Doric temple of Bo- 
man time, once surrounded by a sacred 
enclosure. To the N. are some tombs 
in the face of the hill, below which are 
the remains of brick arches, and near 
the village the vestiges of an ancient 
town. It is about 5 in. to the west- 
ward of Seewah, and a short distance 
to the northward of El Kamyseh, 
where there are other tombs, and the 
remains of a stone edifice. The ruins 
of Amoodayn, " the two columns," are 
a little more than J a mile to the S.W. 
of El Kamyseh. They are of little 
importance, and of late time. There 
are also some ruins at Gharb-Amun, 



Egypt 



ROUTE 12. '. 



-THE SEEWAH. 



267 



in the western district, on the way 
to the lake called Birket Arasheeyah. 
Though the lake has no ruins on its 
banks, it is remarkable for the reve- 
rence or air of mystery with which it 
is treated by the modern inhabitants 
of the Oasis. In it is an island, to 
which, till lately, access was strictly 
forbidden to all strangers ; and the 
crudulous tried to persuade others, as 
well as themselves, that the sword, 
crown, and seal of Solomon were pre- 
served there as a charm for the pro- 
tection of the Oasis. Linant-Bey, M. 
Drovetti, and others who have visited 
it, say that it contains nothing. 

The productions of the Se'ewah are 
very similar to those of the Little 
Oasis, but the dates are of very supe- 
rior quality, and highly esteemed. 
Thev are of six kinds : 1. The Soltanee ; 
2. The Saidee; 3. The Erahee; 4. 
The Kaibee; 5. The Ghazalee; 6. 
The Boghm — Ghazalee. The Frahee, 
a small white date when dry, are the 
most esteemed. 

The people of Se'ewah are hospitable, 
but suspicious, and savage in their 
habits and feelings. Strict in the out- 
ward forms of religion, even beyond 
those of the Little Oasis, they are into- 
lerant and bigoted in the extreme ; and, 
like all people who make a great out- 
ward display of religion, are more par- 
ticular about the observance of a mere 
form, or the exact hour of prayer, than 
the life of a human being. 

They have a form of government as 
well as a language peculiar to them- 
selves, which is in the hands of several 
sheykhs, some of whom hold the office 
for life, and others for 10 years. They 
are called elders or senators, and are 
always consulted by the sheykhs of the 
villages on all matters of importance. 
They dispense justice and maintain 
order in the province ; and the armed 
population is bound to obey their com- 
mands for the defence of the town and 
villages against the Arabs or other 
enemies. 

The Bayt-el-mal, " House of Pro- 
perty," is a depot of all property of 
persons dying without heirs, of fme3 
levied for various offences against the 



state, as not going to prayers at the 
stated times, and other crimes and 
mischmeanours. The sums thus col- 
lected are employed in charitable pur- 
poses, repairing motks, entertaining 
strangers, or in whatever manner the 
Diwan may think proper. 

They have a curious custom in re- 
ceiving strangers : as soon as any one 
arrives, the sheykh el Khabbar, 
" sheykh of the news," presents himself, 
and, after the usual tokens of welcome, 
proceeds to question him respecting 
any sort of intelligence he may be able 
to give. As soon as it has been ob- 
tained from him, the sheykh relates it 
all to the people; and so tenacious is 
he of his privilege that, even if they 
had all heard it at the time from the 
mouth of the stranger, they are obliged 
to listen to it again from this authorised 
reporter. 

They understand Arabic ; but have 
a peculiar language of their own. The 
following are a few words : — 

Tegmirt, a horse. 
Dalghrumt, camel. 
Zeetan, donkey. 
Shaha, goat. 
Bagawen, dates. 
Esdin, wheat. 
Tineefayn, lentils. 
Boos (Arabic), rice. 

Though the sheykhs pretend to great 
authority over the people, they are 
unable to prevent numerous feuds and 
quarrels that take place between dif- 
ferent villages, and even between two 
gens (families) in the same town. 
These generally lead to an appeal to 
arms, and fierce encounters ensue, often 
causing the death of many persons on 
both sides, until stopped by the inter- 
ference of the fehkes (priests). Each 
party then buries its dead, and open 
war is deferred till further notice. 

The town of Se'ewah is divided into 
an upper and lower district. It is de- 
fended by a citadel built on a rock, 
and surrounded by strong walls— a 
perfect protection against the Arabs, 
and formidable even to better armed 
assailants. The streets are irregular 
and narrow, and from the height 
of the houses, unusually dark; and 
N 2 



268 



ROUTE 13. CAIEO TO GAZA. 



Sect. II. 



some are covered with, arches, over 
which part of the dwelling-rooms are 
built. 

Married people alone are allowed to 
inhabit the upper town, to which no 
strangers are admitted. Nor is a na- 
tive bachelor tolerated there : he is 
obliged to live in the lower town, and 
is thought unworthy to reside in the 
same quarter as his married friends 
until he has taken a wife. He then 
returns to the family-house, and builds 
a suite of rooms above his father's ; 
over his again the second married son 
establishes himself, and the stories in- 
crease in proportion to the size of the 
family. This suffices to account for 
the height of many of the houses at 
Se'ewah. A peculiar regulation seems 
also to have been observed there in 
ancient times ; and Q. Curtius says the 
first circuit contains the old palace of 
the kings (sheykhs) ; in the next are 
their wives and children, as well as 
the oracle of the god ; and the last is 
the abode of the guards and soldiery. 

The Seewah was first brought under 
the rule of Mohammed Ali, and at- 
tached to Egypt, in 1820. It was then 
invaded and taken by Hassan Bey 
Shamashirgee, who during his lifetime 
received the revenues, as well as those 
of the Little Oasis and Farafreh, 
which he also annexed to Egypt. 
Ed Dakhleh then belonged to Ibrahim 
Pasha; but the Great Oasis always 
paid its taxes to the government trea- 
sury. 

Kestless and dissatisfied with the 
loss of their independence, the people 
of Seewah have since that time more 
than once rejected the authority of the 
Turks, and declared open rebellion. 
But their attempts to recover their 
freedom in 1829 and 1835 were soon 
frustrated by the presence of some 
Turkish troops, a body of Arabs, and 
a few guns ; and a later rebellion has 
proved their inability to rescue their 
lands from the grasp of Egypt. 

The principal commerce and source 
of revenue, as already stated, is derived 
from dates. The people have few 
manufactures beyond those things re- 



quired for their own use ; but their 
skill in making wicker-baskets ought 
not to pass unnoticed, in which they far 
excel the people of the other Oases. 

Intending travellers to the Seewah 
had better provide themselves before- 
hand with letters and good guides. 



EOUTE 13. 

CAIEO TO SYEIA, BY THE " SHOET 
DESEET." 

Miles. 



Cairo by Heliopolis, or Mate- 

reeah, to the Birket el Hag . . 10^ 
To separation from the Maazee 

road to Suez 10 

To ascent of hills of Urn Gum- 

mal 10 

To the Wady Canal .. .. 30 

Salaheeyah 20 

Kantarah 20 

Kateeyah 30 

El Areesh 65 

To Gaza (Ghuzzeh) 52 J 



248 

This route was at one time a good 
deal followed as the easiest and short- 
est road from Cairo to Syria, and was 
called the " Short Desert " route, to 
distinguish it from the " Long Desert " 
route by Sinai and Petra. Now, how- 
ever, that there are such facilities for 
getting from Alexandria and Port 
Said to Jaffa, it is hardly worth while 
to undertake a long and tedious jour- 
ney on camels or donkeys through a 
country which contains hardly any- 
thing of interest. Even those who 
tniglit be disposed to undertake it for 
the sake of a little experience of desert 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 13. PELUSIUM. 



269 



travelling would probably avail them- 
selves of the railway as far as Ismailia, 
and the Suez Canal thence to Kan- 
tarah (see Rte. 7), sending on their 
camels, tents, &c, to meet them there, 
and employing the time that these 
would occupy to reach Kantarah in 
paying a visit to Suez and the Canal : 
or the start might be made from 
Ismailia. 

The road passes a short way to the 
S. of Heliopolis and of the Birket el 
Hag, over the plain where Toman Bey 
was defeated by Sultan Selim. After 
leaving the Maazee road you turn 
round the eastern corner of the large 
sand-hills of TJndtham. Um-Gummal 
is high land, and from the summit the 
pyramids are seen to the W., and Gebel 
Attakah, near Suez, to the E. The 
prefix " Z7m" is remakable for its 
antiquity. It is found before the 
names of several mountain ranges in 
this desert, and an ancient African 
word implying greatness or excellence, 
as in Ama Zula among the Kaffirs, 
and in Berber names in N. Africa. 
It is not related to the Arabic Urn or 
Om, " mother." About 5 m. further 
you cross the Wady Jaffra, which runs 
down to Belbays, about 9 m. to the 1. 
For a description of the country of 
this district and of the Wady Canal 
see Rte. 7. 

Salaheeyah was probably either 
Tacasarta or Sile of the Itinerary of 
Antoninus. One of the roads is more 
direct than this, and leaves Salaheeyah 
considerably to the 1. Several mounds 
of ancient towns are seen in the dis- 
tance; and Tel Defenneh, which is 
nearly in a direct line between Sala- 
heeyah and Pelusium, marks the site of 
Daphne, the Tehaphnehes or Tahpan- 
hes of the Bible, which was a fortified 
outpost of Pelusium, and distant from 
it 16 Roman miles. At Tahpanhes the 
Egyptian king is said by Jeremiah to 
have had a palace (Jeremiah xliii. 9). 

Pelusium lies considerably to the 1. 
of the road. The remains there consist 
of mounds and a few broken columns. 
It is difficult of access, and is only 
approachable during the high Nile, or 



when the summer's sun has dried the 
mud that is left there by the inun- 
dation. It stands near the sea-shore. 
It is now called Teeneh (Tineh), 
which seems to indicate the muddy 
nature of the soil in the vicinity, for 
which some suppose it was indebted 
to its ancient appellation, Pelusium, 
tttjAos being the Greek for "mud." 
Its ancient name probably resembled 
the Peremoun or Pheromi of the Copts, 
and the latter is the origin of the 
Farama of the Arabs, by which it is 
still known ; though Savaiy states 
that " Farama was founded to the E. 
of Pelusium, which was a ruin in the 
13th centy." 

Pelusium in former times was a 
place of great consequence. It was 
strongly fortified, being the bulwark 
of the Egpptian frontier on the eastern 
side, and was considered the " Key " 
or, as Ezekiel calls it, the " Strength 
of Egypt." It was called in Scripture 
"Sin" (Ezek. xxx. 15, 16). Near 
this the unfortunate Pompey met his 
death, basely murdered by order of 
Ptolemy and his minister Photinus, 
whose protection he had claimed B.C. 48. 

The young king was engaged in a 
war with his sister Cleopatra, whom 
he had just before expelled the king- 
dom ; and the two armies were en- 
camped opposite each other in the 
vicinity of Pelusium, when the galley 
of Pompey arrived ; and Achillas, 
who afterwards figured so conspicu- 
ously in the Alexandrian war against 
Ca3sar, aided by L. Septimius and 
Sabinus, Romans in the Egyptian ser- 
vice, "under pretence of taking him 
ashore, invited him into a boat, and 
treacherously slew him." A mound 
of sand on the coast, about 4 hrs. to 
the west of Pelusium, called by the 
Arabs the Roman hill, is said to re- 
cord the spot of Pompey's death. His 
body was indeed burnt on the sea- 
shore by his freedman Philip, and 
Csesar is said to have raised a monu- 
ment to his memory, which was after- 
wards repaired by Adrian, and visited 
by Severus. But " the ashes of Pom- 
pey were taken to his widow, Cornelia, 
who buried them at his villa near 
Alba," though Lucan would seem to 



270 



ROUTE 13. CAIEO TO GAZA. 



Sect. II. 



say that they were still in Egypt in 
his time. Be this as it may, the tomb 
might still remain; but Pliny places 
it to the east of Pelusium, in the direc- 
tion of Mons Casius. The " Roman 
hill " cannot therefore be the " tu- 
mulus" of Pompey; and the tomb 
which Aboolfeda, on the authority of 
Ebn Haukel, gives to Galen, may per- 
haps be transferred to Pompey. Cer- 
tain it is that the physician of Aurelius 
was not buried in Egypt, but in 
his native place Pergamus ; and the 
distance from Pelusium, mentioned by 
Pliny, seems too great for the position 
of Pompey 's tomb. 

On the coast to the E. of Pelusium 
Pliny mentions " Chabrise Castra, 
Casius Mons, the sanctuary of Jupiter 
Casius, the tumulus of Pompey, and 
Ostracina," which were on the Lake 
Sirbonis. Ostracina is now Ostraki, 
and is about 28 m. W. of El Areesh. 

Magdolum is supposed to have been 
about half-way between Tacasarta and 
Penta Schoenon, which last may have 
been at the modern Kateeyah. 

Ebn Said says that the sea of Kol- 
zim (Arabian Gulf) is so close to the 
Mediterranean in this part, that Amer 
ebn el As had intended cutting a 
canal through the Isthmus, at the 
spot called the Crocodile's Tail, but 
was prevented by Omar, who feared 
lest the Greek pirates should plunder 
the pilgrims of Mecca. 

El Areesh (Arish) has succeeded to 
the ancient Rhinocolura, which was a 
place of exile in the time of the Pha- 
raohs, and was so called from the 
malefactors having their "noses cut 
off," instead of being punished by 
death. "At one season of the year 
numerous quails visited the district, 
which they caught in long nets made 
with split reeds ; " and these birds are 
often met with throughout this part 
of the desert, as in the days of Acti- 
sanes. Wady el Areesh is supposed 
to be the torrent or " river of Egypt," 
which was the ancient boundary on 
the side of Syria. There is water in 
it after rain. The road continues 
very near the sea-coast, the whole 
way from El Areesh to Gaza. Rather 



more than half-way from El Areesh is 
Befall, the ancient Rhaphia, off the 
road to the westward. It is referred 
to by Josephus as the first station in 
Syria at which Titus rested when on 
his way to besiege Jerusalem. Khan 
Yodnes has been supposed to occupy the 
site of Jenysus ; but the idea has pro- 
bably arisen from an accidental resem- 
blance of name, since Jenysus, being 
only three days' journey from Mons 
Casius, would seem to have been nearer 
Egypt. Some interpret the name as 
meaning " the resting-place of Jonas," 
and as fixing the place where the 
prophet was thrown up by the whale. 
But the usual Arabic tradition places 
that occurrence between Sidon and 
Beyroot, and the prophet would be 
styled Nebbee Yodnes. 

Gaza, now called Ghuzzeh, is a 
town of some 10,000 inhabitants, 
situated on a low flat hill about '6 
miles from the sea. It was formerly, 
as its Hebrew and Arabic names imply, 
a " strongly fortified place," but it is 
now quite open. It is a very old city, 
and played a great part in Biblical 
history. Its position, as the last town 
in the S.W. of Palestine and on the 
frontier of Egypt, made it an important 
military position ; but since the con- 
quest of Egypt and Syria by the 
Moslems it has had no history. For 
a full description of Gaza, see Hand- 
book of Syria. There is a telegraph 
station at Gaza, and some English 
clerks. 



•.<?• 



Egypt- 



ROUTE 14. — CAIEO 



TO MOUNT SINAI. 



271 



EOUTE 14. 

CAIRO TO MOUNT SINAI. 

a. Preliminary Hints, b. Cairo to 
Suez. c. Inhabitants of the Penin- 
sula of Sinai, d. Geography and 
natural features, e. Natural His- 
tory and Climate. /. Ruins, g. 
Eoute of the Israelites from Egypt 
to Mt. Sinai, h. Route from Ain 
Moosa to Jebel Moosa (Mt. Sinai) 
and the Convent of St. Catharine ; 
(a) via Wady Mukatteb and Feiran ; 
(/8 ), via Sarabit el Kkadim. i. De- 
scription of Convent, h. Ascent of 
Jebel Moosa and Ras Sufsafeh. 
I. Ascent of Jebel Katareena. m. 
Other excursions, n. Continuation 
of the journey by the Long Desert, 
via Akabah and Petra, or via Nahkl, 
to Palestine. 

a. Preliminary Hints. — From Cairo 
to Mount Sinai is one of the stages in 
what is called the " Long Desert " 
route from Egypt to Syria ; but as many 
travellers pay a visit to Mt. Sinai, and 
then return to Egypt without going 
further, it will be, perhaps, more 
convenient to describe it separately. 
The best months for desert travelling 
are February, March, and April. 
Earlier than February the nights are 
very cold, and snow is not uncommon 
in the Sinai hills. Later than April 
the days are very hot. 

The preparations for this journey 
are usually made at Cairo, as most of 
the sheykhs of the Towarah Arabs, 
who act as guides, and from whom 
camels are hired, are to be found 
in the early spring at the Egyptian 
capital waiting for a job, and the 
dragomen like to employ men they 
know, and have the terms of the con- 
tract settled, including the camels, 
at Cairo. But unless the traveller is 
anxious to spend a few days in cross- 
ing the desert from Cairo to Suez, in- 
stead of going to the latter place by rail- 



way in one day, and if he does not mind 
giving himself a little extra trouble, 
he will save a good deal of expense by 
telegraphing or writing to the manager 
of the Suez Hotel a few days before 
he intends leaving Cairo, and request- 
ing him to have some camels and 
guides ready by a certain date. If 
there should be none at Suez, three or 
four days will suffice to bring in any 
number from the desert. The contract 
with the dragoman can then be made at 
Cairo to include everything but camels, 
which the traveller will make his own 
bargain for at Suez, and tents, stores, 
&c, can be sent to Suez by rail. Per- 
haps the best plan of all is to engage 
the sheykh at Cairo, with the under- 
standing that his camels will only be 
paid for from Suez : only by no means 
be persuaded to go to Tor on the Red 
Sea by water from Suez, as when once 
there, the Arabs will ask what they 
like. It is impossible to lay down any 
fixed sum for the hire of camels, but it 
may be assumed roughly that while 
from 6 to 8 shillings a day will be 
asked at Cairo, they may be obtained 
for from 3 to 4 shillings at Suez. If the 
traveller puts himself entirely into the 
hands of a dragoman, and engages to 
pay him so much a day for everything, 
of course he need not trouble himself 
about the camel-hire. 

The charges of dragomen vary so 
from year to year, that it is difficult to 
estimate the expense of this journey, 
but a party of 4 persons ought not to 
pay more than 30 shillings a day each 
for everything except wine; this pro- 
portion being lessened or increased 
according to the size of the party. 
Formerly people were content to 
travel without beds and a hundred 
other little luxuries which are now 
considered indispensable ; and in- 
deed it would be difficult now to find 
a good dragoman who would con- 
sent to undertake the job, unless it 
was to be carried out in the way he 
considers necessary, and for which he 
charges accordingly. It should be 
distinctly understood, when the con- 
tract is made with the dragoman to 
supply everything, that the traveller is 
never to be troubled by the Arabs 



272 



EOUTE 14. CAIRO 



TO MOUNT SINAI. 



Sect. II. 



with any sort of application for money 
or anything else; the dragoman is 
responsible for everything : but at the 
end of the journey, if satisfaction has 
been given, a small backsheesh may be 
distributed. The contract with the 
dragoman should be properly signed 
at the Consulate, where, if it is wished, 
a form of agreement can be obtained, 
in which alterations can be made to 
suit any particular requirements. If 
the traveller hires the camels himself, 
he will have to make a separate con- 
tract with the sheykh who supplies 
them, either at Cairo or Suez. The 
journey to Sinai and back from Suez 
will take from a fortnight to 3 weeks, 
according to the time spent on the 
road and at the convent. 

The following hints for the journey 
may be useful, even to those who in- 
trust everything to a dragoman, as 
they will find it advisable every now 
and then to superintend his prepara- 
tions. A party of 4 should have 2 large 
tents, one for feeding and sitting in, 
and one for sleeping in, and one smaller 
one for the kitchen and servants. 
When the party consists of only 2, or 
even 3, one tent for day and night 
might be sufficient. Beds (iron that 
fold up), tables, chairs, and all the 
inside appurtenances of a tent should 
be examined, and seen to be strong and 
sound. The tents should be provided 
with extra ropes, as well as a double 
supply of pegs and mallets. All water 
for drinking should be carried in 
barrels kept strictly locked, and the 
Arabs never allowed to draw from 
them. In addition to this, each person 
should have a small water-skin, called 
a zemzemeeyah, to hang at his saddle ; 
these, if new, should be filled and 
emptied several times, to get rid of the 
disagreable taste they give to the 
water. Water for washing may be 
carried in a goat-skin called girbeh ; 
but the following description will 
show the traveller who does not care 
about roughing it too much, that he 
had better not be dependent on the 
girbeh, and the water that is generally 
to be met with in the Peninsula. " To 
the traveller in these thirsty limestone 
deserts, his dependence upon brackish 



and unpalatable water for his only 
supply is one of his greatest hardships. 
To be constantly imbibing a fairly 
powerful solution of Epsom salts is an 
amusement one soon grows tired of. 
We used to try all sorts of plans to dis- 
guise the flavour, — lime-juice, brandy, 
strong tea, or Arab coffee as thick as 
cream ; but neither these, nor boiling, 
nor filtering, nor anything we could do, 
were really of much avail. Then again, 
the system of carrying it in girbelis, or 
prepared goat-skins, though externally 
convenient in some respects, does not 
improve its flavour or the relish with 
which you drink it. The appearance 
of a filled girbeh is very much that of 
a small black pig which has met with 
a watery grave ; so that, what with 
the naturally villainous taste of the 
water, its strong purgative properties, 
the little extra goatish flavour im- 
parted to it by the girbeh, and the 
notion of the drowned pig, you have 
to become pretty well hardened before 
you can be said to enjoy it." — Capt. 
H. 8. Palmer. 

With regard to provisions, travellers 
will provide themselves according to 
their wants and tastes; but it must 
be remembered that absolutely nothing 
can be bought after leaving Suez, ex- 
cept sheep, which may sometimes be 
had from the Bedaween near Sinai. 
In addition, therefore, to any pre- 
served meats and other things, it 
is necessary to take a stock of live 
fowls, turkeys, and pigeons for the 
whole journey. Fresh bread may be 
baked at Sinai. Good tea will be 
found a very grateful and refreshing 
drink after a hot day's ride. One of 
the best pick-me-ups after a hot and 
wearying day's ride is a tumbler of 
tea a la Russe, with a slice of lemon, 
some sugar, and a spoonful of brandy. 
Milk can only be procured regularly 
if there happens to be among the 
camels one with a newly dropped 
young one : it is better, therefore, to 
take some preserved milk, — Aylesbury, 
Lion Brand, is the best. A supply of 
oranges is a pleasant luxury, and will 
be much appreciated at the mid-day 
meal. Water should never be drunk 
alone, but always mixed with a little 



Egypt 



ROUTE 14. — DESERT TRAVELLING. 



273 



brandy : indeed, on the score both of 
health and convenience of carriage, 
weak brandy-and-water is the best 
beverage on a desert journey; but it 
is one, no doubt, which many people 
do not like, and they will prefer to take 
claret, — though, as 3 bottles of claret 
will hardly go as far as one of brandy, 
an extra camel will be required for its 
transport. An extra supply of coffee 
and Sooree tobacco, to give to the 
Arabs occasionally, will be found 
useful. 

There ought to be but little need 
of medicine in the pure air of the 
desert ; but if the traveller is provided, 
as he probably is, with a small medi- 
cine chest, he had better take it with 
him. A little rose - water is often 
pleasant to the eyes after a hot day's 
march in the sun; and eau-de-luce or, 
still better, ammonia, is a good thing 
for bites and stings. 

A flannel shirt and a suit of tweed of 
moderate texture, not too thin, forms 
the best clothing. It is a great mis- 
take to wear very thin clothing, as tiie 
direct rays of the sun are felt through 
it in the day time, and the evenings 
are often quite cold. A rug and great 
coat should be taken: an extra covering 
is often required at night, and they 
are useful in adding to the comfort of 
the seat on the camel. The head 
must be well protected from the sun : 
a pith helmet, or a white or grey felt 
hat well wrapped round with a pug- 
gery are perhaps the best coverings ; 
but especial care should be taken that 
the nape of the neck is well protected. 
It is a good thing to cut the hair pretty 
short, and always wear underneath 
the helmet or hat one of the white 
cotton caps (tagheeyeh) worn by the 
natives under the tarboosh. A tar- 
boosh itself will be found useful for 
wear in the tent at night. Those who 
intend to do much walking and climb- 
ing among the Sinaitic hills must 
have at least one, if not two, pair of 
very stout strong boots, as the granite 
rocks destroy leather in an incredibly 
short space of time. A loose white 
burnoose, or abbayeh, to wear while 
camel -riding, is a great protection from 
both heat and dust. Though it will 



seldom be wanted in the desert, it is 
well to take a macintosh sheet, or 
American oilcloth, for damp ground. 
The ordinary Arab saddle-bags will 
be found very useful for carrying 
things in daily use. The best port- 
manteau is a tin travelling bath of 
moderate size, with an inside that 
takes out, and a wicker covering : and 
this arrangement allows the luxury of a 
bath, when water is to be had, without 
carrying extra luggage. All india- 
rubber baths have the disadvantage 
of not being able to be repaired any- 
where if they get out of order. 

Much of the comfort in a desert 
journey depends on having a good 
camel and a comfortable seat. The 
camel should be chosen and tried 
beforehand ; and the quieter he is, and 
the easier his paces, the better. A 
trotting dromedary (heggeen) nobody 
requires who is going to keep pace 
with tents and baggage, but an animal 
less rough in its walk than the ordi- 
nary baggage-camel is a desideratum. 
Much careful preparation should be 
given to the seat. Some will prefer a 
regular dromedary-saddle, with the 
addition of stirrups to rest the legs. 
The more ordinary method is, first to 
sling the saddle-bags across the com- 
mon camel pack-saddle, and then to 
pile on the top as many wraps and 
rugs as you may have, so as to form 
as soft and wide a seat as possible, 
taking care to strap them firmly down 
in order to prevent their slipping. 
You may then sit in any position you 
please, — sideways, or astride, or lady- 
fashion. Stirrups may be hung on 
either from the peak in the front of 
the saddle, or from the side, to give 
a rest to the foot. The following plan 
is recommended by one who has had 
some experience in camel riding: — 
" Place a light box or package on 
either side of the pack-saddle, suffi- 
ciently closely corded to form one 
wide horizontal surface. On this lay a 
carpet, mattress, blanket, and wraps, 
thus forming a delicious couch or seat, 
and giving the option of lying down, 
or sitting either side-saddle or cross- 
legged. Sheets, pillow, rug, &c, may 
be rolled up and strapped to the back 
n 3 



274 



ROUTE 14. CAIEO 



TO MOUNT SINAI. 



Sect. II. 



of the saddle, and form an excellent 
support to the back or elbow." The 
object of the light box or package is 
to a certain extent answered by a pair 
of well stuffed saddle-bags. A proper 
supply of rope nets (shebbekeli) for 
packing the baggage on the camels is 
essential ; otherwise the loads are con- 
tinually coming to pieces and falling : 
moreover the nets act as a protection 
against projecting pieces of rock in a 
narrow defile. 

Two more observations personal to 
the traveller in the desert may be 
added. If strong and able, he should 
walk as much as possible. The Arabian 
desert has not, like the African, a 
surface of deep sand ; but offers to 
the pedestrian, as a rule, a crisp, 
gravelly foothold, very pleasant to 
walk on. The pace of the camels 
— 2 J miles an hour— can always be 
exceeded by the walker, and this 
affords him the opportunity, when 
there is no fear of losing the way, and 
the road is everywhere secure, as it is 
between Suez and Sinai, of examining 
the country a little more in detail 
than is possible from a camel's back. 
Another great relief to the uncon- 
trollable feeling of ennui and sense of 
monotony, which comes over most peo- 
ple during a long day's ride on a camel's 
back under a broiling sun, is reading. 
The scenery may be impressive and 
full of interest of all kinds, and your 
companions may be kindred in spirit 
and pleasant to talk to, but never- 
theless a book is an agreeable change. 
Not a stiff book either, treating of the 
place and its history, but a novel or 
some such light reading. Stanley, 
Eobinson, Miss ' Martineau, Lord 
Lindsay, and as many other "local" 
books as can be found room for, 
should of course be taken and read 
daily, and no one needs to be re- 
minded that there is no book so real 
in its descriptions, and so local in its 
colouring, as the Bible ; but a stock 
of light literature in the Tauchnitz 
edition, which can be thrown away as 
read, will be found by many persons 
most useful in helping to pass away 
an hour, when mind and body are too 
wearied for any exerlion. 



b. Cairo to Suez. — By rail. See 
Kte. 7. 

Should the traveller wish to spend 
4 uninteresting days in crossing the 
desert between Cairo and Suez, there 
are several roads for him to follow. 

1. The Derb el Maazee, from Cairo, 
passes by Heliopolis and the Birket 
el Hag ; 10 m. beyond which last 
the road to Syria branches off to 
the 1., after passing the high sand- 
hills of Undtham. 

2. Derb el Hag, " Boad of the Pil- 
grims," is the same as the last, until 
after it passes the Birket el Hag, 
when it turns to the rt. by a stone 
ruin called ®es Sibeel (" the Foun- 
tain "), and the other continues below 
the Undtham hills to the 1. 

3. Derb el Hamra (the old Indian 
Mail route) passes to the S. of the red 
mountain, and joins the Derb el Hag 
about 27 m. from Cairo. 

4. Derb et Towdrah (like the 3 last, 
from Cairo) joins the Hamra about 
6 m. from the Wady Gendelee. 

5. Derb et Tarabeen, from El Bussa- 
teen, a village 3 m. above Old Cairo, 
ascends the Mokattam range by the 
Bahr-bela-ma, and joins the Towarah 
road 25 m. from Cairo, and the same 
distance from El Bussateen. It falls 
into the Derb el Hag at El Muggreh, 
58f m. from Cairo. 

No. 3 would be the one most pro- 
bably chosen. The following are the 
distances : — 

Miles. 



Cairo to Kalaiat Eaian . . . . 9 

Wady Halazdnee 8 

Derb el Hag joins this road from 

the N 10 

Cross Wady Gendelee, and then 

Wady Jaffra 10 

Om esh Sharameet 3 

Kobbet et Takrdoree . . . . «r. 4 

Plain of El Muggreh .. .. 10 

ElMuktala 10 

Fort of Agerdod 6 

Beer Suez (wells) 8 

To Suez 4 



82 

Between Kalaiat Eaian and Wady 
Halazdnee is much petrified wood. 
The Wady Halazdnee, or the " Valley 



Egypt. 



EOULE 14. — PENINSULA OF SINAI. 



275 



of Snails," is so called from their 
abounding there, as indeed through- 
out this part of the desert. But they 
are not found to the S. of lat. 29° 20'. 

The small Acacia-tree, called Dar 
el Hamra, " the red abode," or Om esh 
Sharameet, " the Mother of Bags," is 
the spot where the pilgrims rest on 
their way to Agerood; and near this 
was the principal station ( No. 4 ) of the 
passengers by the overland route. It 
is, however, no longer called " Dar el 
Hdmra," but " Dar el Bayda" " the 
White Abode," Abbas Pasha having 
built a palace there, and preferring an 
epithet of better omen. 

Kobbet et Takrooree is a tomb built 
by the friends of an African stranger 
who died there, and a little beyond it 
is Beer el Batter, a "well" only in 
name. 

No fresh water is met with on the 
Suez road, except after abundant rains 
in the Wady Gendelee, \ a mile to the 
1. of the road, and also in the Wady 
Jaffra, into which the Gendelee runs 
not far from where the road crosses 
it. Near Beer el Batter, the limestone 
rocks reappear, and the petrified wood 
ceases with the sandstone. 

The plain of El Muggreh is the 
highest part of the road. To the east- 
ward of it all the valleys now towards 
the sea, and to the westward towards 
the Nile ; and here the Derb et Tara- 
be'en joins the " road of the pilgrims." 
About 8 m. further, and about 2 m. 
short of El Muktala, is the course of 
an ancient road, the stones cleared off 
and ranged on either side, indications 
of which are seen long before to the 
westward in the heaps of stones placed 
at intervals as road-marks. 

The ancients probably followed the 
same line as the pilgrims at the pre- 
sent day, by the Derb el Hag ; though 
another road seems to have led in a 
southerly direction from Heliopolis, 
and either to have fallen into it to 
the W. of the Wady Halazdnee, or 
to have gone in a different line 
through the desert to the S. 

A little beyond this the Maazee 
road joins the Derb el Hag, and they 
continue together to El Muktala and 
Agerood, where, as already shown. 



the road of the pilgrims runs off to 
the eastward, and the others go in a 
southerly direction to Suez. 

The main road passes by the defile 
of El Muktala ; most of the roads hav- 
ing been once more united into one, a 
short distance before reaching it. The 
course thus far from Cairo is nearly E. ; 
it then takes a southerly direction to 
Suez ; but the. Derb el Hag again strikes 
off to the eastward from the fort of Age- 
rood, and crosses the peninsula of Sinai. 
Agerood is a Turkish fort ; and at 
Beer Suez is a well of brackish water. 

For Suez to Ain Moosa, with descrip- 
tions of the two places, see Rte. 7. 

At the "Wells of Moses" the 
journey into the Peninsula may be said 
to have begun, and it may be useful, 
before proceeding further, to give a 
short account of its inhabitants and 
principal features. The information 
on these and all other points con- 
nected with the Peninsula of Sinai is 
taken chiefly from the ' Account of 
the Ordnance Survey of the Peninsula 
of Sinai.' 

c. Inhabitants of the Peninsula of 
Sinai. — The collective name for the 
Bedaween inhabiting the Peninsula of 
Sinai, is the Towdrah (sins;. Turee), or 
Arabs of Tor, the ancient name of the 
Peninsula. They are subdivided into 
several tribes, of which the principal 
are 

1. The Sowalha, the most impor- 
tant, with two powerful and inde- 
pendent subdivisions — ■ 

a. The Walad Saeed. 

b. The Korasheh. 

2. The Aleikat. 

3. The Emzeineh. 

4. The Walad Shaheen. 

5. The Jibaleeyah. These last are 
called Sebaya ed Dayr, or " Serfs of 
the Convent," and are looked down 
upon by the other tribes as not of 
pure Arab descent. 

The Walad Saeed and the Aleikat 
are the recognised ghvfurah, or 
" guards " of the Convent of St. 
Catherine, and with the Jibaleeyah 
possess the right of conducting pil- 
grims to or from Tor or Suez ; but 
camels may be hired from any of the 



276 



KOUTE 14. CAIRO 



TO MOUNT SINAI. 



Sect. II. 



Towarah tribes. In addition to the 
Towarah there are, in the northern 
part of the Peninsula, the Terabeen, 
the Tiyahah, and the Haiwat. 

The total population of the Towarah 
tribes may be estimated at about 5000. 
They are a peaceful, harmless people, 
but hardy, and, though poor, dig- 
nified. Their camels are their chief 
support, and they gain a scanty liveli- 
hood by conductiug the traffic between 
Suez, Sinai, and Tor. In the more 
fertile districts, such as the Feiran, 
tobacco is grown, and the fruit of the 
date-bearing palm is an important 
article of food. Their few flocks of 
sheep and goats are chiefly useful for 
the wool and hair they supply : it is 
seldom that any are slaughtered. 
Another article of commerce is the 
ram, the traditional manna, a sweet 
gummy substance that exudes from 
the tarfah, or tamarisk-tree. It con- 
tinues to drop about two months, com- 
mencing in the autumn. The name is 
similar to the Hebrew word given in 
the Bible, and some think it was 
given to the food in consequence of 
the uncertainty of the Israelites about 
the unknown substance, " they wist 
not what it was," min signifying 
"what" in Hebrew and in Arabic. 
The dress of the Towarah consists of 
a nominally white shirt, with long 
open sleeves, fastened round the waist 
with a leathern girdle, and over this 
an abbayeh, or long cloak of camel's 
hair. Instead of the typical head- 
dress of the Bedaween — the kefeeyah, 
a gaily striped handkerchief, fastened 
with a fillet of camel's hair — they wear 
fez and turban. The women are gene- 
rally closely veiled, and wrapped in a 
loose blue frock, with a blue mantle 
over it. Though they seldom perform 
the orthodox and ostentatious Moham- 
medan prayer ceremonial, they fre- 
quently during the day, without any 
outward sign of worship, recite some 
petition. 

It would require too much space to 
describe the peculiar manners and cus- 
toms common among these or among 
other desert tribes ; but some of their 
traditions, connected with the Israel- 
ites and Moses, are worth a short I 



mention. Their legend of the passage 
of the Ked Sea agrees substantially 
with the story of the Bible, but the 
locale is placed at Hammam Pharoon, 
some way down the Gulf of Suez, 
where the sulphurous hot-baths are 
supposed to have been caused by Pha- 
raoh's struggling to extricate himself 
from the waves. The memory of 
Moses is preserved in the names of 
several places, such as " the Wells of 
Moses," at Suez and at Gebel Moosa ; 
"the Seat of Moses," at Hammam 
Pharoon, where he watched the drown- 
ing of the Egyptians, at El Wateeyah, 
in the Wady ed Dayr, and on Jebel 
Moosa, where there is the impression 
of a human head and back, said to 
have been made by Moses, when he 
shrunk back as the glory of the Lord 
passed by. Other mementoes also 
exist in the rocks said to have been 
struck by him, as at Wady Berrah, 
near the Convent, where there is a 
divided rock called Hajar el Laghwch, 
" the Speaking Stone," said to have 
been severed by Moses ; at the Wady 
el Lejah is another called Hajar el 
Magareen, "the Bock of the United 
Ones :" and in the Wady Feiran is 
a rock called Hesy el Khattateen, said 
by the Bedaween to be the identical 
one from which water issued when 
struck by Moses. Other memories of 
the Israelites linger in the names 
Shdeib (Jethro), Imran (Amram), 
Moneijah (The Conference). The 
various primitive tombs and dwellings, 
and every ruin of which the purpose 
is unknown to the Bedaween, are 
called by them nawdmees, " mosquito 
houses," because, they say, that when 
the Israelites " rebelled against God 
and against Moses," the Lord sent a 
plague of mosquitoes to torment them, 
and these edifices were erected as a 
refuge from the tiny persecutors. 

d. Geography and Natural Features. 
— The Peninsula of Sinai is in shape 
a triangle, of which the base, a line 
drawn from Suez to Akabah, is 150 m. 
long, the western side 186 m., and the 
eastern 133 in., the point at which 
the two sides meet being Bas Moham- 
med. The area contained within 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 14.— GEOLOGY OF SINAI. 



277 



these limits is about 11,500 square 
miles. Within this triangle, having 
the same base-line, and with its vertex 
also towards the south, is a crescent 
formed by the southern portion of the 
great table-land known as the Badiet- 
et-Tih, or Wilderness of the Wan- 
derings. It is separated from the rest 
of the Peninsula by a steep and lofty 
limestone ridge, forming a curved 
frontier, of which the highest point is 
Jebel Emreikeh, situated about mid- 
way between the two arms of the Red 
Sea. There are thus two distinct 
tracts of country, the comparatively 
level desert of the Tib. on the south, 
and the rugged mountains of Tor on 
the north. The latter may be con- 
sidered as more emphatically the 
Peninsula of Sinai ; by the Arabs it 
is known under the names Tor Sinai, 
Jebel Tor Sinai, and Jebel et Tor. 
The watershed of this mountainous 
region runs north and south, the val- 
leys trending westward into the Gulf 
of Suez, and eastward into the Gulf of 
Akabah. The central point in the 
system is Jebel Katareena, 8,550 ft., 
the highest mountain in the Penin- 
sula. 

There are three chief geological sub- 
divisions. 1. The sandstone district. 
This occupies a comparatively small 
portion of the Peninsula. The main 
part of it is in the north, and runs 
conterminous with the line of the Tih 
escarpment. In it are the only plains 
of deep heavy sand met with in the 
Peninsula. One of these, the Debbet 
er Ramleh, covers a space of about 130 
square miles, or one-eighth of the 
whole sandstone area. There are 
smaller tracts to the east. The chief 
features of this district are sandstone 
peaks, table-topped ranges and pla- 
teaux intersected by valleys, and un- 
dulating plains. It is the richest in 
objects of archaeological interest. In 
it are found in great numbers the 
famous " Sinaitic rock-inscriptions," 
the sandstone rocks of Wady Mu- 
katteb being covered with these 
graffiti. At Ma^harah and at Sarabit- 
el-Khadim are the old Egyptian tur- 
quoise and copper mines, with hiero- 
glyphic tablets of gieat age. 2. The 



Plutonic and Metamorphic Eocks. 
These compose the largest and most 
striking district of the Peninsula, and 
indeed give its distinctive character to 
the whole region. They extend in a 
triangular mass of mountains from the 
margin of the sandstone belt to the apex 
of the Peninsula at Eas Mohammed, 
and include the well-known peaks of 
Jebel Serbal, Jebel Moosa, and Jebel 
Katareena. The rocks are composed 
chiefly of granites and syenites, and 
varieties of gneiss and mica-schist. 
The whole region is a chaos of moun- 
tains, a bewildering network of rocky 
valleys and glens, with but a few open 
spaces. The granite district is the 
grandest and the most striking, contain- 
ing, as it does, the massive single pile of 
Serbal, and the magnificent lofty ridge, 
in the heart of which are Jebel Moosa 
and the monastery of St. Catharine, 
and the towering peak of Jebel Kata- 
reena. 3. The Cretaceous and Tertiary 
Eocks. This district is comprised in 
the long narrow strip which skirts the 
sea-board from Suez to Eas Moham- 
med. It is less mountainous than 
either the sandstone or granitic region, 
and the scenery is without interest. 
The beach which lines the sea-margin 
on the W., often spreads out into 
large plains, of which the chief is El 
Gaah, but on the E. the granite hills 
descend almost to the shore-line. 

The general aspect of the country is 
one of utter barrenness and desolation, 
but there are a few green spots in the 
upland basins, and in some of the nar- 
row passes and rocky glens. The 
chief oasis is at Wady Feinin ; and in 
the spring-time many of the valleys 
have streams running down them, 
whose stores are replenished by occa- 
sional showers and heavy dews. These 
valleys, or " wadies," form the high- 
ways of the Peninsula, and the homes 
of the Bedaween. Wady, the par- 
ticipial agent of the verb wadee to 
" send out," " go out," and hence " to 
flow," may be taken as implying a rent 
or depression, down which water flows. 
Dean Stanley has described it as ''a 
hollow, a valley, a depression — more 
or less deep, or wide, or long — worn 
or washed by the mountain torrents or 



278 



ROUTE 14. — CAIRO 



TO MOUNT SINAI. 



Sect. II. 



winter rains for a few months or weeks 
in the year." Perhaps the best 
English words to express it are " val- 
ley," or c< watercourse." As a rule 
these wadies are dry, or have water 
only on rare occasions, hut it is easy 
to account for the traces they present 
of the passage of large volumes or 
water, by the sudden storms which, at 
rare intervals, break over some part 
of the Peninsula. The prodigious 
quantity of rain discharged during 
one of these storms produces a flood 
which tears along the wadies like a 
raging torrent. One of these floods, or 
" seils " as they are called, was wit- 
nessed by the Eev. P. W. Holland in 
1867, when the Wady Feiran, a valley 
300 yards broad, was for hours the bed. 
of a resistless torrent from eight to ten 
feet deep. 

e. Natural History and Climate. — 
Notwithstanding the desert soil, there 
are few parts of the Peninsula which 
do not show some signs of vegetation. 
The valleys and the plains are sparsely 
clothed with many varieties of almost 
sapless herbs and shrubs, some of 
which manage to exist even on the 
rugged hill-sides. In addition to these 
there are some trees and large shrubs, 
such as the tarfah, or tamarisk, already 
referred to as yielding the " manna," 
the retem, or broom, the " juniper tree " 
of the Bible, and the seyal, or acacia, 
the "shittah tree" of the Bible. 
There are many signs of the vege- 
tation having been formerly increased 
by cultivation, and the gardens of the 
Monastery of St. Catharine, and in 
the valleys round Jebel Moosa are 
still kept up and tended by the monks 
with considerable care. These gar- 
dens, oases, and dry herbage have, 
however, but little effect on the gene- 
ral scenery of the country, and miti- 
gate in no appreciable degree its arid 
and desolate character. The beauty 
of the landscape is derived from the 
effects of light and air, and the colours 
and outline of the rocks. 

Animal life exists to no very great 
extent in the Peninsula. Among the 
mammals may bementioned the spotted 
hyena (dhaba'), whose tracks are often 



seen in the wadies ; the ibex (beddn), 
the " wild goat " of the Bible, to be 
found among the higher mountains, 
but very shy and wild; the dorcas 
gazelle {ghazdla) frequents the plains 
between tiie mountains and the sea on 
the east, and is very difficult of ap- 
proach ; the Sinaitic hare (arneb), in 
the upland plains ; the coney (wabur, 
jutah), in the mountains ; the jackal 
(ta'dleb); the female fox (aboo el 
hoseiri) ; the porcupine mouse, and 
others; the leopard (nimr) is seen 
occasionally in the mountains. The 
only birds that the sportsman will find, 
and those but very seldom, are the 
Greek partridge (shinndr), in the higher 
mountains ; Haj's partridge (hajjah), 
more numerous and more generally 
distributed than the Greek, it seldom 
takes flight, but runs at a great pace, 
and is difficult to get near ; the sand- 
grouse (gattdli), common in the Tih 
desert, but not easy to shoot ; and the 
quail (summdri), very rare. A few 
duck and teal, and other waterfowl, 
may sometimes be seen in the neigh- 
bourhood of the Bed Sea. The otner 
birds are chiefly chats, finches, and 
warblers. 

_ The climate of the Peninsula, espe- 
cially of the mountain parts, is very 
healthy. The old hermits, to whom 
tradition assigns an almost fabulous 
longevity, believed that man needed 
in the desert " hardly to eat, drink, or 
sleep, for the act of breathing will give 
life enough." One of its most remark- 
able features is its intense dryness, 
observations with wet- and dry -bulb 
thermometers showing a difference of 
20°, and even 30°. In winter it is very 
cold in the mountains, and snow often 
falls, though it is never seen lower 
than 4000 feet. The heat in summer 
is proportionately intense, especially 
in the limestone districts; and the 
khamseen winds, which occur gene- 
rally in the spring, render the usually 
clear atmosphere stifling and oppres- 
sive. There is a great difference 
between the temperature of the day 
and the night, especially in winter, 
the thermometer sometimes falling 
below freezing-point at night, to go up 
as high as 70° in the shade during the 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 14. ROUTE OF THE ISRAELITES. 



279 



day. This change is not so great in 
the plains. The prevailing winds are 
from the north and east. As a rule, 
the air is very still, with only a gentle 
cooling breeze, but now and then 
heavy gales suddenly spring up. The 
rainfall is very slight, unless there 
occurs one of those storms already 
alluded to. Slight shocks of earth- 
quake are said to be occasionally felt. 
Heavy dews are common in the winter. 

/. Ruins. — The archaeology of the 
Sinaitic Peninsula is of considerable 
interest. The ruins may be divided 
into four classes. 1. Primitive re- 
mains, such as stone circles, tombs, 
store-houses, the nawamees or mosquito 
houses before referred to, archaic 
sculpturings, &c, which may be re- 
ferred to the early inhabitants of the 
country, perhaps the " Amalekites" of 
the Bible. 2. Egyptian remains, sucli 
as those of Magharah and Sarabit el 
Khadim. 3. Monastic ruins, con- 
sisting of buildings erected by monks 
and hermits from the 4th to the 7th 
centuries a.d. And 4. Post-monastic, 
consisting of the few ruins which have 
a Mohammedan origin. Such ancient 
remains as occur on the routes to Sinai 
will be noticed in then- place. 

g. Route of the Israelites from Egypt 
to Mount Sinai. — But one more subject 
requires perhaps to be referred to be- 
fore starting on the journey, and that 
is, the route followed by the Israelites. 
Then* starting-place in Egypt is said 
to have been Barneses (Ex. xii. 37; 
Num. xxxiii. 3, 5). The position of 
this town cannot be said to have been 
absolutely determined, but it is pro- 
bable that it was at a place close to 
the Fresh- Water Canal between Zag- 
azig and Ismailia, which has been 
named Eameses by the French. This 
would place it in the centre of the j 
Land of Goshen, and on the border of , 
the large irrigation canal which pre- j 
ceded the navigable one. From 
Eameses they marched three days to ! 
Pi-hahiroth, over against or before j 
Baal-zephon (Ex. xiv. 2 ; Num. 
xxxiii. 7), the intermediate stations 
being Succoth and Etham. These two 



places have not been identified, but 
from Etham being spoken of as " in 
the edge of the wilderness," it may be 
concluded that it was just beyond the 
limit of cultivable land, and somewhere 
in the neighbourhood of the present 
Bitter Lakes. The sites of Pi-hahiroth 
and Baal-zephon are also unknown; 
but perhaps the most reasonable of 
all the many conjectures is that which 
places them in the neighbourhood of 
Shaloof on the Suez Canal. The argu- 
ments in favour of this view, and of 
making the site of the Passage some 
miles to the north of Suez are these. 

The distance from Eameses to Sha- 
loof is about 55 miles, a good three 
days' journey for a large multitude, 
including women and children, even 
making allowance for the necessity 
which existed for escaping the 
Egyptians. The Eed Sea, which then 
extended to the head of the modem 
Bitter Lakes, if not to Lake Timsah, 
was at this point narrow and com- 
paratively shallow ; and as, according 
to the Bible (Ex. xiv.), the whole host 
passed over in one night, the point of 
crossing must have been narrow. A 
strong east, or rather, as the Septua- 
gint has it, south wind, would soon 
have rendered the spot fordable at low 
tide, this natural phenomenon being 
miraculously exaggerated ; and as the 
tide rose and the wind increased to a 
hurricane, and one of those frightful 
storms set in which many travellers 
have experienced in these parts, and 
to which the Psalmist refers (Ps. 
lxxvii. 15-20), the Egyptians, caught 
in mid -channel, were overwhelmed 
and drowned. Many are in favour of 
placing the scene of the passage 
further south, in the neighbourhood of 
Suez ; while others, on the strength 
of a Bedawee tradition, maintain that 
the Israelites crossed from the foot of 
Bas Attakah below Suez to Ain 
Moosa, a distance of more than five 
miles. This last hypothesis supposes 
the starting-place to have been oppo- 
site Memphis, and the route to have 
lain along the valley which leads 
thence to the Eed Sea. 

The next stage in the journey of the 
Israelites after crossing the Eed Sea is, 



280 



KOUTE 14. CAIRO TO MOUNT SINAI. 



Sect. II. 



according to the Bible, Marah, which 
they reached after "three days' jour- 
ney in the wilderness." If the crossing 
took place, as it has been assumed it 
did, at Shaloof, then Marah, where the 
waters were bitter, may be identified 
with Ain Moosa, about 18 miles from 
Shaloof. But if the scene of the pas- 
sage be fixed at Suez, then the site of 
Marah may be fixed, at Ain Hawarah, 
47 miles from Ain Moosa ; or perhaps, 
with more probability, somewhere in 
the Wady Amarah, 41 miles from Ain 
Moosa. 

From Marah they came to Elim, 
where "were twelve wells of water 
and threescore and ten palm-trees " 
(Ex. xv. 27). The site of Elim may be 
placed either in Wady Ghurundel or 
Wady Useit, according as the position 
of Marah is fixed at Wady Amarah or 
at Ain Hawarah. 

The next encampment was " by the 
Bed Sea" (Num. xxxiii. 10), some- 
where no doubt ou the broad level 
plain at the mouth of Wady Taiyibeh. 

The " Wilderness of Sin " is the 
next stage in the journey, and this is 
supposed to correspond with the open 
plain called El Markhah, extending 
by the sea from Jebel el Markhah to 
the entrance to Wady Feiran. 

The next two places mentioned in 
Numbers are Dophkah and Alush, 
which cannot be identified; but as 
they lay between the Wilderness 
of Sin and Bephidim, they must be 
looked for somewhere in the Wady 
Feiran. There are four roads leading 
from El Markhah to Jebel Moosa, 
and some writers have advocated the 
claims of one or other of these to have 
been that taken by the Israelites ; but 
everything seems in favour of the 
Wady Feiran having been the one 
chosen. It is a much easier road than 
any of the others, and it was likely to 
have been chosen in preference to the 
other easy one by Seih Sidreh and 
Wady Mukatteb, as avoiding the 
Egyptian settlements at Magharah. 

Ancient tradition, and most modern 
authors, agree in placing Bephidim 
at Feiran. Its position answers to all 
the requirements of the account of the 
battle with the Amalekites (Ex. xvii. 



8-16) ; and the rock which Moses 
there struck to procure water being 
called "the Bock of Horeb" presents 
no difficulty, as " Horeb " is a general 
term applied to the whole granite 
district of the Peninsula, and not to 
any one particular peak or mountain. 
This is the view taken by Lepsius, 
Stanley, and all the members of the 
Ordnance Survey, except Mr. Holland, 
who follows Burckhardt and Bobinson 
in placing Bephidim at El Wateeyah, 
a narrow pass leading through the 
granite wall which encloses the central 
group of Sinaitic mountains : but the 
only serious arguments in its favour 
are, that it is within an easy day's 
journey of Jebel Moosa, a condition 
which some think is required by the 
Biblical narrative, and that Moham- 
medan tradition points out a rock 
there called " the Seat of the prophet 
Moses." Various other traditions, how- 
ever, say as much or more for Feiran, 
and the account in Exodus xix. 2 does 
not seem necessarily to imply that only 
one day elapsed between leaving Bephi- 
dim and camping " before the mount." 

From Feiran the main body of the 
Israelites, with their flocks and herds, 
probably passed up the Wady esh 
Sheykh, while Moses and the Elders 
went by the Wady Solaf and the Nugb 
Hawa; the final camping-ground, at 
which took place the giving of the 
Law, being the plain of Er Bahah at 
the foot of the peak of Jebel Moosa 
called Bas Sufsafeh. It would take 
too long here to examine at length the 
claims of the different mountains that 
have been put forward to represent 
" Mount Sinai," " the Mount of the 
Giving of the Law." They are five 
in number, — Jebel el 'Ejmah, Jebel 
Umm 'Alawee, Jebel Katareena, Jebel 
Serbal, and Jebel Moosa. The last 
two have had the most advocates : but 
all recent research and discovery seems 
to disallow the claim of any but Jebel 
Moosa. Its peak of Bas Sufsafeh alone 
seems to meet all the requirements of 
the case, viz., a well-defined precipi- 
tous mountain summit, overlooking a 
large open space, on which a vast host 
like that of the Israelites could encamp, 
and find sustenance for their flocks 



Egypt 



ROUTE 14. AIN MOOSA TO JEBEL MOOSA. 



281 



and herds. It does not come within ' 
the scope of the present route to trace i 
the road followed by the Israelites 
further than Mount Sinai; and, indeed, I 
the materials for the identification of 
any of their subsequent resting-places ; 
are so slight, that hardly one site can \ 
be fixed with any certainty. 

h. Routes from Ain Moosa to Jebel 
Moosa Mi -v. nt Sinai), and the Convent of 
St. Catharine. — There are several roads ! 
by which Mount Sinai may be reached 
from Ain Moosa ; but it will be sufii- 1 
cient here to describe the two which 
are most usually followed by travellers, 
the one in going to, and the other in 
returning from Mount Sinai, merely 
indicating the names and distances 
along the other roads. And of these 
two principal roads the first and the last 
parts coincide, the difference in direc- 
tion occurring between Wady Shebei- 
keh and the mouth of Nugb Hawa. 

Route (a) via, Wady Hukatteb and 
Feirdn. 

Miles. 

Ain Moosa [Marah] to Wady 

Sadur 21 

Wady Amarah [Marah] .. .. 20 

Ain Hawarah [Marah] . . . . 6 

Wady Ghmundel [Elim] . . . . 7 

Wadv Useit [Elim] 6 

Wady Ethal 7 

Wady Shebeikeh (mouth of) . . 4 
Wady Taiyibeh (mouth of) [En- 
campment by the Sea] . . . . 4 

Jebel el Markhah 7 

Seih Bab'a 6 

Wady Shellal (mouth of; 2 

Nugb Buderah 4 

Wady Igne (mouth of, leading 

to Magharah) 5 

Wady Mukatteb 5 

Wady Feiran 4 

Feirdn (El Maharrad) [Ee- 

phidim] 14 

Wady esh Sheykh (mouth of) 6 
Wady Solaf head of) and 

mouth of Xugb Hawa . . . . 15 

Nugb Hawa (summit of ) . . . . 5 
Jebel Moosa and Monastery of 

St. Catherine 5 



153 



Route (0) via Sardbit el Khddim. 

Miles. 

Ain Moosa to Wady Shebeikeh 

(see (a)) 71 

Sarboot el Jemel 7 

Wady Suwig (mouth of) .. .. 13 
Saraoit el Kbadim (foot of) .. 6 
Debebat Sheykh Ahmed . . 7 

Erweis el Ebeirig 21 

Wady Solaf (head of) and 

mouth of Nugb Hawa . . 12 
Jebel Moosa, &c, via Nugb 

Hawa see (a) ) 10 

147 

If the traveller does not intend re- 
turning to Cairo, but means to con- 
tinue on across the desert to Hebron, 
he had better, unless Egyptian anti- 
quities are especially his object, choose 
Ete. a as affording the most general 
objects of interest. 

Route (a). 

On leaving Ain Moosa the tra- 
veller turns his back on civilisation, 
and enters on the wide desert. And 
nothing can well be more dreary 
and monotonous than the first day's 
journey. At first the plain is a little 
broken, but after a few miles, at Wady 
ed Dehseh, a flat desolate expanse is 
entered on, unrelieved by any feature. 
The march is toilsome enough, even if 
the weather be clear and fine ; but if, 
as is frequently the case, a khamseen 
wind gets up, making the atmosphere 
oven-like in its heat and oppressive- 
ness, and enveloping everything in a 
shroud of sand, then indeed the first 
day's journey in the desert is any- 
thing but a pleasant and encourag- 
ing experience, and the " flesh- 
pots" of Egypt will be looked back 
upon with regret. So many travellers 
mention having met with a khamseen 
wind and sand-storm in this part of 
the desert, that it seems as if it were 
a phenomenon peculiar to this special 
region. Dean Stanley says, " Soon 
Eed Sea and all were lost in a sand- 
storm, which lasted the whole day. 
Imagine all distant objects entirely 
lost to view, — the sheets of sand fleet- 
ing along the surface of the desert like 
streams of water ; the whole air filled, 



282 



ROUTE 14. CAIRO 



TO MOUNT SINAI. Sect. II. 



though invisibly, with a tempest of 
sand, driving in your face like sleet. 
Imagine the caravan toiling against 
this, — the Bedouins, each with his 
shawl thrown completely over his 
head, half of the riders sitting back- 
wards, the camels, meantime, thus 
virtually left without guidance, though 
from time to time throwing their long 
necks sideways to avoid the blast, yet 
moving straight onwards with a pain- 
ful sense of duty truly edifying to 
behold .... Through the tempest, 
this roaring and driving tempest, 
which sometimes made me think that 
this must be the real meaning of ' a 
howling wilderness,' we rode on the 
whole day." 

From Wady ed Dehseh three roads 
lead to the springs of Wady Ghur- 
undel. The westernmost passes along 
the coast to Jebel Hammam Pharoon, 
and then turns up Wady Ghurundel : 
the easternmost, which branches off a 
little north of Wady ed Dehseh, runs 
in the direction of Jebel Bagah in the 
Tih, and then passes near the outskirts 
of the Tih ran#e to the upper part of 
Wady Ghurundel : and the central 
and shortest, which, as the one usually 
followed, will be described. 

The sandy bed of Wady Sadur 
(21 miles) is generally chosen as the 
first camping-place after leaving Ain 
Moosa. A few stunted tamarisks and 
other shrubs are dotted about, and at 
the head of the wady is the isolated 
peak of Jebel Bisher. The Taset 
Sadur (the Cup of Sadur), another 
similar peak, lies ten miles further 
inland. In this neighbourhood are the 
head-quarters of the Terabeen Arabs. 
The most marked feature after leav- 
ing Wady Sadur is Wady War dan (8 
miles), a broad depression strewn with 
boulders. From this point there is an 
effective view of the Tih and Er Kahah 
cliffs, and the bold outlines of Jebel 
Bisher occupying the gap between 
them. Gazelle may sometimes be seen 
in this neighbourhood. 

Wady Amdrah (14 miles\ which may 
have been the site of " Marah," is the 
next halting-place for the night; or 
the camp may be pitched near the 



Hagar efjlekliab (3 miles) (" the Stone 
of the Eider "), a group of low rocks 
whose shade affords a tempting rest- 
ing-place. The country after passing 
Wady Amarah is not quite so mono- 
tonous. The plain undulates, and is 
diversified by hills and plateaux glit- 
tering in many places with crystals of 
gypsum ; on the left spurs come down 
from the Tih, and low ranges of hills 
run down on the right to the sea, whose 
blue and sparkling waters may now and 
then be caught glimpses of ; in front 
rise the high dark outlines of Jebel 
Hammam Pharoon. We are near the 
end of the " Wilderness of Shur," in 
which the Israelites " went three days 
and found no water." Ain Hawdrah 
(3 miles) is also considered to havo 
claims to be identified with " Marah." 
It is an insignificant spring, situated 
on an eminence, and overshadowed by 
one or two desert palms. The water 
is nasty and bitter, like that of all the 
other springs in the limestone district. 
Passing on the way the Engee el Fool 
("the Bean-field"), a small basin which 
collects sufficient moisture from the 
neighbouring hills to support a little 
Arab cultivation, we reach Wady 
Ghurundel (5 miles), a broad well- 
defined valley, at this point about 600 
yards wide, and running between 
chalky cliffs 60 to 80 feet high. There 
is plenty of desert herbage, and small 
clusters of stunted palms are frequent. 
In this valley grows plentifully the 
ghurleud, a plant with a small red 
berry, which some suppose to have 
been the "tree" used by Moses to 
sweeten the waters at Marah. This 
plant, however, has no such properties. 

The Springs of Wady Ghurundel (2 
miles) form usually the third halting- 
place of the traveller, as here the stock 
of water can be renewed, and the 
camels refresh themselves after the 2J 
days' march from Ain Moosa. In 
spring time the supply of water is 
abundant, and bursts forth in several 
places, but it is insipid and not over 
clean. In the cliffs on the left, 
above the springs, are some old tombs. 
Wady Ghurundel has been fixed upon 
as one of the most probable sites 



Efjypt. 



ROUTE 14. — JBBEL 



HAMMAM PEAEOON. 



283 



for " Elim " ; and the oasis which 
meets the eye of the traveller, if he 
should make an excursion down the 
wady to Jebel Hammam Pharoon, will 
answer to the requirements of the 
spot. The valley narrows a short 
distance below the springs, the cliffs 
rise in height, and a running stream 
gives life to thickets of palms and 
tamarisks, and beds of reeds and bul- 
rushes, abounding in waterfowl and 
other birds, and through which the 
water gurgles, with brooks, and pools, 
and tiny waterfalls. The water ends 
about a mile from the mouth of the 
wady, which issues upon the sea-plain, 
a gently-sloping alluvial tract of sand 
and gravel about § mile broad. 

Four miles along this plain to the 
S.W. is Jebel Hammdm Pharoon (the 
Mountain of Pharaoh's Hot-bath), a 
splendid cliff of crystalline limestone 
about 1570 feet high. The hot springs 
gush out of passages in the rocks in 
the northern end, and out of the sand. 
The two principal springs are the 
hottest, with a temperature of about 
160 D . The water has an unpleasant 
taste and a sulphurous smell, and is 
by the Bedaween credited with marvel- 
lous medicinal properties. The name 
is derived from a Bedaween legend 
which places the destruction of Pha- 
raoh and his host at this spot, and 
attributes the heat and sulphurous 
smell of the water to their troubled 
spirits lying beneath the waves. The 
bluffs of Jebel Hamman Pharoon, and 
the neighbouring peak of Jebel Useit, 
present a continuous and abrupt front 
to the sea, five miles long, and im- 
passable. 

Eeturning to the main route we pass, 
soon after leaving Wady Ghurundel, 
on to the high rolling plain of El Gar- 
gal. The scenery here is picturesque : 
in front rises the triple peak of Sar 7 
boot el Jemel, while the outlines of 
Jebel Serbal and Jebel el Benat can 
be faintly seen to the S.E. ; on the left 
are the spurs of the Tih, and on the 
right the ridges of Jebel Hammam 
Pharoon and Jebel Useit. Wady 
Useit (6 miles) is the first broad valley 
crossed. It is sparsely covered with, 
vegetation, and just above the crossing 



place are some brackish wells, with 
a few palms. This place is another 
candidate for being the site of " Elim." 
Wady Ethal (7 miles) is the next 
feature : it is about J a mile wide, and 
has the usual desert vegetation. Both 
these wadies issue through narrow 
gorges, between high limestone cliffs, 
on to the sea-plain. A short distance 
beyond Wady Ethal is a heap of stones 
called 'Oreis et Temman (•" the Bride 
of Temman"), so called from a female 
devotee who used to sit and beg at 
this spot, and was buried there. The 
mouth of Wady ShebeiJcah (the Valley 
of the Net) (4 miles) is reached after a 
labyrinthine course through chalky 
hillocks and ridges, vertical cliffs, and 
great quarry-like recesses. At this 
point branches off Koute (/3), to be 
hereafter described. 

The present route turns southward 
down Wady Taiyibeh (the " Pleasant" 
or "Fruitful Valley "). After 2£ miles 
down this valley, between walls of 
limestone rock from whose dazzling 
face there is a terrible glare, a cluster 
of stunted palms and tamarisks is 
reached, amongst which bubble up a 
few springs of brackish water ; and a 
short distance further on are one or two 
more springs, and a few more palms and 
tamarisks. Yet another mile or so be- 
tween hot vertical cliffs, with the bright 
green caper-plant clinging to their 
faces, and then, passing on the left a 
fine bluff of lava and conglomerates, 
arranged in bright bands of red, black, 
and brown, we reach the mouth of 
Wady Taiyibeh (4 miles), and come 
out upon the coast-plain of El Mur- 
keiyeh. On this plain, somewhere 
near the mouth of the Wady Tai- 
yibeh, is placed the site of "the 
Encampment by the Sea," and some- 
where about the same spot the tra- 
veller will pitch his next encamp- 
ment after leaving Wady Ghurundel. 

A hot and weary march follows over 
the plains of El Murkheiyeh and El 
Markhah. A short distance down the 
coast is the low headland called Bas 
Aboo Zeneemeh. The tomb of the 
saint from whom it is named is to the 
right of the road, and is hung round 
with a miscellaneous collection of of- 



284 



ROUTE 14. CAIRO TO MOUNT SINAI. 



Sect. IT. 



ferings. Further on, the road crosses 
a low promontory of limestone rocks, 
which at one point rise and approach 
the sea so closely, that the passage at 
high tide is not more than from 30 to 
40 ft. wide. We now reach the bold 
white cliffs of Jebel el MarJchah (7 
miles), and crossing the promontory 
which juts out from it enter the plain 
of El Mdrkhdhj a wretched desolate 
expanse of flints and sand, almost 
without vegetation. For about two 
hours the road traverses this plain in 
a S.E. direction, and a weary trudge 
it is. The sun is scorchmgly hot, and 
blazes down upon the traveller from a 
sky whose blue expanse is unchequered 
by a single cloud. On the right the 
waters of the gulf, of an Oven deeper 
azure, seem to simmer in a mirror-like 
motionless expanse, that is hardly 
broken by a ripple even where they 
reach the shore. The soil around is 
dry, baked, and glowing. Fortunate 
is he who does not have to encounter 
a khamseen wind to add to the ex- 
hausting heat, but meets rather with 
the fresh sea-breeze, which generally 
rises in the afternoon, and changes the 
character of the scene. 

At last the entrance of Seih BaVa 
(6 miles) is reached. Ten miles further 
down the plain is the mouth of the 
Wady Feiran, up which, according to 
the most probable conjecture, the 
Israelites marched. We therefore here 
quit for a time their track, and ad- 
vance up the Seih Bab'a, a narrow 
valley between hills of limestone, which 
soon widens out at the mouth of the 
Wady Shelldl (2 miles). Up this valley 
lies the road, between sandstone and 
limestone rocks of fantastic form and 
colours. The scenery begins to be 
very fine, and to afford a sample of 
the grander features of the Sinaitic 
country. The path rises rapidly over 
a rugged tract of ground, and then 
comes suddenly to the foot of Nugb 
JBuderah (4 miles), an abrupt cliff of 
variegated sandstone, about 100 ft. 
high. Up its face winds a steep path, 
here and there supported by a rubble 
wall, and quite practicable, thanks to 
the care bestowed on it by the late 



Major Macdonald, who lived at Ma- 
gharah, for baggage-camels. At the 
summit is a very small plain, from 
which the road leads through a nar- 
| row winding pass, shut in by beauti- 
j fully coloured rocks, into the Wady 
j Nugb Buderah (2| miles), and then 
I turns to the left up the Seih Sidreh 
| (1 mile). Here is obtained the first 
j glimpse of the red granite of the Penin- 
| sula. At first it is only seen on the 
I left bank of Seih Sidreh, then it ap- 
j pears on the right, after which it ends, 
and the gorge sweeping round a cliff 
of sandstone issues on a broad valley. 
At the upper end of the gorge comes 
in on the left a small valley, Wady 
Igne (lj mile). 

If the camp should be pitched for the 
night somewhere near this spot, the 
traveller may think it worth while to 
devote a few hours to visiting the old 
Egyptian turquoise mines of Maghdrah, 
which are not far distant. Half a mile 
from its mouth the Wady Igne divides, 
and a few yards up its northern branch, 
called Wady Genaiyeli, are the tur- 
quoise mines, situated at from 150 to 
200 feet above the valley, in some 
sandstone cliffs on the western side. 
At the fork of the valley is a conical 
hill, strewed with the ruins of build- 
ings occupied by the captive miners 
and their guards; and at the foot of 
the hill are the remains of the house 
occupied by the late Major Macdonald, 
j who worked the mines for some time, 
j From the ruins a bank of loose stones 
; runs down into the valley and up again 
! to the mines, a causeway apparently 
j for the passage of the miners, intended 
to save the labour of climbing up and 
I down the steep banks. From the house 
j a camel-road leads up the valley to a 
1 good spring of water three miles dis- 
I tant. Maghdrah signifies a " mine " 
j or " cave," and is a term applied, not 
| to one particular spot, but to the whole 
district in which the mines are situated. 
Besides the workings at this spot, 
others may be seen in the Seih Sidreh, 
near the mouth of Wady Igne, and in 
Wady Umm Theniaim, which enters 
Seih Sidreh about a mile lower down. 

According to the hieroglyphic tablets 
at Maghdrah, the first Egyptian mo- 



Egypt. 



EOUTE 14. MAGHAKAH WADY MUKATTEB. 



285 



narch who invaded the Peninsula was 
Senefroo, the first king of the IVth 
dynasty, who put up a tablet record- 
ing his conquest of the country, and 
discovery of the mines. Cheops, or 
Shoofoo, the builder of the Great 
Pyramid, also has a tablet close to the 
entrance of the cave. There are re- 
cords of various other monarchs of the 
Vth and Vlth dynasties, who either 
continued or re-established the works. 
From the Vlth to the Xllth dynasty 
they appear to have been abandoned. 
In the 2nd year of Amenemha III. of 
the Xllth dynasty an expedition ap- 
pears to have been sent to reconquer 
the place, and there are various tab- 
lets of this monarch's reign referring 
to the working of the mines. The 
name of his successor Amenemha IV. 
also appears among the inscriptions. 
A gap in the records again occurs 
until the XVIIIth dynasty, when there 
is an inscription recording an expe- 
dition to the mine during the joint 
reigns of Hatasoo and Thothmes III. 
From that time Magharah was, aban- 
boned by the Egyptians. We gather 
from these records that the Egyptians 
worked the mines at intervals during a 
period of from 1000 to 2000 years, and 
that it is more than 3000 years since 
they ceased working at them. The ma- 
terial which they sought to obtain at 
the mines is always called mafka in 
the hieroglyphics, and is no doubt the 
turquoise of inferior quality, which 
may still be obtained. The presiding 
goddess, of both the region and the 
stone which it produced, was Athor, who 
is constantly mentioned in the inscrip- 
tions, and with whom are associated 
Thoth and Sept. It is a curious fact 
that among the debris of the mines 
are several specimens of a fresh-water 
shell now found in the Nile, the 
Spatha Chaziana (Lea), with the nacre 
quite fresh. Unless these were brought 
from the Nile, which is hardly pro- 
bable, we must suppose that at one 
time there was sufficient water at 
Magharah for them to live in. 

Leaving the point where the Wady 
Igne joins the Seih Sidreh, we con- 
tinue along the latter till its junction 
with the Wddy Mukattcb (the " Writ- 



ten Valley ") (5 miles), a broad shallow 
watercourse, with terraced cliffs, piled 
up at the base with crumbling blocks 
and fragments. It derives its name 
from the so-called Sinaitic inscriptions 
with which its rocks abound. These 
inscriptions are to be found in more or 
less abundance all the way from Wady 
I^ne to the head of Wady Mukatteb, 
but the greater number of them occur 
in clusters in the space of about a mile 
at the lower end of this wady. They 
are generally found in the low r er strata 
of sandstone. At one time supposed 
to be of great antiquity, they are now 
proved to be the work of Christian 
hermits and pilgrims of certainly not 
earlier than the 4th century. The 
language in which they are written, 
according to Prof. Palmer, is a dialect 
of the Aramaic tongue, and the letters 
a link between the ordinary Hebrew 
and Cufic. The inscriptions consist 
generally of the writer s name, with 
some conventional formula attached. 
From the watershed at the head of 
Wady Mukatteb the view is very 
beautiful, presenting striking con- 
trasts of form and colour. On the E. 
is a magnificent red granite moun- 
tain, Jebel Merzegah. 

The road now descends from the 
summit level, and enters a wide 
boulder-strewn valley towards Wddy 
Feirdn (4 miles), the grandest of all 
the Sinaitic wadies. About a mile 
up the valley, at the mouth of Wady 
Nisreen, are some stone circles and 
cairns, probably sepulchral monuments 
of a very early date. There are some 
14 or 15 circles closely grouped to- 
gether, and of from 10 to 20 ft. in 
diameter. In the centre of each is a 
cist, about 4 ft. long, 2g ft. broad, and 
2J ft. deep, composed of four large 
stones, and a covering slab. Inside 
the cists have been found human bones, 
teeth, &c, and in one instance a small 
bracelet of copper, lance and arrow- 
heads, and a necklace of marine shells. 
Though the bones were decomposed, 
the outline of the body could be traced, 
placed on its left side, in the bent posi- 
tion usually considered one of the 
oldest forms of burial. 

The Wady Feiran now opens out into 



286 



EOUTE 14. CAIRO TO MOUNT SINAI. 



Sect. IT. 



a succession of long open reaches, with 
Jebel Serbal and its neighbouring 
peaks filling up the background. The 
soil is a crisp granite gravel, with here 
and there tracts strewn with boulders 
or shingle. The rich colouring of the 
sandstone rocks is now exchanged for 
the somewhat more sober hues, but 
more varied outlines, of granite, gneiss, 
&c. As we advance further the bed 
of the wady narrows, and the scenery 
becomes grander at every step. At a 
sharp angle of the valley, on its right 
bank, is a large block of fallen granite, 
covered with a heap of pebbles and 
small stones. This is called Hesy el 
Khattdteeii (11 miles), and is declared 
by the Bedaween to be the identical 
rock struck by Moses to supply the 
thirsty Israelites (Ex. xvii. 6). It 
should be noted that we are again on 
the most probable route taken by the 
Israelites, who are supposed to have 
come up Wady Feiran from the sea. 
Contrary to most of the traditional 
sites in the peninsula, this rock is 
just where we should expect to find 
it. The Amalekites, encamped three 
miles higher up the valley at Bephi- 
dim (Feiran), cut off all access to the 
water supply there, and the eager 
thirst of the Israelites, after three 
weary marches without coming to any 
springs, may well at last have caused 
the murmurings described in the sacred 
narrative, when they found themselves 
cut off from the hoped-for oasis. The 
grandeur and desolation of the scenery 
now becomes almost overpowering, and 
the eye rests with pleasure on the little 
oasis of El Hesweh, to be followed not 
long after by the welcome sight of the 
great palm-grove of Feiran, a rich 
mass of dark-green foliage winding 
eastward through the hills. A ragged 
valley, Wady 'Aleyat, at whose head 
stands Jebel Serbal, here comes in 
from the south-east ; and in the centre 
of the open space caused by their 
junction stands a low hillock, El 
Maharrad (3 miles) crowned with 
ruins. In this pleasant oasis the tra- 
veller will pitch his tent with delight, 
and, if he can, devote at least one, still 
better two days to an examination of 
the surrounding district. 



I Chief among the objects of interest 
to some will be Jebel Serbal, the ascent 
of which mountain will occupy a whole 
day, and should not be undertaken 
by any but good walkers and climbers, 
as the way is hard and toilsome, and 
the climbing near the summit requires 
a steady head, and some experience 
in mountaineering. The ascent from 
j Feiran will take about 5 hrs. Jebel 
Serbal is in many ways the most 
striking mountain of the peninsula ; 
it rises abruptly to a height of 4000 ft. 
above the valleys at its base, and its 
summit, a ridge about 3 miles long, is 
j broken into a series of b autifully out- 
j lined peaks of nearly the same height, 
j The loftiest, 6734 ft., is towards the 
eastern extremity of the ridge. Some 
I writers have identified Serbal with the 
! Mount Sinai of the Bible, but all 
| the best recent authorities agree in 
considering that the topographical re- 
quirements of the Bible narrative are 
not met by its position. There is no 
large plain in its vicinity on which 
the Israelites could have encamped in 
sight of the mountain: a sufficiently 
fatal objection in itself. 

The way to Jebel Serbal lies up the 
Wady 'Aleyat, a broad rugged valley, 
with a few trees and a little herbage. 
At the upper part of the wady, which 
rises rapidly in its 3 miles' course, are 
some springs of cool water and a few 
palms. The path now enters the lower 
slopes of Serbal. Hence to the sum- 
mit basin from which the peaks rise 
there are two principal paths, or goat- 
tracks, one by a steep rocky ravine 
called Aboo Hamatah (the " Boad of 
the Wild Fig-tree "), and. the other and 
longer one by two less precipitous paths 
called Sikke-, Sadur and Sikket er 
Beshskah ( " the Boad of the Sweater''), 
The principal peak is an enormous 
smooth dome of granite surrounded by 
a cupola of like nature. The climbing 
here is not easy, and it is only the 
coarse nature of the rock, which affords 
a good foothold, that makes it possible 
to get up or down, there being nothing 
to cling to. In a few places there are 
steps of loose stones, laid probably 
ages ago, which make the task easier. 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 14. JEBEL SERBAL WADY FEIRAN. 



287 



A narrow ledge runs out from near 
the summit of the peak for about 50 
yards, ending in a sheer precipice of 
4000 ft. On this are the ruins of the 
lighthouse, which gives its name El 
Madhawwa to the highest peak of 
Serbal. It was one in a system of 
beacon-fires kept up from Matal'i Hud- 
lierah, or " Look-outs of Hazeroth," to 
Suez, and along the sea-coast. It is 
a rude stone structure, probably built 
by the same men who traced the Si- 
naitic inscriptions, several of which 
are found on the path up to the sum- 
mit, and in a hollow near the light- 
house. Capt. H. S. Palmer thus de- 
scribes the view from the top of 
Serbal : — " Prom the summit of Serbal 
the landscape on a clear day is one of 
the most striking and varied, if not the 
most extensive in the country. Look- 
ing seaward, a wild chaos of rock and 
mountain fills the foreground : then 
comes the hot brown El Ga'ah ; then 
Tor and its palm-gioves, faintly seen, 
and the low coast range further north ; 
then the glittering water of the gulf, 
backed in the far distance by grey 
and purple ranges of African moun- 
tains. Looking inland, the eye roams 
over an amazing complication of desert 
mountains and valleys — a vast net- 
work, of which the white and grey 
wady-beds, winding in fanciful snaky 
patterns over the whole face of the 
country, form the threads, while moun- 
tains of all sizes, forms, and hues fill 
the interstices; northward the far 
prospect is closed by the long blank 
of the Tih escarpment ; the peaks of 
Katharma and Umm Shomer rise 
darkly in the south-east ; at your feet 
is Feiran, a thin green line of palms 
straggling through the hills." 

The derivation of the word Serbal is, 
according to Professor E. H. Palmer, 
whose etymology has been adopted in 
this account of the Peninsula, from 
the Arabic word sirbdl, a "shirt" or 
"coat of mail," in allusion to the 
gushing of the waters, during a storm, 
over the round smooth rocks of the 
summit, which clothe it, as it were, 
witli a shirt, or coat of mail, of glitter- 
ing fluid. The Eev. F. W. Holland 
describes the appearance of Serbal 



after a heavy winter rain as " covered 
with a sheet of ice that glittered like 
a breastplate." 

The objects of interest close to Feiran 
itself are many, but they can only be 
briefly alluded to here. The evidence 
in favour of its being the Kephidim of 
the Bible has been already pointed 
out ; but there is one more feature, and 
that an important one, that should be 
mentioned. On the right bank of the 
wady, opposite the hillock of El Ma- 
harrad, is a conical hill called Jebel 
et Tahooneh ("the Mountain of the 
Windmill") about 600 ft. high, so 
placed as to be in full view of the two 
valleys 'Aleyat and Feiran, where the 
battle between the Israelites and the 
Amalekites would have been fought, 
and accessible from a point near El 
Hesweh, lower down the Wady Feiran. 
Access to this hill would have been 
easy to Moses, and from its summit 
he could have witnessed the battle 
raging below (see Ex. xvii. 9-12). An 
early tradition favours this view, and 
Antoninus Martyr (600 a.d.) states 
that a chapel stood on the spot from 
which Moses viewed the battle. Euins 
of such a chapel still exist on the 
summit of Jebel et Tahooneh. Its 
aisles divided by square pillars of red 
sandstone can still be traced, and the 
form of the apse. It was afterwards 
altered and turned into a mosk. The 
whole of the path, or rather flight of 
steps, which leads up from Wady Feiran 
to the top of Jebel et Tahooneh is lined 
with the remains of small chapels, often 
built over the cells or tombs of an- 
chorites, and serving as " stations " on 
the way to the principal church at the 
siunmit. All this seems to prove that 
Jebel et Tahooneh was regarded as a 
place of great sanctity by the pilgrims 
of early ages. 

The ruins of Feiran itself are those 
of the old episcopal city of Pharan. 
The old convent and church stand 
on the top of the hillock (El Mahar- 
rad) already mentioned, at the junc- 
tion of the wadies. The principal 
walls of the convent still remain, built 
of flat stones and mud, with sun- 



288 



ROUTE 14. CAIRO TO MOUNT SINAI. 



Sect. II. 



dried bricks at the top. The church 
is at the northern end, and, from the 
number of capitals, broken shafts, and 
other remains found within its walls, 
appears to have been a building; of 
some importance. On a low neck of 
land which connects the hillock with 
the wady are the remains of the town, 
surrounded by a wall which was 7 ft. 
high; parts of it remain, the compo- 
site of mud and small stones being 
here faced with large unhewn boulders. 
Both within and without the walls 
are the remains of buildings, and to 
the west, in a " jorf " or bank of allu- 
vium, is the cemetery ; the tombs are 
partly cut perpendicularly in the face 
of the rock, and partly built with 
large stones, and the entrances are 
either closed by large slabs of stone, 
or built up with mud and stones. 
These tombs are often used by the 
Bedaween. On the right bank of the 
Wady Feiran is a deserted village, 
which probably formed part of the old 
city, but which bears traces of having 
been occupied at a later period by 
a settled Arab population. 

The hill called Jebel el Moneijali (the 
" Hill of the Conference "), in the east 
bank of Wady 'Aleyat, is remarkable 
for the number of Sinaitic inscriptions 
found on it. There is a small enclo- 
sure on the top, both within and with- 
out which the inscriptions abound. It 
is looked upon by the Bedaween as a 
place of great sanctity, and they sacri- 
fice a lamb in front of the enclosure 
at the time of the date-harvest in 
Wady Feiran. 

On both banks of Wady Feiran 
are the homes of numerous anch< rites 
who once lived there, and sat " like 
a lot of rabbits at the mouths of 
their holes." There are also a num- 
ber of tombs generally with two tiers 
of " loculi ; " they lie almost invariably 
east and west, and the method of 
burial appears to have been to lay the 
bodies on their backs on the bare 
rock, heads to the west, feet to the 
east, the arms stretched out at full 
length by the side. 

There are the remains of several 
monastic establishments in the neigh- 



bourhood of Wady Feiran, of which 
the most remarkable are in Wady 
Sigilleeyeh to the south of Serbal, an 
almost inaccessible gorge approached 
by a road the construction of which, 
as shown by what still remains of it, 
proves the monks to have been both 
skilled and energetic in road-making. 

The natural beauties of the oasis of 
Feiran are enough almost to induce 
the traveller to spend a day in doing 
nothing else but give himself up to 
' their delights. For 4 miles, beginning 
| from the mouth of Wady Aleyat, it 
; extends up the valley, a luxuriant mass 
! of trees and vegetation, hemmed in 
| between magnificent rugged granite 
| cliffs from 600 to 800 ft. in height. 
I Here all the trees common to the Pen- 
insula show at their best, and the 
date-bearing palm is of unusual size 
and fruitfulness. A varied under- 
growth of herbs and grasses, moss, 
turf, small flowers, rushes, and other 
marshy plants, cover the bed of the 
valley, save where some stone-strewn 
dry torrent-bed marks the course of 
and the ravages of recent floods, such as 
that which occurred in 1867. Here and 
there are clusters of rough Bedaween 
houses, with enclosed gardens, in which 
are grown maize and tobacco, irrigated 
by means of water raised by shadoofs. 

Through this long valley, the Para- 
dise of the Bedaween, the traveller 
bends his way on leaving Feiran, till, 
after about 3 miles, the palms and water 
cease, and the only verdure is a tama- 
risk-grove. In another mile this also 
J ends, and all is again barren and deso- 
J late. At this point occur a series of 
curious alluvial deposits, consisting of 
banks of soil rising sometimes to a 
height of 100 ft., and extending along 
I the wady's brink. By the Bedaween 
; they are called "jorfs." Their origin 
is uncertain, but Mr. Holland attri- 
butes their formation to the action of 
the rushing torrents that sweep down 
the wadies during a storm. El Buweib 
• — an islet of gneiss in mid-channel — 
forms " the gate " of Wady Feiran, 
through which the road passes into 
the Wady Sold/ ; and a short distance 
further on the mouth of Wady esh 
Sheyltli (6 miles) is reached. 



EOUTE 14. PLAIN OF EE BAH AH. 



289 



It is conjectured that the bulk of the 
Israelite host passed up this valley by a 
longer and easier route to Sinai, while 
Moses and the elders went by the shorter 
and more difficult route on which we 
now enter. 

We continue up the Wady Solaf, 
wLich opens out into long straight 
reaches. At the mouth of Wady Umm 
Takkeh are a number of the primitive 
stone houses called nawdmees, before 
alludt-d to. Namoos in Arabic means 
a " mosquito," and the plural nawdmees 
is the name given by the Bedaween to 
these stone houses, which resemble 
the "bothan" or beehive houses of 
Scotland, from the supposition that 
they were built by the Israelites to 
protect themselves from the stings of 
mosquitos. Their usual shape is an 
ellipse or irregular circle from 40 to 
50 ft. in circumference, with walls 2j 
to 3 ft. thick : these walls rise per- 
pendicularly for 2 ft., and then begin 
> close in, each successive course of 
tone projecting slightly beyond the 
jne below it, till only a small hole, 
covered with a flat stone, is left at the 
top. The doors are about If ft. wide, 
and the same in height, with lintels 
and doorposts. Sometimes a large 
granite boulder forms a portion of a 
wall. There is no evidence of any 
tool having been used in their con- 
struction. 

About 3 miles beyond these stone 
houses the direction of the wady 
changes, and approaches the wall of 
granite cliffs which form the north- 
western frontier of the heart of the 
Peninsula. Through this massive bar- 
rier, 14 miles in length, and which 
rises some 3000 ft. above the level of 
Wady Solaf, there are but two open- 
ings ; one through the pass of Nugb el 
Hawa, about half-way along the barrier, 
and the other through the pass of El 
Wateeyah, in the Wady esh Sheykh, at 
its extreme northern end. At the en- 
trance of the Nugb Haiva (14 miles) 
the camp will probably be pitched on 
the day of leaving Feiran; and even 
if it should be necessary the next day 
to send the baggage-camels by the 
longer and easier route, the traveller 



I himself will do well to follow the mag- 
nificent approach by Nugb Hawa (" the 
j Pass of the Wind"). 

At the turn from Wady Solaf 
are some stone circles and naivd- 
mees. The foot of the pass is about a 
mile from the wady. The first part 
of the ascent is steep and difficult, 
and winds up an ancient road in and 
out amongst tremendous blocks and 
boulders detached from the heights 
and precipices which hem in the defile. 
A few wild fig-trees and stunted palms, 
with straggling patches of vegetation, 
mark the bed of the torrent. After a 
time the ascent becomes less steep, 
and after a long 2 hours' climb the 
summit of the pass (5 miles) is reached, 
and the cliffs of Kas Sufsafeh are seen 
closing the prospect in the far dis- 
tance. After a short descent the path 
rises again along the Wady Aboo 
Seileh, which soon widens into a plain, 
and then the crest of the hill is reached 
(5140 ft. above the level of the sea), 
and the whole plain of Er Kahah, with 
Jebel Sufsafeh only 2 miles off, and 
the monastery of St. Catherine nest- 
ling in the Wady ed Dayr, lies spread 
out before the astonished gaze. " It is 
a view which, once seen, is not likely 
to be forgotten. Indeed the whole pro- 
spect from this point is so beautiful 
and sublime that no beholder can fail 
to be impressed by it. It is indeed 
unrivalled; there is nothing else like 
it in this or any other part of the 
Peninsula — the long wide plain slop- 
ing down to the mount, the grand 
outlines of the surrounding hills, and 
the stately cliffs of the Kas Sufsafeh, 
the 'brow' of Sinai or Jebel Moosa, 
overlooking and seen from every point 
in the plain below, the most conspi- 
cuous and imposing feature in a land- 
scape where all is grand." — Capt. H. 
S. Palmer. Crossing Er Eahah we 
reach the foot of Kas Sufsafeh, and 
leaving the Wady esh Sheykh on the 
left continue up the Wady ed Dayr 
to the walls of the Monastery of St. 
Catherine (5 miles) ; unless indeed the 
traveller decides to encamp, rather than 
seek the hospitality of the monks, in 
which case the tents will probably be 
o 



290 



ROUTE 14. CAIRO TO MOUNT SINAI. 



Sect. IT. 



pitched at the entrance of the Wady 
ed Dayr. 

Before proceeding to describe the 
convent, and Jebel Moosa and its 
neighbourhood, it may be well to give 
a short account of the other route, 
which leaves the one already noticed 
at Wady Shebeikeh, and rejoins it at 
the Nugb Hawa. 

Route (j8). 

On leaving Wady Shebeikeh the 
road turns up Wady Hamr, a fine open 
valley with low chalk cliffs, till it 
reaches the base of Sarboot el Jemel (7 
miles), a ridge of limestone and flint 
conglomerate rising 1200 feet above 
the valley. Passing round this moun- 
tain to the south-east, the wady con- 
tracts again between sandstone rocks 
on which are some Sinaitic inscriptions, 
and opens on to the great sandy plain 
of Debbet er Eamleh. The way lies 
along the western side of this plain, 
gradually ascending a terraced rocky 
tract till about midway the highest 
point is reached (1797 feet), com- 
manding a fine view of the plain 
stretching eastward, with the lofty 
Tih escarpment beyond, and on the 
south the mountains of Wady Nasb 
and Sarabit el Khadim. A steep de- 
scent now leads to Wady Bub'a, and 
then after a short time an open seih is 
reached, formed by the confluence of 
five wadies. This point forms the 
north-western limit of the Egyptian 
mining colony, which, extending south- 
wards to Magharah (see Bte. (a) ) and 
eastwards to Sarabit el Khadim, is the 
most interesting in the country for an 
archseologist. A short distance from 
the road to the right, up Wady Nasb, 
are some old mine-workings. 

We now leave the plain and turn 
up Wady Suwig (13 miles), a winding 
valley cut through sandstone. Leaving 
the baggage-camels to proceed along an 
easier route by Wady Mery to Wady 
Khameeleh, the traveller toils through 
deep sand to the mouth of the small 
rocky ravine which leads to Sarabit el 
Khadim (6 miles). Here even the 



riding-camels must be left, and the 
rest of the distance done on foot. 
There is a fifteen or twenty minutes' 
walk up the wady, and then a half-an- 
hour's tiresome climb up a rough in- 
cline, surmounted by a steep sandstone 
cliff. On the top of the plateau, which 
is 700 feet above the wady, are the 
ruins. 

The view is very striking and ex- 
tensive, but a more immediate cause 
for admiration will be found in the 
ruins which lie around. These con- 
sist of two temples of different dates : 
the earlier merely a rock-hewn chamber 
with an open vestibule in front ; the 
later a large building, connected with 
the former, but not in the same straight 
line with it. Both appear to have 
been reconstructed. In the centre of 
the rock-hewn chamber a square pillar 
of solid rock has been left to support 
the roof; both this and the walls of 
the chamber were formerly covered 
with hieroglyphics and coloured. At 
the end of the chamber are two re- 
cesses ; one of which, formerly provided 
with a door, leads to a small space 
roofed over with large flat slabs ; near 
this is another rock-hewn chamber, 
and in front of the two stretches an 
open court, the walls of which are 
covered with sculptured scenes. In 
this court are some stelse, which appear 
to have been removed from their ori- 
ginal position. The later temple con- 
sists of a large square court, with 
fragments of pillars and Athor-headed 
capitals, and of a long building di- 
vided into numerous small chambers. 
At the end nearest the rock-hewn 
temple is a large gateway. The walls 
are covered with tablets and inscrip- 
tions, and the whole must have been 
very fine when perfect ; at present it is 
one mass of ruin. Bound the temples 
are long heaps of stone, the remains 
probably of enclosing walls. The 
whole is much buried in sand, and 
Capt. C. W. Wilson, from whose ac- 
count the above description is taken, 
thinks that excavating would bring a 
good many things to light. The little 
digging done by the Ordnance Survey 
resulted in the finding of a small 
gold ornament, a few scarabsei, broken 



Egypt- 



EOUTE 14.— SAB ABIT EL KHADIM. 



291 



necklaces, fragments of pottery, &c. 
The number of stelse is remarkable. 

It appears, according to Dr. Birch, 
that the colony of Sarabit el Khadini 
dates from a later epoch than that 
of Magharah. Amenemha II. of the 
Xllth dynasty was the first to open 
the mines, and found the temples. His 
name is cut on the face of the rock 
near the temple. There are many 
other tablets with the names of other | 
kings of that dynasty, Amenemha III. 
and IV. Like Magharah, Sarabit el 
Khadim was abandoned from the Xllth 
to the XVIHth dynasties. Thothmes 
HE. then recommenced working the 
mines, and was followed by Thothmes 
IV. and Amunoph III. The kings 
of the XlXth dynasty, especially Sethi 
I. and Eameses II., have nearly all 
left records here. Though the temple 
was probably founded during the Xllth 
dynasty, the first name found on it 
is Thothmes III., and other monarchs 
follow down to Rameses IV., includ- 
ing Menephtah, the Pharaoh of the 
Exodus. Athor is the principal divi- 
nity, with Set and Knoum. There are 
many tablets and inscriptions cut in 
the sandstone of the mining district 
which surrounds Sarabit el Khadim. 

Eeturning to Wady Suwig, which 
gradually becomes broad and steep, 
the road lies through heavy burning 
sand to the foot of Nugb Suwig. A 
winding rocky trail leads to the 
summit, and then we descend again by 
a ruined path into Wady Khameeleh, 
at which point comes in the road 
followed by the baggage- camels. A 
short way further on, on the right- 
hand side, are two large rocks with 
Sinaitic inscriptions. Continuing up 
the north branch of Wady Khameeleh 
we reach a small sandy* plain, called 
Debe'lat Sheyhh Ahmed (7 miles) from a 
Bedawee saint who lies buried in the 
tomb by the wayside. Just beyond 
the mouth of Wady Meraikh are Some 
nawdmees (see Rte. a) and circular 
tombs. Wady Bark, up which the 
road now turns, is a long broad valley, 
steep and rocky, with a number of fine 
8eydl trees. The sandstone is here 
exchanged for gneiss. Five miles up 



Wady Bark is a wall of loose stones, 
built by the Bedaween to keep out 
Mohammed Ali's soldiery. At the 
top of the valley is a group of na- 
wdmees. Wady Labweh is a broad 
open valley with a granite gravel soil. 
About 1£ mile up it, on the left of the 
road, is a cleft in a large rock, contain- 
ing a spring of cool delicious water ; 
it is called Shageek el 'Ajooz ("the 
Old Woman's Rift"). Granite rocks 
now succeed to gneiss, and the wady 
expands into an open plain, two miles 
wide, well clothed with desert herbage. 
The plain again contracts, and, crossing 
the watershed, the road enters Wady 
Berrdh. Two miles up this valley 
is a rock, called Hajar el Laghweh, 
with Sinaitic inscriptions ; and three 
miles further on we reach the feature 
from which the wady derives its name, 
" the Valley of the Passers-Out " — two 
massive bluffs of red granite, standing 
like gigantic sentinels, through which 
we pass out by a narrow gorge into a 
wide plain called Erweis el Erbeirig 
(21 miles). A road leads hence to El 
Buweib in Wady Feiran, eight miles 
off. 

From Erweis el Erbeirig, which 
commands a fine view of Serbal, we 
pass by the Wady Soleif into the Wady 
esh Sheykh, and thence by the Wady 
Sahab to the head of Wady Solaf and 
the mouth of Nugb Hawa (12 miles). 
The road hence to Jebel Moosa has 
been described under Rte. (a). 

i. Description of the Convent. — There 
is no difficulty in obtaining admission 
to the convent, if the visitor is provided 
with the proper letter of introduction, 
easily obtainable from the branch con- 
vent at Cairo. It is no longer neces- 
sary to enter by the trap-door in the 
wall, some 30 feet above the ground, 
up to which all who sought admittance 
were formerly hauled by a rope. The 
present entrance is by a low door in 

. one of the buttresses on the north side 
of the convent, through which a short 
vaulted passage leads to a postern in 
the convent wall. The ancient en- 
trance is a little to the right, in the 

I centre of the north face, and is a 
o 2 



292 EOUTE 14. CAIR( 

fine door 7 feet wide, but it has for 
many years been closed with masonry. 
Above the lintel is a relieving arch., 
and over this a machicoulis, in which 
is a tablet with a Greek inscrip- 
tion not hitherto deciphered. As 
the machicoulis and the inscription 
both belong to the period at which the 
monastery was built, it is to be hoped 
that some one will succeed in reading 
the inscription. There are other 
tablets above the buttress in which is 
the modern entrance, with inscriptions 
in Greek and Arabic giving the his- 
tory of the building of the convent by 
Justinian. The whole of the north 
wall is much cracked, and the masonry 
concealed by rubble heaped against it. 
The top is modern. The east wall, 
in which is the trap-door mentioned 
above, was almost rebuilt at the end of 
the last century by the orders of 
General Kleber, and an inscription in 
modern Greek on a small tablet in one 
of the round towers commemorates the 
fact. The south wall has also been 
partially rebuilt, and is supported with 
buttresses ; along the top is a covered 
passage forming a pleasant promenade. 
The west wall, owing to its position, is 
the best preserved, and shows how 
strong and massive the old building 
was. Numerous crosses and other de- 
vices are seen in the covering stones 
of the loopholes. The original form of 
the building was an irregular quad- 
rangle, with slightly projecting towers 
at each angle, and in the east, west, 
and south sides. Its position was 
probably determined by the abundant 
water-supply in the neighbourhood, 
and the existence near it of the tra- 
ditional site of the Burning Bush, and 
the chapel and tower built by order of 
the Empress Helena. 

Having passed through the entrance, 
wldch is protected by no less than 
three doors, and is so narrow that only 
one man can enter at a time, the 
visitor finds himself in the interior, 
and will probably be conducted at once 
to the guest chambers high up over 
the north wall. Here, if he means to 
remain in the convent, he will take up 
his abode. Lodging, bread, and water 



TO MOUNT SINAI. Sect. II. 

are what the convent provides for its 
guests, so of course servants and food 
will have to be taken in. A "backsheesh 
of about £1 a head is expected when 
the traveller leaves, over and above 
what his dragoman may have given 
for the things provided. 

Originally the interior was laid out 
with great regularity, but there are 
few signs of the old plan still re- 
maining. The following is a graphic 
description of the general view. 
" Though the interior presents a scene 
of the most hopeless confusion when 
looked down upon from the guest 
chambers, there is not wanting a 
certain quaint picturesqueness and 
charm, which is heightened in spring 
by the bright green of the trellised 
vines. Two tiers of loopholes are still 
visible in the west wall, and some few 
of the vaults and arches within remain 
intact, but they are for the most part 
broken down and filled with all manner 
of filth. Over, above, and within them 
are the buildings of after ages, mos- 
ques, chapels, bakeries, distilleries, 
and stables, some them selves gone to 
ruin, and serving as foundations for 
still later erections of mud and sun- 
dried bricks, which are daily adding 
their mite to the general confusion. 
The quadrangle is now completely 
filled with buildings, and through 
them, turning and twisting in every 
direction, now ascending, now de- 
scending, exposed to the full force of 
the sun, or passing through dark 
tunnels, is a perfect labyrinth of narrow 
passages." — Capt. C. W. Wilson. 

The Church, which is remarkable for 
its massive grandeur, was built during 
the reign of Justinian. The exterior 
bears signs of extensive alterations; a 
new porch has been added which al- 
most conceajs the original west porch 
and its window; the south wall has 
been raised, and the east end partially 
rebuilt. There were probably two 
towers at the west end: that at the 
south-west corner is a distinct build- 
ing, and was perhaps built as a place 
of refuge before the existence of the 
convent ; and if so, it may be a rem- 
nant of the tower of Helena, which 



Ejypt 



ROUTE 14. CONVENT OF ST. CATHERINE. 



293 



Justinian enclosed, with the place of 
the Burning Bush, within the convent. 
The church has three aisles, separated 
by two rows of granite columns; at 
the eastern end of the centre aisle is a 
large apse ; the other aisles are closed 
by walls, through which are doors 
leading to two chapels; one of the 
Holy Father, on the north, and the other 
of St. James the Less, on the south. 
From either of these there is access to 
the Chapel of the Burning Bush, situ- 
ated behind the central apse, round 
which there is a free passage. There 
are three chapels in each side aisle, 
those on the north below the level of 
the floor, and those on the south above 
it. The capitals of the columns are of 
various designs, no two alike. The 
mosaic over the apse represents the 
Transfiguration. Our Saviour is in 
the centre, Elias on the right, Moses 
on the left, St. Peter lying at his feet, 
and St. James and St. John kneeling 
on either side. Bound the whole are 
a series of busts of prophets, saints, 
&c, each with his name written in 
Greek ; and beyond, on the face of the 
wall is a border, with figures of dodo- 
like birds. On the wall above the 
apse are two representations of Moses, 
one at the Burning Bush, and the 
other at the Receiving of the Law; 
and beneath these are two portraits, 
said to be those of the Emperor Jus- 
tinian and his wife Theodora, but they 
bear no resemblance to the known 
portraits of either. Close to the altar 
is a chest containing the skull and 
hand of St. Catherine, and beneath it 
a marble slab with two ibexes in relief 
at the foot of the cross. The altar- 
screen is profusely ornamented, and a 
large cross with a painting of the Cru- 
cifixion towers above it. The walls 
are covered with the quaint pictures 
usually seen in Greek churches, and 
hung with banners, and from the roof 
hang gold and silver lamps of great 
beauty. Between the columns are the 
wooden stalls of the monks, and the 
elaborately carved thrones of the Patri- 
arch and Bishop, in one of which is a 
painting representing the convent be- 
fore the round towers were added. 
In the Chapel of the Burning Bush is 



shown the place where the bush stood, 
now covered with a silver plate ; and 
in the wall is a little window through 
which the sun's rays are said to fall 
once in the year. The floor, lower than 
that of the church, is richly carpeted, 
and the walls are covered with pic- 
tures and encaustic tiles. Two splen- 
did coffined effigies of St. Catherine 
are kept here ; one given by the Em- 
press Catherine, and the other by the 
present Emperor of Russia, Alexander 
II. On the two fine old wooden doors 
by which the church is entered are a 
variety of devices cut in panels, and 
several coats of arms, the work pro- 
bably of pilgrims. On the archway 
near the mosk, and in the north wall 
of the refectory are the arms and names 
of pilgrim knights, some dating back 
to the 14th and 15th cents. 

Near the church is a mosk with a 
minaret : a singular proof, it has been 
said, of the tolerance, perhaps of the 
fear, of the Christian communities of 
this land ; it contains an old wooden 
pidpit with a Cufic inscription. 

The Library, which is neatly ar- 
ranged, contains a number of Greek 
printed books and Arabic MSS. It 
was here that Tischendorf discovered 
the famous MS. of the Bible which 
has been called the Codex Sinaiticus. 
The two curiosities shown to strangers 
are a beautifully illuminated MS. of the 
Gospels, written on vellum in letters 
of gold : and a copy of the Psalms 
written by a female, said to be St. 
Thecla, in so finall a hand that it can 
only be read through a microscope. 

On the north side of the convent is 
a courtyard, and beyond are the 
gardens, full of trees and luxuriant 
vegetation, a charming picture of life 
and beauty set in the surrounding de- 
solation. In the middle of the garden 
is the charnel-house, consisting of a 
small chapel and two long vaults; one 
containing the bones of monks and 
pilgrims, the othr those of priests and 
bishops. The bodies are first buried 
for a year or so in a patch of garden, 
and then the bones are collected and 
placed in the vaults. " The bishops 
and saints, with the exception of St. 



294 



ROUTE 14. CAIRO TO MOUNT SINAI. 



Sect. II. 



Stephen the porter, who sits in ghastly 
magnificence with his gorgeous robes 
round him, are ranged in wooden 
boxes with their respective names on 
slips of paper ; the bones of the more 
humble brethren are piled in two 
heaps, the skulls on one side, the arms, 
thighs, &e, on the other. In one of 
the boxes are the skeletons of two 
Indian princes, with fragments of 
well-made link-armour which they 
are said to have worn during the 
years they passed as hermits on Jebel 
Moosa ; there is also a chain made of 
iron nails, roughly bent, and weighing 
about fifteen pounds, which bound them 
together in life as it now does in death. 
There are also leathern scourges, iron 
necklets and girdles, and other remi- 
niscences of the days when the moun- 
tain side was covered with hermitages." 

There are about a score of priests 
and lay brothers in the convent ; the 
latter employed in the different trades 
which their situation compels them to 
take up — baker, gardener, cook, shoe- 
maker, &c. They are, as a rule, an 
ignorant and idle lot, recruited from 
the very lowest class of Greek peasants. 
Now and then an intelligent monk 
may be found there, undergoing a 
period of banishment from his own 
convent. 

One of the excursions in the neigh- 
bourhood of the convent to which the 
traveller will certainly devote a day 
will be 

h. The Ascent of Jebel Moosa and 
Eds Sufsdfeh. — Several paths lead up 
to the summit of Jebel Moosa, but the 
one usually followed goes up a rude 
glen at the back of the convent, and 
is called Siltket Seyyidua Moosa, 
" the Path of our Lord Moses." A lay- 
brother, or an Arab, is furnished by the 
convent as guide. There is a flight 
of rocky steps nearly the whole way, 
which renders the ascent easy. 

The first object of interest is Mayan 
Moosa (" the Fountain of Moses "), a de- 
licious spring of cool water which rises 
beneath a huge granite boulder, and is 
surrounded by a fringe of maiden-hair 
fern. According to the Bedaween, it 
was here that Moses watered Jethro's 



flocks ; monkish tradition makes it the 
abode of St. Stephen the cobbler. The 
path leads up through a narrow ravine, 
over huge boulders of granite to what 
is called the Chapel of the Virgin of 
the OEconomos, or Bursar, a small 
building of unhewn stone, erected to 
commemorate the miraculous extir- 
pation of fleas from the convent — a 
miracle which most visitors will agree 
in thinking needs repetition. The road 
now turns to the right, and ascends 
sharply to a cleft in the rock, spanned 
by a circular aich with a cross on either 
face. Here sat St. Stephen the porter 
and his successors and shrived the 
pilgrjms, who passed on repeating 
Ps. xxiv. 3, 4, "Who shall ascend 
into the hill of the Lord," t &c. A 
little further on is another gateway, 
and then a small plain at the foot of 
the peak of Jebel Moosa is reached. 
Here is a ruined garden, a solitary 
cypress-tree, and a building containing 
the chapels of Elijah and Elisha. 
Monkish tradition points out a small 
grot in which the former lived (1 Kings 
xix. 8, 9). 

From this point a stiff half hour's 
climbing takes one to the top of 
Jebel Moosa. On the way we pass 
the footprints of the prophet's camel, 
and a stone said to mark the spot where 
Elijah was turned back as unworthy 
to tread the holy ground above. On 
the top are two buildings, a chapel and 
a mosk, both built of stones taken from 
the ruins of an early convent. Tra- 
dition places the chapel near the "clift 
of the rock" where Moses was when 
the glory of the Lord passed by (Ex. 
xxxiii. 22), and says the cave beneath 
the mosk was where he passed the forty 
days and forty nights. The summit of 
Jebel Moosa is 7375 feet above the sea. 
The term " Jebel Moosa" may be ap- 
plied to the whole ridge, of which this 
is the highest peak, but by the monks 
and Bedaween the term is confined to 
the summit on which we now stand. 
The upper portion is of grey granite, 
the lower of red. On the south side is 
a sheer descent of more than 1000 feet. 

There are few who will not wish to 
continue the excursion to Rds Sufsd- 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 14. GEBELS MOOSA AND K AT AEEENA . 



295 



feh, the presumed Mount of the Law. 
Descending the peak of Jebel Moosa 
by the tame path to the plain in 
which are the chapels of Elijah 
and Elisha, we turn to the left, and 
scramble for a mile through a sort of 
rocky groove that runs along the top 
of the ridge; then, after passing the 
ozier, or willow, which gives its name 
to Ras Sufsafeh, comes a climb of 
several hundred feet up a rugged 
ravine, and then the summit ridge is 
reached, situated in a deep cleft be- 
twen high walls of rock. From this 
point the whole of the plain of Er 
Rahah is distinctly visible. That Ras 
Sufsafeh has the best claims to be con- 
sidered as the Mt. Sinai has been already 
pointed out, and as we stand here the 
peculiar fitness of the place demon- 
strates itself most unmistakeably. 
Here we have a mountain summit 
overlooking a plain— Er Eahah — con- 
taining 1,936,000 sq. yards of even 
ground, with an aditional 1,098,680 sq. 
yards in the Seih Leja, and 1,258,400 
sq. yards in the Wady ed Dayr, all 
in full view of the mountain, and 
capable of holding three millions of 
people, while the valleys in the im- 
mediate neighbourhood afford plenty 
of extra camping space. Every other 
requirement of the Bible narrative is 
equally well met ; and if everything 
that took place during the year of the 
Israelites' sojourn in Mt. Sinai must 
be minutely localised, there seems 
little difficulty in doing so. But 
whether every small detail can be made 
to rightly fit in and harmonise seems 
but a small matter ; no one can fail to 
realise how suited is the whole of the 
magnificent scenery around him to be 
the theatre of the majestic and awful 
events described in the sacred narrative. 
The descent into the plain below may 
be made down the face of Ras Sufsa- 
feh, but it is rather steep and rugged. 

I. Ascent of Jebel Katareena. This 
is a pretty good climb, and an early 
start should be made. Fassing down 
the Wady ed Dayr, the road skirts the 
base of Ras Sufsafeh, and turns 
up the Wady el Leja. On the way 
are passed various objects which 



monkish legends have connected with 
events in the Bible. First there is a 
rock called " the Mould of the Calf," 
but which the Bedaween name simply 
Nugr el Baggar, "the Cows' Hole," 
saying that it was caused by Moses 
thrusting his staff into the stone to 
procure water for his cow : the name, 
however, and the presence of a hill 
close by called Haroon, has suggested 
the connecting it with the story of the 
Golden Calf. Then comes the " Burial 
place of the Tables of the Law," and 
"the Cave of Korah, Dathan, and 
Abiram." A little distance up the 
Wady el Leja is a " Stone of Moses," 
called by the Bedaween Hajar el 
Magareen, "the Stone of the United 
Ones," from Moses having severed 
it with his sword. At the head of 
Wady el Leja is the Dayr el Arbdeen 
the " Convent of the Forty," so-called 
from being dedicated to 40 monks 
once slain by the Bedaween. It is now 
deserted, but a few Arabs keep up the 
cultivation of the gardens. 

The road now turns south-west 
along a dark rocky glen called 
Sliagg Moosa, running far up into 
the north-eastern slopes of Jebel 
Katareena. A mile or two further on, 
the path leaves the ravine, and hence- 
forward it is a tiring heavy climb up 
an abrupt and crumbling mountain- 
side to the foot of the rocky summit 
cone. On the way a beautiful spring. 
Mayan esh Shinudr (''the Fountain of 
the Partridge ") is passed. The peak is 
a hugh naked block of syenite granite, 
steep, but so broken that there is no 
danger or difficulty in climbing it. 
On the top is a little chapel dedicated 
to St. Catharine, whose headless body 
is said to have been carried by angels 
to the top of the mountain from 
Alexandria, where she suffered mar- 
tyrdom early in the 4th centy. This 
peak of Jebel Katareena proper is 
8536 feet high, but what may be con- 
sidered its twin peak, Jebel Zebeer, is 
slightly higher, 8551 feet. "As its 
peak is all but the loftiest, so is the 
view from Jebel Katharma one of 
the finest in the country. From this 
high and freezing standpoint you 
may, on any clear day, look down 



296 



ROUTE 14. — CAIRO TO MOUNT SINAI. 



Sect. II. 



upon three-fourths of the Peninsula of 
Sinai, from Jebel Hammam Farun on 
the north-west to the mountains of 
Wady el'Ain on the north-<-ast ; from 
Jebel Musa and Bas Sufsafeh, which 
seem quite close to your side, and the 
labyrinth of monster mountains spread 
out like a model at your feet, to the 
glimmering water of the twin Gulfs, 
and the hills of Arabia and Africa 
spread out beyond them on either 
hand. Jebel Zebir and Jebel Umm 
Shomer slightly spoil the view south- 
ward, and little can be seen beyond 
the Tib. escarpment on the north ; but 
in all other quarters the prospect is 
most extensive. Kas Muhammed is 
not to be seen, though you can trace 
the two arms of the Eed Sea almost to 
their point of junction. The whole pro- 
spect is magnificent, grander even than 
that from Serbal ; the effects of colour, 
light, and shade excite the admiration 
of every traveller ; the colours on land, 
sky, and sea are simply enchanting, 
and the intense stillness and silence of 
the desert lends mystery and solem- 
nity to the scene. But it is at sunrise 
or sunset that a Sinai mountain land- 
scape is seen to its greatest perfection. 
Perhaps the hour of sunset is to be 
preferred to any other. Then you have 
orange, pink, green, and blue in the 
sky ; indigo, lilac and rich red-brown, 
like burnished copper, on the hills ; 
c olours ever changing and deepening, 
shadows ever lengthening, as the sun 
slowly declines." — Capt. H. S. Palmer. 

m. Other Excursions. If there is 
time to spare, a day may be occupied 
in one or two interesting walks in the 
neighbourhood of the Convent. There 
are good views of the convent and the 
valley in which it stands from the top 
of Jebel Moneijah, a conical hill at the 
head of Wady ed Dayr, and from Jebel 
ed Dayr on the east of the wady. Per- 
haps the finest mountain scenery in 
the Peninsula is to be found in the 
gorges of the Wady et Tldh and the 
Wady Emleisah, which lie to the west 
of Er Bahah and Nugb Hawa. 

An excursion to Umm Shomer will 
take three or four days. The road 
passes over Jebel Moneijah, and then 



descends into the Wady Sebaeeyeh, 
which it follows to its head. It then 
descends a steep ravine, and ascending 
a valley reaches Wady Eahabeh. 
At the end of this wady is a little 
ravine called Wacly Zaytooneh, from 
the great olive-tree in it. Here the 
camels must be left, and the ascent of 
Umm Shomer, a three or four hours' 
climb, performed on foot. The distance 
from the convent of Wady Zaytooneh is 
16 or 17 miles by the direct road over 
Jebel Moneijah, but baggage-camels 
are sometimes obliged to take a longer 
and easier road. The first ascent of 
1000 feet from the Wady Zaytooneh 
brings you to the summit of Jebel Aboo 
Sheger. You then descend a steep 
ravine, crois a ridge to its further 
side, and then a difficult climb of 1800 
feet brings you to the highest point 
of Umm Shomer, 8449 feet. 

Tor may be reached by this route, 
continuing from Wady Eahabeh down 
some steep passes into the Ga'ah. 
The distance altogether from the 
convent is 48 miles. A longer but 
easier road, 53| miles, passes down 
the Nugb Hawa, the Wady Solaf, and 
the Wady Hebran, into the Ga'ah. 
Tor is little- more than a dirty village, 
and contains nothing of interest. 
, There are remains of convents in the 
neighbourhood, and an old fortress 
on the sea-shore. 

Six or seven miles from Tor is 
a curious mountain called Jebel 
Nctgoos. It takes its name— " the 
Bell Mountain," or, more correctly, 
the " Gong Mountain " — from the pe- 
culiar noises which are heard arising 
from it, and which somewhat resemble 
' the sound of the wooden gong (nd- 
j goos) used in the Greek convents for 
! summoning the community. Jebel 
i Nagoos is a triangular sand-slope, 
! filling a recess in the sandstone hills. 
, It is about 195 feet high, 80 yards 
', wide at the base, and narrows off 
towards the top. The cliffs rise about 
| 200 feet above it. The sand is caused 
• by the waste of the sandstone rocks, 
i Being at so high an angle, the slightest 
cause sets the sand in motion, and it 
is this movement of the surface-sand 



ROUTE If.-— LONG DESERT CONTINUED. 



297 



which has been thought to produce 
the sound above referred to. 

m. Continuation of the journey by 
the Long Desert via 'Akabah and Petra, 
or via Nalikl, to Palestine. — Those 
who intend continuing their journey 
through the desert to 'Akabah and 
Petra (Wady Moosa), and thence to 
Hebron, will find that journey de- 
scribed in the Handbook to Syria and 
Palestine. It will be sufficient here 
to add a few additional hints to those 
already given at the beginning, and 
conduct the traveller a short distance 
on the way. It is necessary to make 
every possible inquiry at Cairo as to 
the practicability of getting to Petra. 
If there is any chance of the road 
being open, the Sheykh of the Alo- 
ween— the tribe which can best con- 
duct the traveller from 'Akabah to 
Petra, and thence to Hebron — is gene- 
rally to be found at Cairo in the 
winter and early spring ; and from him 
all information can be obtained, and 
an engagement made with him under 
the sanction of the Consul to provide 
camels and an escort, and guarantee 
a safe passage, and as long a time as 
possible (3 clays) at Petra. A back- 
sheesh of so much a head, probably 
31., has to be paid to the fellaheen of 
Petra for the permission to stay there. 
As the Bedaween of Arabia Petrsea 
are a much more turbulent lot than 
the Towarah who conduct the traveller 
to Sinai and 'Akabah, it may be useful 
to say a little about their habits and 
ways, and the best method of dealing 
with them. 

It sometimes happens that a travel- 
ler is stopped on the road by what is 
said to be a party of hostile Arabs, 
and obliged to pay a sum of money, 
as he supposes, to save his life, or to 
secure the continuation of his journey 
in safety. Everybody who knows Arab 
customs must be aware that no one of a 
hostile tribe can ever enter the terri- 
tory of any other Arabs without the 
insult being avenged by the sword ; 
and it is evident, if no resistance is 
mady on the part of those who conduct 
the traveller, that the attacking party 
are either some of their own, or of a 



friendly, tribe who are allowed to 
spoil him by the very persons he pays 
to protect him ; for an Arab would 
rather die than suffer such an affront 
from a hostile tribe in his oven desert. 
If, then, his Arabs do not fig] it on the 
occasion, he may be sure it is a trick 
to extort money ; he should, therefore, 
use no arms against the supposed 
enemies, but afterwards punish his 
faithless guides by deducting the sum 
taken from their pay; and it is as 
well, before starting, to make them 
enter into an engagement that they 
are able as well as ivilling to protect 
him. 

Any idea of travelling with one 
tribe through a desert belonging to 
another, when they are not on friendly 
terms, should never be entertained. 
There is another disagreeable thing 
to which travellers are sometimes ex- 
posed. Two parties of the same 
tribe quarrel for the right of con- 
ducting him; and after he has gone 
some distance on his journey, he and 
his goods are taken by the opposition 
candidates, and transferred to their 
camels. The war is merely one of 
words, which the inexperienced in 
the language cannot understand ; but 
he fully comprehends the annoyance 
of being nearly pulled to pieces by the 
two rivals, and his things are some- 
times thrown on the ground, to the 
utter destruction of everything fragile. 
This may not occur, but it is as well 
to provide against it before starting, 
and a sheykh or guide should be 
secured who has decided authority, 
and can overawe all parties. Above 
all things it is important to secure 
the goodwill of the Arabs, on whom 
so much of the comfort of a journey 
necessarily depends. And nothing is 
easier. It can, of course, be better 
done if the traveller speaks Arabic ; 
and it will then probably be his own 
fault if he meet with anything but 
good humour and willingness to oblige 
on every occasion. 

In engaging Arabs application is 
made to one of the sheykhs; and 
when one has been found who has 
good recommendations, and his ser- 
vices have been engaged, it is only 
o 3 



298 



KOTJTE 15. — CAIEO TO THE PTOOM. 



Sect. II. 



necessary to go to the Consulate and 
have the agreement officially drawn 
up, in which the proper prices, and 
other particulars, are stipulated. 

The road from Sinai to 'Akabah 
passes down the Wady esh Sheykh as 
far as the tomb of Neby Saleh. The 
festival of this saint is a great event 
for the Towarah Bedaween, who flock 
to the tomb from all parts of the 
peninsula, and encamp round it for three 
days. Leaving the Wady esh Sheykh, 
and passing up the ravine of Aboo 
Suweirah, the main watershed of the 
peninsula is crossed, and after tra- 
versing an open tract we reach the 
gorge of Wady ScCal, 13 miles from 
the Convent. Sixteen miles further on 
a sandy tract with blackish mounds, 
called Erioeis el Ebeirig, is reached, a 
spot identified by Professor Palmer 
with Kibroth-battaavah of the Bible 
(Numb. xi. 34). He is strengthened 
in this conclusion by a tradition of the 
Bedaween, which says that the erec- 
tion of rough unhewn stones on a 
neighbouring hill, surmounted with a 
white pyramid-shaped block, and the 
numerous stone enclosures all around, 
are the remains of an encampment of 
pilgrims, who in remote ages pitched 
their tents here on the way to Haze- 
roth, and were lost immediately after- 
wards, and never more heard of. 

The road now leads across a desolate 
sandy plain with a few isolated rocks, 
some of which are covered with Sinai- 
tic inscriptions. The principal of 
these is called Hudhcibat el Hajjdj 
(" the Pilgrims' Hill "). The ordinary 
road to 'Akabah here enters Wady 
Ghazaleh, and descends to its junction 
with the oasis of Wady el 'Ain, and 
thence down the magnificent gorge of 
Wady Weteer to the Gulf of 'Aka- 
bah. If, however, we wish to reach 
Ain Hudherah, the probable Haze- 
roth of the Bible, we turn to the left, 
and soon meet a magnificent gorge, 
in which nestles the dark-green palm- 
grove of Ain Hudherah. There are 
remains of old walls, an aqueduct, 
and many Greek and Sinaitic inscrip- 
tions On a hill at the east side of 
the cliff is a building which may have 
been a beacon, and gives its name to 



the spot, Matali Hudherah, " the 
Hazeroth Look-outs." 

The journey from Mount Sinai to 
'Akabah takes 6 days : from 'Akabah 
to Petra by the Wady el Arabah 4 
days, by the upper road 5 days : and 
from Petra to Hebron 6 days. If on 
arriving at 'Akabah it should be found 
that something has happened since 
leaving Cairo to render the Petra 
route impracticable, the traveller must 
turn aside to Nahkl, 4 days' journey, 
and thence to Hebron, 7 days. It is 
better to make sure of the Petra route 
by sending, as soon as Mount Sinai is 
reached, a man to 'Akabah to in- 
quire if all is tranquil. He will be 
met coming back with an answer 
sometime probably during the third 
day's journey from Sinai to 'Akabah, 
and if it be unfavourable an alteration 
in the route can be made at once. 

From Sinai direct to Palestine via 
Nahkl is a route which presents no 
object of interest to the ordinary tra- 
veller : he had much better return to 
Suez, and go thence, via Port Said and 
the sea, to Jaffa. 



ROUTE 15. 

Cairo to the Fyoom. 

a. Preliminary Hints, b. Description 
of the Fyoom. c. Cairo to Me- 
deeneh. d. The Labyrinth and 
Lake Mceris. e. Other excursions 
from Medeeneh. /. The Birket el 
Korn. g. Kasr Kharoon, and other 
ruins on the shores of the Birket el 
Korn. h. Other parts of the Fyoom. 

a. Preliminary Hints. — By those who 
have the time to spare this expedition 



Egypt 



EOUTE 15. THE FYOOM. 



299 



is well worth undertaking, as it intro- 
duces them to a country differing a 
good deal in its general aspect from 
the valley of the Nile. The anti- 
quary will find much to interest 
him in the supposed sites of Lake 
Mceris and the Labyrinth, and the 
ruins on the shore of the Birket el 
Korn; while to the sportsman the 
Fyoom in the winter months offers 
more attractions than any other part 
of Egypt. The preparations for the 
journey will of course depend on the 
time intended to be spent ; but tents, 
beds, and all the etceteras necessary 
to a camp life, must be taken, unless 
the traveller is content with a visit to 
Medeeneh and the neighbourhood, 
and while there can put up with the 
accommodation afforded by a Greek 
cafe. The best way of reaching the 
Fyo6m is by railway as far as Me- 
deeneh. There camels and donkeys 
can be procured for visiting the Birket 
el Korn and other places. 

b. Description of the Fyoom. — The 
province of Egypt called the Fyoom is 
a natural depression in the Libyan 
hills, surrounded on all sides by desert, 
save where a narrow strip of soil borders 
the canal leading to it from the Nile. 
It is thus almost an oasis, owing its 
fertility to the water of the Nile, in- 
troduced through a natural isthmus 
in the desert surrounding it. Its pre- 
sent name, Fyoom, is probably derived 
from the old Egyptian word Pi-om, 
"the Sea" — an appellation aptly ap- 
plied to a country which contained 
such a splendid system for storing and 
distributing water, as that with which 
the Fyoom was endowed by King 
Amenemha III., the constructor of 
Lake Moeris and the Labyrinth. In 
Ptolemaic and Boman times this pro- 
vince was called the Arsinoite nome, 
which, Strabo says, excelled all others 
in appearance, in goodness, and in 
condition. It was the only place 
where the olive-tree arrived at any 
size, or bore good fruit, except the 
gardens of Alexandria. It also pro- 
duced a great quantity of wine, as well 
as corn, vegetables, and plants of all 
kinds. This reputation for fertility it 



still enjoys, and though its merits have 
been greatly exaggerated, it is still 
superior to other parts of Egypt from 
the state of its gardens and the variety 
of its productions; since, in addition 
to corn, cotton, and the usual cul- 
tivated plants, it abounds in roses, 
apricots, figs, grapes, olives, and several 
other fruits, which grow there in 
greater perfection and abundance than 
in the valley of the Nile; and the 
rose-water used in Cairo comes from 
the neighbourhood of Medeeneh. 

The whole extent of the cultivable 
part of the Fyoom measures about 23 m. 
N. and S., and 28 E. and W., which 
last was in former times extended to 
upwards of 40 in that part (from Kasr 
Kharoon to Tomeeah) where it has the 
greatest breadth. Its length N. and $., 
if measured to the other side of the 
Birket el Korn, is increased to 32 m. 
The total population is about 150,000. 
Its chief commerce is in corn, cotton, 
and cattle, chiefly sheep, of which it 
possesses the best breed in Egypt. In 
addition to the various products men- 
tioned above, the sugar-cane has lately 
been planted by the Viceroy on large 
tracts of land, and mills have been 
erected in various parts. 

c. Cairo to Medeeneh. — The train 
leaves the Geezeh station of the Upper 
Egypt railway about 8 - 30 a.m. (see 
Cairo, Exc. vii.) and passing Bedre- 
shayn and one or two other stations, 
reaches 

El Wasta June. Stat, for the Fyoom, 
56 m. from Cairo, in about 3 hrs. At 
this village, which is close to the Nile, 
it is necessary to wait 3 hrs. or more 
till the arrival of the up train to Cairo. 
As soon as it has left, the Fyoom train 
is started. The line goes straight west- 
ward across the cultivated land. The 
only noticeable object is the False 
Pyramid to the N. On reaching the 
desert the road begins to ascend, and 
crosses the low chain of hills that 
divides the valley of the Nile from 
the oasis of the Fyoom. 

El Ediva Stat., 20 m. A small vil- 
lage on the edge of the cultivated 
land. There is capital shooting of 



300 



EOUTE 15. — CAIEO TO THE FYOOM. 



Sect. II. 



various kinds to be obtained in the 
neighbourhood. Geese, ducks, water- 
birds of every description, and snipe 
abound in the winter months, and 
quail a little later. There are a num- 
ber of half-natural, half-artificial, 
dykes between El Edwa and To- 
rneeah, to which birds resort in great 
numbers. Those who are intent on 
sport had better pitch their tents at 
El Edwa, and make shooting excur- 
sions in the neighbourhood. 

Medeeneh Stat., 5 m. The capital 
town of the Fyoom, and so often called 
Medeenet-el-Fyoom, and Medeenet-el- 
Fares (" City of the Knight or Horse- 
man"). It has about 8000 inhabitants, 
and presents the usual aspect of a large 
Egyptian town, with bazaars, baths, 
Greek coffee-houses, and a market 
every Sunday. It is situated on the 
banks of one of the two main branches 
of the Bahr Yoosef, which conduct the 
water into the Fyodm, through an 
opening in the hills near Benisooef. 
This branch canal, like nearly all those 
in the Fyodm, has quite the appearance 
of a natural river. To the N. of the 
modern town are the mounds which 
mark the site of Arsinoe, formerly 
Crocodilopolis, the town in which was 
worshipped the sacred crocodile kept 
in the Lake Mceris. Almost the only 
objects of interest as yet found there 
have been lamps, and other articles of 
bronze, belonging to the Christian 
period. Leo Africanus says, "the 
ancient city was built by one of the 
Pharaohs, on an elevated spot near a 
small canal from the Nile, at the time 
of the Exodus of the Jews, after he 
had afflicted them with the drudgery 
of hewing stones and other laborious 
employments." Here, too, they pre- 
tend " the body of Joseph, the son of 
Israel, was buried," which was after- 
wards removed by the Jews at their 
departure; and the surrounding 
country is famed for the abundance 
of its fruit and olives ; though these 
last are only fit for eating, and useless 
for their oil. Wansleb says the Copts 
still call the city Arsinoe in their 
books, and relates a strange tradition 
of its having been burnt by a besieging 



enemy, who tied torches to the tails 
of cats, and drove them into the town. 

d. The Labyrinth and Lake Moeris. 
— A visit to the site of the Labyrinth, 
and the crude-brick pyramid of Hawd- 
rah, which stands at its northern end, 
may be made from Medeeneh. The 
distance in a direct line is not more 
than 5 or 6 m., but a detour of more 
or less length will have to be made, 
according to the time of year and the 
state of the canals. Care should be 
taken to ascertain that the donkey- 
boy who acts as guide knows the way, 
and the proper places for crossing the 
various canals, especially the arm of 
the Bahr Yoosef which runs N. to 
Tomeeah, and the deep, narrow canal 
which flows through the W. side of 
the Labyrinth. This arm of the Bahr 
Yoosef presents here the appearance of 
a natural ravine, sometimes confined 
between steep banks, and at others 
widening out to a breadth of several 
hundred feet. Between it and the 
ruins are a succession of mounds, 
through which, immediately skirting 
the pyramid and the ruins, runs the 
narrow modern canal above referred to. 

The site of the Labyrinth, which 
had long been a subject of doubt, was 
fixed by Lepsius and the Prussian 
commission. But little remains to 
justify the extravagant admiration 
bestowed on it by Herodotus, who says, 
" I visited this place, and found it to 
surpass description ; for if all the walls 
and other great works of the Greeks 
were put together in one, they would 
not equal, either for labour or expense, 
this Labyrinth:" and he adds that 
" the Labyrinth surpasses the Pyra- 
mids." The founder of the Labyrinth 
has been variously named by ancient 
authors, but it seems probable that its 
builder was Amenemha III. of the 
XHth dynasty, the same who construct- 
ed the Lake Moeris. His is the oldest 
name found among the ruins. The 
whole extent of the Labyrinth, includ- 
ing the pyramid, measured about 1150 
ft. E. and W. by 850 ft. N. and S., and 
it appears to have been built round an 
open area 500 ft. broad and 600 ft. in 
length. Within this area lie such re- 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 15. — THE LABYRINTH AND LAKE MCERIS. 



301 



mains as can still be seen, consisting 
of broken columns and capitals, of 
granite and hard white limestone. 
The hieroglyphics on the granite have 
been painted green. Herodotus says 
that there were 12 courts, and two 
different sets of chambers, 1500 
above ground, and beneath them 1500 
under ground, and that the under- 
ground ones " contained the sepulchres 
of the kings who built the Labyrinth, 
and also those of the sacred crocodiles." 

The crocodile was the sacred animal 
of the nome, giving its name to the 
city of Crocodilopolis ; and it was the 
hatred of the inhabitants of the neigh- 
bouring province of Heracleopolis for 
this animal that caused the destruction 
of the Labyrinth. It has been well 
observed that the reason of the croco- 
dile, the eel, and other fish being 
sacred in inland towns of Egypt, was 
to ensure the maintenance of the 
canals which conducted the fresh 
water to those places, without which 
they could not live. 

To the N. of these ruins is a crude- 
brick pyramid, generally called the 
pyramid of Hawarah. When entire it 
was 348 ft. square ; but it is much 
ruined. The style of its building, in 
degrees, or stories, to which sloping 
triangular sides were afterwards added, 
is very evident. The bricks are very 
large, and appear to be of a great age. 
Strabo gives 4 plethra (400 ft.) for the 
length of each face, and the same for 
the height, which Herodotus calculates 
at 40 fathoms (240 ft.). A natural 
rock rises inside to the height of about 
40 ft. Several stone walls, intersecting 
it in regular lines, act as binders to the 
intermediate mass of brickwork built 
in between them : and the outside was 
coated with a stone casing. 

About 8 m. to the S. of the Labyrinth 
is another crude-brick pyramid near 
the village of Illahoon, a short distance 
to the S.W. of which, at a village called 
Hawarah, are the great stone dykes 
and sluices, mentioned by Aboolfeda, 
that regulate the quantity of water 
admitted into the Fyodm. Some 
remains of older bridges and dykes 
swept away by various irruptions of 
the Nile are seen there; and to the 



W. is a dyke, serving as a communi- 
cation with the high land at the edge 
of the desert during the inundation. 

From the branch of the Bahr Yoo- 
sef which runs from the bridge of 
Illahoon to Medeeneh, numerous canals 
conduct the water to various parts of 
the province, the quantity being regu- 
lated by sluices, according to the wants 
of each. As of old, they offer still a 
more interesting specimen of irrigation 
than any other part of Egypt. 

From Illahoon to Benisooef on the 
Nile (see Kte. 18) is about 14 m. in a 
direct line. On the road about 2 m. 
to the S.W. of the bridge of Illahoon 
are the mounds of an ancient town, 
called Tdma, which, from its name und 
position, probably marks the site of 
Ptolemai's, the port of Arsinoe. 

Further on to the rt. you see the 
lofty mounds of Anasieh, the ancient 
Heracleopolis, which stood in an island 
formed by the canal. The mounds of 
Noayreh, Baheh, Beshennee, Beliffieh, 
Kom Alimar, and others, also mark the 
sites of old towns. 

Most visitors to the Fyodm will be 
anxious to visit the site of the Lake 
Mceris, of which Herodotus says, 
" Wonderful as is the Labyrinth, the 
work called the Lake of Mceris, which 
is close by the Labyrinth is yet more 
astonishing." But though the position 
of this lake has now been satisfactorily 
determined, there is little or nothing 
to mark the ground it occupied. To 
M. Linant-Bey is due the discovery 
of its position, and the refutation of 
the theory which made the Birket el 
Korn its representative. The accounts 
o*f Herodotus, Strabo, and Pliny, 
though widely different, all seem to 
show that it was an artificial lake, dug 
for the purpose of receiving the super- 
fluous waters of the Nile during the 
inundation, and then, by means of 
locks and sluices, distributing them 
during the dry season throughout the 
Fyodm and the surrounding country 
above and below Memphis. This 
function could never have been dis- 
charged by the Birket el Korn, the 
surface of which lies considerably 
lower than the cultivated land; nor, 
making every allowance for the rise of 



302 



KOUTE 15. CAIEO TO THE FTOOM. 



Sect. II. 



the bed of the river and the surround- 
ing country from the continued deposit 
of alluvium, could they ever have been 
nearly on the same level, even in 
Herodotus' time ; and the ruins at the 
water's edge of the Birket el Korn, 
show that its surface was at any rate 
never lower than it now is. It is pro- 
bable that when the inundation was 
excessive, and the Lake Moeris over- 
flowed, the superfluous water was 
carried off into this natural depression 
of the Birket el Korn. But the arti- 
ficial reservoir of Lake Moeris must 
have been on a level with the lands it 
was intended to supply with water. 

Its position has been fixed by M. 
Linant-Bey in the centre of the pla- 
teau of the Fyodm. He discovered to 
the N., N.E., and S. of Medeeneh, 
remains of an old dyke of great 
strength, extending over an area of 
some 30 m. Within the circumference 
of these remains was Lake Moeris. 
Biahmoo, about 4 m. to the N. of Me- 
deeneh, formed the N.W angle ; from 
thence the dyke can be traced for 
about 10 m. E. as far as Wady War- 
dan, and 18 m. S., as far as Gherek. 
That this must have been the position 
of Lake Moeris is still further proved 
by the now ascertained site of the 
Labyrinth, which, Herodotus tells us, 
was " a little above Lake Moeris, in the 
neighbourhood of Crocodilopolis." His 
assertion that it was 450 m. in circum- 
ference, may be explained by the sup- 
position that he embraced in this 
measurement the whole water-system 
of the Fyodm, the Birket el Korn in- 
cluded. 

The conception and execution of 
this gigantic work were due to Ame- 
nemha III. of the Xllth dynasty, 
the same who built the Labyrinth. 
The name Moeris, given to him by the 
Greeks, is simply derived from the 
old Egyptian word meri, which sig- 
nified a lake. The records of the rise 
of the Nile, put up by the same king 
at Semneh, are an additional proof of 
the attention he bestowed on hydraulic 
engineering. 

e. Other Excursions from Medeeneh. 
— Another excursion may be made to 



Biggig, about 2 m* to the S.S.W. of 
Medeeneh, where is an obelisk of the 
time of Osirtasen I., who erected that 
of Heliopolis. It has been thrown 
down, and broken in two parts; one 
about 26i ft, the other 16 ft. 3 in. long. 
One face and two sides are only visible ; 
and few hieroglyphics remain on the 
lower part. The mean breadth of 
the face is 5 ft. 2 in., or 6 ft. 9J in. at 
the lower end, and the sides are about 
4 ft. in width. At the upper part of 
the face are five compartments, one 
over the other ; in each of which are 
two figures of king Osirtasen offering 
to two deities. Below are columns of 
hieroglyphics, many of which are quite 
illegible. The other face is under 
the ground. On each of the two sides 
is a single column of hieroglyphics, 
containing the name of the king, 
who on one is said to be beloved by 
Phtah, on the other by Mandoo — evi- 
dently the principal deities of the place. 
On the summit of the obelisk a groove 
has been cut, doubtless to hold some 
ornament, like that of Heliopolis ; 
though this of Biggig differs from it, 
and from other obelisks, in its apex 
being round and not pointed ; and in 
the breadth of its sides, and its faces 
being so very dissimilar. The people 
of the country look on these fragments 
with the same superstitious feeling 
as on some stones at the temple of 
Panopolis, and other places; and the 
women recite the Fat 'ha over them in 
the hope of a numerous offspring. 

At Bialimoo, about 4 m. to the N. 
of Medeeneh, are some curious stone 
ruins. They consist of two buildings, 
distant from each other 81 paces, 
measuring 45 in breadth and about 60 
in length, the southern end of both 
being destroyed. They stand nearly 
due N. and S., and at the centre of 
the E. and W. face is a doorway. In 
the middle of each is an irregular mass 
of masonry about 10 paces square and 
about 20 ft. high, having 10 tiers of 
stone remaining in the highest part; 
and at the N.E. corner of the eastern 
building the outer wall is entire, and 
presents a sloping pyramidal face, 
having an angle , of 67°. Some have 
supposed them to be pyramids, and 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 15. BIRKET EL KORN. 



303 



have seen in them the two mentioned 
by Herodotus, as standing in the centre 
of Lake Mceris. But their position 
does not accord with this idea ; and 
the angle is not that of a pyramid. 

/. The Birket el Korn— The Birket 
el Korn is about 15 m. distant in a 
straight line from Medeeneh. If it is 
the time of the sugar-cane harvest, 
advantage can be taken of the railway 
which goes from Medeeneh to Nezleh 
and Abookseer, both villages not far 
from the lake. At other periods of 
the year a train only runs occasionally. 
It is generally very difficult to hire 
camels or donkeys in the Fyoom, and 
it is a good thing to get an order from 
the governor at Medeeneh, addressed 
to the village sheykhs, requiring them 
to furnish the traveller with what he 
may require. None of the ruins which 
will presently be described on the 
shore of the Birket are particularly 
well worth a visit. The best head- 
quarters for shooting is perhaps the 
small village of El Wady, situate about 
midway along the S. shore of the lake, 
at the mouth of what is called the 
Wady river, one of the main branches 
of the Bahr Yoosef canal before alluded 
to, which here empties itself into the 
lake. Plenty of wild-fowl shooting is 
to be had here in the winter, and 
quail are abundant in February. 
Hares, too, abound in the tamarisk- ! 
bushes on the shore of the lake to the ! 
east of El Wady. Boars and wolves 
may sometimes be seen, but the place 
to find them is on -the opposite or N. 
side of the lake. There are some large 
clumsy fishermen's boats at El Wady, 
but any one who wants to shoot on 
the lake, and cross from one side to the 
other readily, had better take his own 
boat with him. El Wady is about 
5 m. from Abookseer. 

The following would make a good 
tour from Medeeneh. To Nezleh, and 
thence to the Kasr Kharoon : from Kasr 
Kharoon along the W. shore of* the 
Birket el Korn to El Wady, Abookseer, 
and Senhoor : from Senhoor inland to 
Tomeeah : and thence back to Me- 
deeneh or El Edwa. This would 
occupy from 5 to 8 days. 



The lake is about 35 m. long, and a 
little more than 7 broad in the widest 
part, and has received its name, Birket 
el Korn, or Keroon, " the Lake of the 
Horn," from its form, which is broad at 
the eastern end, and curves to a point 
at its opposite extremity. Towards 
the middle is a barren island, called 
Gezeeret el Korn. The depth of the 
lake varies according to the time of 
year, but the average in the deepest 
part may be about 30 ft. The surface 
is considerably below the level of the 
Nile. The water is brackish, and even 
salt, particularly in summer, before 
the inundation has poured into it a 
supply of fresh water. It is partly fed 
by this, and partly by springs, which 
are probably derived from nitrations 
from the Nile over a bed of clay. 

Until lately the Birket el Korn was 
considered to be the old Lake Mceris, 
but, as has been already shown, modern 
science has proved the inaccuracy of 
that idea. The first view of the lake 
from the upland plain of the Fyodm 
is very grand. Dense groves of palm- 
trees occupy the foreground in the 
neighbourhood of Senhoor and Nezleh : 
the plain sloping gradually down to 
the lake is richly cultivated; the 
immediate shore is dotted with pic- 
turesque groups of tamarisk-bushes: 
the lake itself, on a calm day, glitters 
like a sea of molten silver ; while be- 
yond it stretches the desert, to the E. 
a succession of undulating sand-hills, 
to the W. a chain of rocky mountains, 
extending to the edge of the horizon. 
Mention has already been made of the 
numbers of aquatic birds, especially 
in winter. The lake also abounds in 
fish, mostly of the same kind as those 
found in the Nile. As usual in Egypt, 
the fisheries are farmed. 

g. Kasr Kharoon, and other Ruins on 
the Shores of the Birket el Korn. — The 
principal ruins on the shores of the 
Birket el Korn are those called Kasr 
el Kharoon. They are at the S.W. 
corner of the lake, about 10 m. from 
Nezleh, and rather more from the vil- 
lage of El Wady. The road from the 
latter lies along the shore,, and over 
the desert. Nezleh is on the banks of 



304 



EOUTE 15. — CAIRO TO THE FYOOM. 



Sect. II. 



the river-like canal called El "Wady, 
whose mouth is at the village of the 
same name. 

At Nezleh the ravine, from bank to 
bank, measures 673 ft., and 100 in 
depth from the top of the bank to the 
level of the water in the channel at 
the centre, which is 120 ft. broad. In 
the ravine itself are the remains of a 
wall, partly brick, partly stone, which 
is said to have been once used to retain 
the water, like that of Tomeeah, where 
there is a similar deep broad channel, 
and where the large reservoir of water, 
kept up by the dyke, has probably 
been made in imitation of the old 
artificial Lake Moeris. About 1| m. 
below Nezleh are some mounds, called 
Wateeah, and the tomb of Sheykh Abd 
el Bari. 

To the W. of Nezleh are the sites 
of 2 ancient towns, called Harab-t-el 
Yahood, "the Kuins of the Jews," and 
El Hammam, "the Baths." Neither 
of them presents any but crude-brick 
remains, and the former has evidently 
been inhabited by Moslems, whose 
mnd houses still remain. Medeenet 
Hati, Medeenet Madi, and Harab-t-en 
Nishan, have extensive mounds of 
ancient towns, amidst which are found 
fragments of limestone columns, bricks, 
pottery, glass, and a few Boman coins. 

On the road to Kasr Kharoon is 
Kasr el Benat, " the BaLtce of the 
(iirls," a small crude-brick ruin, of 
which the plans of 3 rooms only can 
be traced; the whole measuring 30 
paces by 10. Near it is the site of an 
old town, with much broken pottery, 
bricks, and other fragments. One mile 
and a half to the S. are the mounds of 
Hereet, presenting the remains of 
brickwork, but no ruins. Traces of 
vineyards and the channels of old 
canals are to be seen, together with 
much pottery and some tombs, before 
reaching Kasr Kharoon. 

The principal building, to which 
the name of Kasr Kharoon properly 
belongs, is an Egyptian temple, mea- 
suring 94 ft. by 63 ft., and 46 ft. in 
height, preceded by a court about 
35 ft. in depth. It contains 14 cham- 
bers and 2 staircases on the ground- 
floor, besides a long passage on either 1 



i side of the adytum, whose end wall 
is divided into 3 narrow cells. The 
whole is of hewn stone, and of a very 
good style of masonry. 

About 380 paces (or 900 ft.) in front 
of the temple is a square stone ruin, 
that probably formed the entrance of 
its dromos ; near it is another small 
building of similar materials ; and 130 
paces to the S.E. is a Boman temple 
of brick, stuccoed, about 18 ft. square, 
on a stone platform, the outer face of 
its walls ornamented with pilasters 
and half-columns. In form, size, and 
appearance, it resembles 2 buildings 
near Borne, one called the temple of 
Bediculus, and the other a supposed 
tomb, outside the Borta Bia. The 
roof is arched, and the door in front 
opens upon a small area, part of the 
platform upon which it stands ; and 
the principal difference between this 
and the above-mentioned buildings is, 
that here half-columns are substituted 
at the side walls for pilasters. It 
has a side-door. Other vestiges of 
ruins are scattered over an extent of 
about 900 by 400 paces, or about 2200 
by 1000 ft. ; and at the western extre- 
mity of this space, 350 paces behind 
the temple, are the remains of an arch, 
partly of stone, and partly of crude- 
brick, whose northern face looks to- 
wards the lake, and the other towards 
a small crude-brick ruin. Near the 
arch is a stone resembling a stool, or 
an altar, also of Boman time. 

It is not alone by the situation of 
this town that the former extent of 
the cultivated land of the Arsinoite 
nome is attested, but by the traces 
of gardens and vineyards which are 
met with on all sides of the Kasr 
Kharoon, whose roots now supply the 
Arabs with fuel when passing the 
night there. 

Broken pieces of old glass lie thickly 
strewn about the desert in the neigh- 
bourhood, and there are many copper 
coins. It has been conjectured that 
Kasr Kharoon marks the site of Dio- 
nysias. 

To the N.E., on the shore of Birket 
el Korn, are vestiges of masonry, per- 
haps of the port (if it deserves the 
' name) of this town. To the N., about 



Egypt 



ROUTE 15. — KOM WESEEM — AEOOKSEEE. 



305 



12 m. from the lake, is a lofty range 
of limestone mountains, and behind 
them is the ravine that joins, and 
forms part of, the Bahr-el-Fargh, to 
the W. of the Natron Lakes. 

The rains of Kom Weseem or Kom 
Wesheem-el-Haggav, are little more 
than 5 in. from the eastern end of the 
lake, and 4 from Tomeeah, close to the 
road leading to the pyramids. They 
consist of extensive mounds, and be- 
low them are remains of crude-brick 
houses on stone substructions, amidst 
which may be traced the direction of 
the streets of a town. On the mounds 
the remains seem to be chiefly, if not 
entirely, of tombs, in some of which 
animals were buried. There are a few 
granite blocks, and others of a com- 
pact shell limestone. Some of the 
former had been cut into millstones. 
Fragments of glass abound ; and Ptole- 
maic coins badly preserved, together 
with an arched room, prove these 
rains to be of late time. Beyond 
the town to the N.E. are numerous 
large round blocks of stone extending 
to a great distance along the plain, 
which has given the epithet El Haggar 
to the place ; but they are not hewn 
stone, and have not belonged to any 
monument. 

At El Hammdm, by the water's edge, 
at this end of the lake, are the re- 
mains of " baths,'" and a few other ruins 
of no great interest, broken amphorae, 
glass, and other fragments. A little 
above was the town to which they 
belonged. 

There is another place called " the 
baths," with still fewer remains of 
burnt brick, on the S. side of the Like ; 
and to the 12. of this, at the projecting 
headlnnd below Sheykh Abd el Kadee 
are a few more vestiges of brickwork. 
The tomb of the Sheykh also stands on 
the site of an old town, on the way 
from Senhoor to the lake. 

Nearly opposite these southern 
"baths" are the ruins of Dimdy or 
Nerba, a large town, distant about 
2 m. from the lake. 

On the way from the usual place 
of landing, below Dimay, you pass 
several large blocks resembling broken 



columns, but which are natural, as at 
Kom "Weseem. 

A raised paved dromos, leading di- 
rect through its centre to an elevated 
platform and sacred enclosure, forms 
the main street, about 1290 ft. in 
length, once ornamented at the upper 
end with the figures of lions, from 
which the place has received the name 
of Dimay (or Dimeh) es Saba. This 
remarkable street (which recalls the 
paved approach to the temple of 
Bnbastis), the lions, and the remains 
of stone buildings, prove the town to 
have been of far greater consequence 
than Kom Weseem. The principal 
edifice, which is partly of stone, stands 
at the upper end of the street, and 
was doubtless a temple : it measures 
about 109 ft. by 67 ft., and is divided 
into several apartments, the whole 
surrounded by an extensive circuit 
of crude brick, 370 ft. by 270 ft. An 
avenue of lions was before the en- 
trance of this sacred enclosure (or 
temenos), 87 ft. in length, connecting 
it with one of those square open plat- 
forms, ornnmented with columns, so 
often found before the temples of the 
Thebaid; and this avenue formed a 
continuation of the main street. The 
total dimensions of the area occupied 
by the town were about 1730 ft. by 
1000, but the extent of its walls is not 
easily traced amidst the heaps of sand 
tha-t have accumulated over them ; and 
the whole is in a very dilapidated 
state. 

The site of Bacchis may have been 
at Dimay, or at Kom el Weseem. 

h. Other parts of the Fyodm. — Abook- 
seer is a large village with the usual 
mounds, about 4 m. from the lake on 
E. shore. A short distance to the W. of 
it is a large sugar-factory, whence a 
railway runs round by Nezleh to Me- 
deeneh. About a mile from the vil- 
lage to the E. is some marshy ground, 
much frequented by ducks and various 
kinds of aquatic birds. The direct road 
from Abookseer to Medeeneh passes 
by the marsh, and joins the railway 
embankment about | m. beyond it. 

Senhoor is a large and picturesque 
village, buried in a forest of palm-trees, 



306 



ROUTE 16. — CAIRO TO THE OASES. 



Sect, II. 



and partly surrounded by a deep water- 
course. It is situated about 5 m. 
from the lake at its N.E. corner. 
There are extensive mounds, but no 
ruins. In a gorge near, on the borders 
of a stream . in the midst of the date- 
groves, is the charming little village of 
Fidedeen. There is a beautiful view 
of the lake from the country round 
Senhoor. 

Inland from Senhoor is Senooris, a 
large village occupying the site of an 
old town, but with no ruins. Me- 
deeneh is about 10 m. distant to the S. 

Continuing on in N.W. direction we 
pass Kafr Mukfoot, in the centre of a 
most richly cultivated country, and 
8 m. from Senooris reach Tomeeah, the 
last village at the N.E. side of the 
Fyodm. It has no ruins, but is inter- 
esting from the remains that exist of 
the old system of dykes and reservoirs. 
The same system is still carried out 
on a smaller scale. There is a deep 
ravine, or valley, as at Nezleh, the 
lower part of which was dammed by a 
buttressed wall of great thickness. 
Water-fowl are very numerous in the 
neighbourhood of Tomeeah ; also hares 
and sand-grouse. Medeeneh is about 
17 m. distant, and El Edwa 12 m. 

From Tomeeah a road leads across 
the desert to Dashoor and Sakkarah, 
rather more than 30 m. 

About 20 m. from Medeeneh, to 
the S.W., is El Gherek, a town about 
700 paces long by 500 broad, pro- 
tected against the Arabs by a wall 
furnished with loopholes and pro- 
jecting towers. Over the gateway 
are some old sculpture, and parts of 
small columns and pilasters. It has 
no ruins, and the mound near it, called 
Senooris, seems only to mark the site 
of an older Arab village. And though 
the stones on the W. side, from which 
the village has received the pompous 
name of Medeenet el Haggar, " the 
City of the Stone," once belonged to 
ancient ruins, there is no vestige of 
building that has any claim to an- 
tiquity. The town stands at the edge 
of an isolated spot of arable land, sur- 
rounded by the desert, and watered 
by a branch of the canal that extends 
to the lands about Nezleh, and the | 



western extremity of the Fyodm. It 
is the land that has given the name 
Gherek, "submerged," to the village; 
doubtless from its having been exposed 
to floods, by the lowness of its level, 
when accidents have occurred to the 
dykes. It has been erroneously called 
a lake. 

At El Benian, " the Buildings," to 
the N.E. of El Gherek, are an old 
doorway, broken shafts, and capitals 
of Corinthian columns of Boman 
time, built into a sheykh's tomb ; and 
at Taleet and Sheykh Aboo-Hamed, to 
the eastward, are the mounds of two 
other towns. These indeed occur 
in many parts of the Fyodm; and 
though we cannot credit the tradition 
of the people that it formerly con- 
tained 366 towns and villages, it is 
evident that it was a populous nome of 
ancient Egypt; and that many once 
existed both in the centre and on the 
now barren skirts of the Fyodm. In- 
deed the cultivated land extended 
formerly far beyond its present limits : 
a great portion of the desert plain was 
then taken into cultivation, and several 
places may be noted where canals and 
the traces of cultivated fields are still 
discernible to a considerable distance E. 
and W. of the modern irrigated lands. 



KOUTE 16. 

CAIRO TO THE LITTLE OASTS, THE GREAT 
OASIS, AND THE OASIS OF DAKHLEH, 
BY THE FYOOM. 

a. Different roads to the Oases, b. Ke- 
quisites for the journey, c. Dis- 
tances, d. Wady Ryan. — Moileh. 
e.^ Little Oasis. /. El Hayz. g. Fa- 
rafreh. h. Oases of the Blacks in 
the interior to the west. i. Oasis of 



Egypt. 



EOUTE 16. — ROADS TO THE OASES. 



307 



Dakhleh. j. Great Oasis. U. Dis- 
tances in the Great Oasis. I. Boad 
to the Nile at Abydus. m. Koad 
to Esneh. 

a. The most frequented roads to 
the Little Oasis are from the Fyoorn 
and from Behnesa, and the average 
distance from them is the same, about 
3 days' journey. 

The Great Oasis may be visited 
from Asyoot, from Geezeh by Abydus, 
from Farshoot, from Thebes, or from 
Esneh ; and that of Dakhleh from Beni 
Adee near Manfaloot, or by the Great 
Oasis. 

The route by the Fyodm and the 
Little Oasis includes El Hayz and 
Farafreh, and gives the best idea of 
the character of the African desert ; 
but most persons who go to the Oases 
will be satisfied with a visit to the 
Little Oasis from the Fyoom or from 
Behnesa, and to the other two from 
some point in Upper Egypt, returning 
again to the same, or to some other, 
place on the Nile. 

There is little to vary the monotony 
of the roads to the Oases: and the 
dreary journey over a high desert 
plain, or table-land, scarcely diver- 
sified by occasional barren valleys, 
has led to the mistaken impression 
of the charm of those " islands of the 
blessed." Some have supposed them 
to be cultivated spots in the midst of 
a desert of sand, with rich fields kept 
in a state of perpetual verdure by the 
streams that run through them, and 
affording the same contrast to the 
extensive barren plain around them 
as islands to the level expanse of 
the ocean. These highly-wrought pic- 
tures soon vanish on arriving at the 
Oases. The surrounding tract, over 
which the roads lead to them, consists 
of a lofty table-land, intersected here 
and there by small shallow valleys, 
or ravines, worn by the water of rain 
that occasionally falls there ; and the 
Oases lie in certain depressions in this 
mountain-plain, surrounded by cliffs 
more or less precipitous, and very like 
those to the E. and W. of the valley 
of the Nile. In the centre, or in 
some part of this depressed plain, is 



the Oasis itself, — a patch of fertile 
soil, composed of sand and clay, which 
owes its origin to the springs that rise 
here and there to fertilise it. Here 
are gardens, palm-groves, fields, and 
villages, not unlike a portion of the 
valley of the Nile, with a sandy plain 
beyond, in which stunted tamarisks, 
coarse grasses, and other desert plants, 
struggle to keep their heads above 
the drifted sand that collects around 
them. The distant hills, or the ab- 
rupt faces of the high mountain-plain 
surrounding the whole, complete the 
scene, and if you ascend a minaret, or 
any point higher than the rest, you 
may add to these general features 
some stagnant lakes, whose feverish 
exhalations cause and account for the 
yellow complexion of the inhabitants, 
and make it unsafe to visit the Oases 
in summer or autumn. 

&. Requisites for the Journey. 

Full instructions as to what is re- 
quired for a desert journey will be 
found under Bte. 14, a ; and the tra- 
veller must decide for himself whether 
he will be content with bare neces- 
saries, or go in for comparative lux- 
uries. It is not always easy to pro- 
cure camels at Medeenet el Fyoom, 
and it is therefore as well to obtain at 
Cairo a letter of recommendation to 
the authorities there. 

c. Distances. 

Days. 



Cairo to Medeenet - el - Fyoom. 

See Bte. 15 1 

El Ghe'rek (sleep there and take 

water) 1 

Wady Byan (brackish water) . . J 

Zubbo, in the Little Oasis .. 2£ 

Zubbo to El Kasr in this Oasis 
6|m I 

El Kasr in Little Oasis to El 

Hayz (short day) 1 

El Hayz to Farafreh . . . . 3 

Farafreh to Oasis of Dakhleh . . 4 

Oasis of Dakhleh to Great Oasis 3 
Great Oasis to Abydus, 38 to 

40 hrs. (long days) . . . . 3 



308 



ROUTE 16. CAIRO TO THE OASES. 



Sect. II. 



d. Wady Bydn, and Moileh. 

On going from the Fyodm to the 
Little Oasis, the first halt is at the 
valley called Wady Raian or Ryan, 
abounding with palm-trees and water. 
It is not sweet, like that of the Nile, 
but is good for camels ; the supply for 
the journey should therefore be taken 
in at the western extremity of the 
lands of El Gherek. It is always 
better to have too much than too little, 
and rather more than the Arabs say is 
necessary, as they try to load their 
camels as lightly as possible, and think 
little for the future. 

About 15 m. to the S.E. of Wady 
Ryan, and some way to the 1. of the 
road, is the valley of Moileh with a 
ruined convent or monastery, and a 
spring of salt water. It may be visited 
on the way to Wady Ryan, by making 
a small detour, and is curious as a 
Christian ruin. It contains 2 churches, 
one of stone, the other of brick, and is 
surrounded by a strong wall, with a 
tower of defence on the N. side. In 
the churches are several Coptic and 
some Arabic inscriptions, and figures 
of the Apostles and saints ; and the 
cornice that runs round a niche in 
the stone church is richly carved, 
though in bad taste. The total di- 
mensions of the convent are 89 paces 
by 65. In the same valley are some 
curious specimens of the picturesque 
wild palm-tree. 

There is nothing remarkable on the 
road to the Oasis ; and one cluster of 
acacia-trees appears a singular novelty. 
On descending into the low plain in 
which the Oasis, properly so called, 
stands, you perceive that the calca- 
reous mountains repose on sandstone, 
with a substratum of clay, holding 
the water that rises from it in the 
form of springs. You pass nnmerous 
stunted tamarisk-bushes, some palms 
and springs, then some stagnant lakes ; 
and after sinking in the salt-crust of 
once flooded fields, that crackles under 
your feet, you reach the thick palm- 
groves, gardens, and villages of the 
Wah. It is divided into two parts, 
separated by some isolated hills, over 
which the principal road passes from 



one to the other. Those hills are sand- 
stone, and they present some curious 
geological features. 

e. Little Oasis— The modern name 
of the little Oasis, the Oasis Parva of 
the Romans, is Wah el Behnesa, — a 
translation of the old Coptic Ouahe 
Pemge. The Arabs pretend that it 
was so called from having been once 
colonised from Behnesa, on the Bahr 
Yoosef ; and it is to this that Abool- 
feda alludes in speaking of " another 
Behnesa in the Wah." It is also known 
as the Wah el Mendeesheh, and the 
Wah el Ghdrbee, though this last is 

I properly its " western" division. The 
Arabic name Wah is the same as the 
ancient Egyptian Ouah, Aua, or Oa, 
which with the Greek termination 
formed Auasis, or Oasis, and is the 
Coptic Ouahe. 

The only ancient stone remains are 
a small ruin near Zubbo, and a Roman 
building in the town of El Kasr, which 
has thence derived its name, signify- 
ing " the Palace." This was once a 
handsome edifice, well built, and orna- 
mented with Doric mouldings ; and 
its arch, with the niches at the side, 
has still a good effect. The Kasr el 

! Alam, about 1J m. to the W.* of El 
Kasr, is an insignificant crude-brick 
ruin: there is another about f m. 
to the S.W. of the same town ; and 
to the E. of Zubbo are some rude 
grottoes. 

The Little Oasis has several springs 
of warm water, which, when left to 
cool in porous jars, is perfectly whole- 
some and palatable, though some say 

| it disagrees with strangers in the 

( summer. The most remarkable are 
at Bowitti and El Kasr, the former 
having a temperature" of 27° Reaum. ; 

i the latter, whose steam is converted 
into a rude bath, of 27J° Reaum., or 

' about 93 5 ° Fahr. With regard to the 
real and apparent warmth of the water 
of some of ■ these springs, an idea may 
be had from a pond formed by them 
of Zubbo, whose water soon after sun- 
rise (Feb. 3), the exterior air being 
8J° Reaum., was 18J° and quite warm 
to the hand ; at midday, the exterior 
air being 15°, it was 2±°, and cold to 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 16. — THE LITTLE OASIS. 



309 



the hand; and in the evening at 9 
p.m., the exterior air being 12-J°, the 
water was 20|°, and consequently 
warm to the hand ; explaining the ex- 
aggerated phenomena of the Fountain 
of the Sun, in the Oasis of Ammon. 
The pond is about 30 ft. wide, and 5 or 
6 ft. in depth. It is the one mentioned 
by Belzoni. 

In this Wah are grown a variety of 
fruit-trees, much liquorice, rice, barley, 
wheat, doom, clover, wild cotton, and 
most of the usual productions of the 
Nile ; but the principal source of 
wealth here, as in the other Oases, is 
the date-tree, which yields a very su- 
perior quality of fruit. 

The dates are of 4 kinds : the Sol- 
tanee, the Saiclee, which are the best, 
the Kaka, and the Ertob (rottub) ; 
but those of the Seewah are even 
better. The proportion of fruit-trees 
is also much greater than on the Nile. 

A conserve of dates, called Ag'weh, 
is made by pounding them in a mass, 
and then mixing whole dates with 
it. The Saidee are preferred for this 
purpose, and are preserved in earthen 
jar , and kept by the natives for their 
own use; but some, which they put 
into baskets, are sent to the Nile, 
where they are highly and justly es- 
teemed. They are very sweet and 
rich, unlike any produced in Egypt. 

They make no brandy from dates, 
but extract a palm-wine, called Lowb'- 
geh, from the heart of the tree, — an 
intoxicating beverage, of which they 
are very fond. It is thus made : in 
the summer, when the sap is up, they 
cut off all the gereets (palm-branches), 
except 3 or 4 in the middle ; and 
then, having made incisions in every 
part of the heart, at the foot of those 
branches, they stretch a skin all 
round, to conduct the juice into a jar 
placed there to receive it. Some 
palms fill a jar in one night, holding 
about 6 pints. It is sweetened with 
honey, and drunk as soon as made; 
and its taste and effect are very much 
like new wine, with the flavour of 
cider. 

The heart of the palm-tree is also 
cut out and eaten. But this, like the 
process of making the wine, spoils 



the tree. (Of. Xenoph. Anab. 2, 3.) 
The people of the Nile, therefore, never 
taste the former unless a tree falls, as 
they cannot afford to sacrifice what 
costs^them an annual duty. The trees 
of the Oases are taxed in mass ; those 
of the Nile singly. 

They also make treacle from the 
dates ; and they lay up dried pome- 
granates for the winter and spring. 

The liquorice-roots (soos) are sent 
to the Nile in baskets, and are used 
for making a sort of sherbet. 

The principal gardens are about El 
Kasr, where fruit-trees are abundant, 
particularly apricots, pomegranates, 
Seville oranges glaring, whence the 
Spanish naranja, and our "orange") 
and vines ; they have also the banana, 
the nebh, and mokliayt (Rhamnus 
Nabeca, and Zizyphus), olive, peach, 
fig, pear, and some others. Olives 
are not abundant, and they are mostly 
brought from the Seewah and Fara- 
freh. 

Though the inhabitants of the Oa- 
ses are a much less industrious and 
energetic race than the fellaheen of 
Egypt, they pay considerable attention 
to the cultivation of their lands ; but 
they have not to undergo the same toil 
in raising water as on the Nile, the 
streams that constantly flow from plen- 
tiful springs affording a convenient and 
never - failing supply for irrigation. 
But the stagnant lakes created by the 
surplus of water exhale a pernicious 
miasma, causing a dangerous remittent 
fever, which annually rages in the 
summer and autumn ; and the Arabs 
of the desert consider it unsafe to visit 
these districts at any other season than 
the winter and the spring. 

The height of these Oases varies. 
The Little Oasis being about 200 feet 
higher than the Nile at Benisooef, 
while the Great Oasis and that of 
Dakhleh are nearly on the same level. 
But in all of them the water seems to 
rise from an argillaceous bed, which in 
the two former lies under limestone, 
and in the latter under sandstone strata. 
It may, however, be reasonably conjec- 
tured that the water comes originally 
from the Nile, whence, carried over 
the clay, it finds its way to the different 



310 



EOUTE 16. — CAIRO TO THE OASES. 



Sect. II. 



Oases, as to the Natron valley ; and 
its occasionally rising, in a level higher 
than the Nile in the same latitude, is 
explained by its having entered the 
conducting stratum at some more south- 
erly, and consequently more elevated, 
part of the river's course. 

The annual tax paid by the Oases 
to the Egyptian Government amounts 
to about 8000Z. The population of the 
Little Oasis may perhaps be reckoned 
thus : — 

Inhabitants. 

Zubbo .. 300 

Mareeh 400 

El Kasr, about 3500 

Bowitti, about 3000 

Total about 7200 

The distances in this Oasis are : — 

From Zubbo and Mareeah (which are 
not J a mile apart) to the ruined 
village of Bayrees to the S.E., 2 m. 

From Zubbo to Bowitti in the western 
division of the Oasis, crossing the 
hill, 4 m. 

From Bowitti to El Kasar less than 
J m. 

From El Kasar to the western limit of 
the cultivated lands, If m. 

No general extent of this Oasis can 
be given, owing to its irregularity ; and 
indeed in all of them the cultivable 
spots bear a very small proportion to 
the dimensions of the valley over which 
they are studded. 

/. El Hayz.— The small Wah of El 
Hayz is a short day to the S. of this 
Oasis, of which, indeed, it is a continua- 
tion. It has springs and cultivated 
land belonging to the people of El 
Kasr and Bowitti, who go there at cer- 
tain seasons to till it, and collect the 
crops. But it has no village, and the 
only appearance of buildings is at El 
Errees, where a ruined church shows it 
was once the abode of Christian monks. 
This consists of a nave and aisles, with 
rooms on the upper story. Some of 
the arches have the horseshoe form; 
and over a window is a Coptic inscrip- 
tion. About 6,00 paces to the S.W. is 



another crude-brick ruin, about 74 
paces by 50, within the walls, which 
are about 30 ft. high, and near this are 
much pottery and some nebk - trees, 
which indicate the previous existence of 
a garden, either belonging to a mona- 
stery or a town. 

g. Farafreh. — About 3 days from El 
Hayz are the Oasis and village of 
Farafreh, containing about 60 or 70 
male inhabitants. The Kassob, " cane," 
mentioned by Ebn-el-Werde, appears 
to be the dokhn or millet (Holcus sac- 
cliaratus), grown in this district ; and 
it is remarkable that the name Kassob, 
usually confined to sugar-cane, is here 
applied to millet. The productions of 
Farafreh are very much the same as 
those of the other Oases, but it excels 
them in the quality of its olives, which 
are exported to the Little Oasis. Fara- 
freh was formerly called Trinytheos 
Oasis, but it boasts no remains of anti- 
quity. It has a castle or stronghold 
that commands and protects the village 
in case of attack from the Arabs, or 
more dangerous enemies. 

h. Oases of the BlacJts. — Five or * 
6 days W. of the road to Farafreh is 
another Oasis, called Wady Zerzodra, 
about the size of the Oasis Parva, 
abounding in palms, with springs, and 
some ruins of uncertain date. It was 
discovered at the beginning of the cen- 
tury by an Arab, while in search of a 
stray camel, and from seeing the foot- 
steps of men and sheep he supposed 

it to be inhabited. Gebabo, another 
Wah, lies 6 days beyond this to the W., 
and 12 days from Augila ; and Tazerbo, 
which is still farther to the "W., forms 
part of the same Oasis. The general 
belief is that Wady Zerzoora also com- 
municates with it. The inhabitants are 
black, and many of them have been 
carried off at different times by the 
Moghrebbins for slaves : through the 
"Valleys of the Blacks," a series of 
similar Oases lie still further to the W. 

According to another account, Zer- 
zoora is only 2 or 3 days due W. from 
Dakhleh, beyond which is another 
Wady; then a second, abounding in 
cattle ; then Gebabo and Tazerbo ; and 



EOUTE 16. OASIS OF DAKHLEH. 



311 



beyond these, Wady Kebeeana. Ge- 
babo is inhabited by two tribes of 
Blacks, the Simertayn and Ergezayn. 

These are, perhaps, the continuation 
of palm-bearing spots mentioned by 
Edrisi, which he says extend to Ouca 
and Cawar. 

i. Oasis of Daklileli. —Four days to 
the S. of Farafreh is the Wah el 
Gharbee, or Wah ed DaMleh, " the 
Western or Inner Oasis." The name of 
Dakhleh is put in opposition to Khar- 
geh (which is given to the Great Oasis 
that lies E. of it), — the one meaning 
the "receding," the other the " project- 
ing" Wall ; Khargeh being called 
projecting, as being nearer to Egypt. 

A great portion of the road from 
Farafreh lies between two of the nu- 
merous high ridges of drifted sand that 
extend for many miles, nearly due N. 
and S., parallel to each other. There is 
no water after passing Ain ed Dthuk- 
ker, the halting-place of the first day s 
march. 

Though noticed by Arab writers, the 
position and even the existence of the 
Wah ed Dakhleh were unknown in 
modern times, until visited by Sir 
Archibald Edmonston in 1819. 

The crude-brick remains of nume- 
rous towns and villages prove it to 
have been once a very populous dis- 
trict. A little more than 5 m. to the 
W.S.W. of the modem town of El Kasr 
is a sandstone temple, called ed Dayr 
el Hagar, " the Stone Convent," the 
most interesting ruin in this Oasis. It 
has the names of Nero and Titus in 
the hieroglyphics ; and on the ceiling of 
the adytum is part of an astronomical 
subject. Amun, Maut and Khonso, 
the Theban triad, were the principal 
deities ; and the ram-headed Nou, 
Noum, or Neph, and Harpoerates were 
among the contemplar gods ; but the 
Theban Jupiter and Maut held the 
post of honour. The temple consists 
of a vestibule, with screens half-way up 
the columns ; a portico, or a hail of 
assembly ; a transept or prosekos ; and 
the central and two side adyta ; 121 ft. 
before the door of the vestibule is a 
stone gateway or pylon, the entrance 
to an area measuring 235 ft. by 130. 



surrounded by a crude-brick wall. At 
the upper or W. end of it are the re- 
mains of stuccoed rooms ; and on the 
N.E. side are some columns covered 
also with stucco, and coloured. 

There are many crude-brick remains 
in the neighbourhood ; and about 1 J m . 
from El Kasr are the extensive mounds 
of an ancient town with a sandstone 
gateway. The fragments of stone 
which lie scattered about appear to 
indicate the site of a temple, now de- 
stroyed. 

Those mounds are about half a mile 
square, and below them to the E. is a 
spring called Ain el Keead, whence 
they have received the name of Me- 
deeneh Keead. They are also known 
as Lemhada. The only ruins now 
remaining are of crude brick; and 
from the state of their vaulted rooms, 
these appear to have been of Eoman 
time. 

El Kasr and Kalamdon are the chief 
towns' of the Wah ed Dakhleh. The 
sheykhs of El Kasr call themselves of 
the tribe of Koraysh, and say that 
their ancestors, having migrated to 
this part of the country about 400 years 
ago, bought the springs and lands, 
which they have ever since possessed ; 
and the Shorbagees of Kalamoon 
(which is distant 8 m. to the S.) claim 
the honour of having governed the 
Oases from the time of Sultan Selim. 

About 9f m. to the E. of Kalamdon 
is the village of Isment, where is the 
capital of a column with an Athor. (or 
Isis) head, and near it some crude- 
brick ruins called, as usual, ed Dayr, 
" the Convent." About 1J m. to the 
S.W. is Masarah. Ballat is a little 
more than 10 m. to the E. of Isment. 
On the road, and about 2| m. from the 
latter village, are the ruins of a large 
town, called Isment el Kharab, "the 
ruined Isment." The most remarkable 
remains there are a sandstone building 
measuring 19 paces by 9, consisting of 
2 chambers, in a very dilapidated state ; 
and another near it, measuring 5 paces 
by 5, with an addition before and be- 
hind of crude brick, stuccoed and 
painted in squares and flowers. Nine- 
teen paces in front of it is a stone gate- 
way, the entrance to the area in which 



312 



ROUTE 16. CAIRO TO THE OASES. 



Sect. II. 



it stood. There are also some large 
crude-brick buildings ornamented with 
pilasters, apparently of Konian-Egyp- 
tian time ; within which are vaulted 
chambers of sandstone. Many of the 
houses of the town remain, mostly 
vaulted and succoed ; and the streets 
may easily be be traced. A little more 
than 1 m. from this are other ruins, 
called El Kasar el Areeseh. 

Near Ballat is a ruined town called 
Beshendy. The houses were vaulted 
and stuccoed, and the principal build- 
ing seems to have been a temple, of 
crude brick, with the Egyptian ovals 
and cornice. The doorway is arched, 
and it is evidently of Boman time. 

The population of the Wah ed Dakh- 
leh has been given as under: — 

Mule Inhabitants. 

El Kasr 1200 to 1500 

Kalamoon 800 to 1000 

Gedeedee 1000 

Ballat 800 

Moot 400 

Masarah 250 

Isment 250 

Hindow 600 

Bedcholo, or Aboo- 

dokhloo 400 

Moosheeh 500 

Gharghoor 50 

Total from 6250 to 6750. 

The condition and population of this 
Oasis are very superior to those of the 
other two : and in spite of the autho- 
rity of Yacutus, who says, " The Wah 
which is opposite the Fyodm is better 
inhabited than the second," or Wah ed 
Dakhleh, it is evident that the latter 
was always more populous, and always 
contained a greater number of villages. 
Indeed in the Oasis Farva there are 
only 4 — Zubbo, and Mereeh or Men- 
deesheh, El Kasr, and Bowitti : 
whereas Dakhleh contains 11, and a 
population of more than 6000 male in- 
habitants. The remains, too, of an- 
cient towns and villages far exceed any 
that the former can boast, and prove its 
superiority in this respect at all times. 

Dakhleh abounds in fruits, particu- 
larly olives and apricots ; but dates, as 



] in all the Oases, bring the principal re- 
! venue to the district. At El Kasr is 
a" warm spring, whose copious stream 
j supplies several baths attached to the 
| mosk, for which its temperature of 
102° Fahr. is well adapted. The people 
are hospitable, and consequently differ 
from those of the Oasis Parva ; nor are 
' they so ignorant and bigoted as the 
latter, or as those Farafreh. 

The general position of the Oasis of 
Dakhleh is N. and S., in the direction 
of a line passing through El Kasr to 
Kalamoon, and thence E. towards Bal- 
lat; its extent northwards measuring 
about 15 m., and E. and W. about ?8. 
Much rice is grown in this, as in the 
other Oasis, particularly about Moot 
and Masarah: but it is very inferior 
to that of the Delta, the grain being 
small and hard. 

j. The Great Oasis, or Wah El 
Khargeh.— Three short days to the 
eastward of the Wah ed Dakhleh is the 
Great Oasis, or Wall el Khargeh. It has 
also the name of Menamoon, perhaps 
taken from Ma-fi-amum, signifying 
" the Abode of Amum.'" On the road 
is a small temple, and a well of water 
called Ain Amoor, surrounded by an 
enclosure of crude brick, intended to 
protect the temple, and secure access 
to the spring. Kneph, Amunre, and 
Maut are the principal deities. Though 
the name seems to be of a Caesar, the 
temple has an appearance of greater 
antiquity than the generality of those 
in the Oases ; no remains of a town 
have been found, and it is possible that 
this temple and enclosure were only 
intended to add a sanctity to the site 
of the spring, and to ensure its pro- 
tection. 

The first object of interest, on enter- 
ing the Oasis of El Khargeh on that 
side is a columbarium, consisting of a 
large arched chamber, pierced with 
small cells for cinerary urns, capable of 
containing the condensed residue of 
numerous burnt bodies. It measures 
about 17 ft. by 8 ft., and about 20 ft 
in height. Beyond it are other ruins 
and tombs ; then another columbarium, 
and a tower about 40 ft. high, in which 
were once separate stories, the lower 



Egypt 



KOUTE 16. THE GREAT OASIS. 



313 



rooms arched, the upper ones having 
had roofs supported by rafters. The 
tower protected a well, and was pro- 
bably an outpost for soldiers. About 
l-3rd of a mile to the N. of this, and 
S.E. of the columbarium, are the re- 
mains of another tower and ruined 
walls ; beyond which is another ruin 
of crude brick with an arched roof, 
and a door in the Egyptian style. 
Half a mile further are other crude- 
brick ruins on the hills, and an old 
well about 50 ft. in diameter. About 
a mile beyond, to the S., is the Kasr 
Ain es Sont, " the Palace (or castle) of 
the Acacia Fountain," so called from a 
neighbouring spring. It consists of 
about 30 rooms and passages, with 
staircases leading to the Upper part, 
and the exterior is ornamented with 
the Egyptian cornice. It is of crude 
brick, and probably of Eoman time ; 
and in the wall facing the well a stone 
niche or doorway has been put up in 
the midst of the brickwork. In one 
of the rooms are some Coptic inscrip- 
tions. There are other ruins near this, 
all a little out of the direct road to 
the town of El Khargeh ; and beyond 
are some tombs, one of which is orna- 
mented with pilasters, and a pediment 
over the entrance. From the fountain, 
or Ain es Sont, to the great temple of 
El Khargeh, is about \\ m., or to the 
town about 3 m. On the way, and 
about J m. to the left, you pass the 
Necropolis. 

The great temple of El Khargeh is 
much larger than any in the Oases, 
and is an interesting monument. It 
was dedicated to Amun, or Amun-Ka ; 
and it is worthy of remark that the 
ram-headed god has here the same 
name as the long-feathered Amun of 
Thebes. It may be observed in ex- 
planation of this that we are not to 
look upon the ram-headed god as 
Amun, but to remember that it is 
Amun who has assumed the head of a 
ram, in the same way as he takes the 
form of Khem, or any other god. The 
custom was common to other deities of 
the Egyptian Pantheon, who borrowed 
each other's attributes without scruple ; 
and it was this his assumption of an 

[Egypf] 



attribute of Kneph, particularly in 
the Oasis, that led to the error of the 
Greeks and Eomans, in representing 
Amun with the head of a ram, as a 
general form of that deity. 

The sculptures of the temple are not 
of the spirited style of the early Phara- 
onic ages ; though some are by no 
means bad, particularly on the trans- 
verse wall separating the front from 
the back part of the portico. In the 
adytum the figures are small, and the 
subjects very extraordinary, probably 
of Ptolemaic or Eoman time, when 
extravagant emblems took the place 
of the more simple forms of an earlier 
period. 

The oldest name met with is of 
Darius, which occurs in many places ; 
and on a screen before the temple is 
that of Amyrtseus. There are also 
several Greek inscriptions on the front 
gateway or pylon, one of which, bear- 
ing the date of the first year of the 
Emperor Galba, consists of 66 lines. 

The whole length of the temple 
measures about 142 ft. by 63, and 
about 30 ft. in height. Attached to 
the front of it is a screen, with a cen- 
tral and two side doorways ; and in the 
dromos is a succession of pylons, one 
before the other, at intervals of 80, 70, 
and 50 ft. It is the outer one (which 
is farthest from the temple) that bears 
the inscriptions ; and 50 ft. before it 
is an hyppethral building on a raised 
platform, terminating the dromos, from 
which there is ascent to it by a flight 
of steps. The temple was enclosed 
within a stone wall, abutting against 
the innermost pylon. This formed the 
temenos. Near the S.W. corner is 
another smaller hypsethral building, 
and some distance to the N. of a temple 
is a small stone gateway. On the sum- 
mit of the second or middle pylon of 
the dromos some brickwork lias been 
raised in later times by the Arabs, 
forcibly recalling the additions made 
during the middle ages to many Eo- 
man buildings in Italy. The stone 
part itself is much higher than the 
other two gateways, being about 45 ft. 
to the top of the cornice ; while the 
other two, the first and innermost, are 
only respectively 15 ft. 7 in. and 20 ft. 

p 



ROUTE 16. CAIRO TO THE OASES. 



Sect. II. 



3 in. The stones are well fitted, and 
have been fastened together with 
"wooden dovetailed cramps. 

In the vicinity of the temple stood 
the ancient town. It bore the name 
of Ibis, or, in Egyptian, Hehi, -'the 
Plough," under which character it is 
frequently designated in the hiero- 
glyphics "with the sign of land, and it 
was the capital of the Great Oasis. 

On a height, S.E. from the temple, 
is a stone building called En Nadara, 
surrounded by a spacious crude -brick 
enclosure, which bears the names of 
Adrian and Antoninus. 

To the N. is a remarkable Necro- 
polis, consisting of about 150 crude- 
brick tombs ornamented with pilasters 
and niches, not in very pure style, 
but on the whole having a good 
effect. On the stucco within are re- 
presented various subjects, which, as 
well as the style of architecture and 
the presence of a church, decide that 
they are of a Christian epoch. The 
inscriptions on their walls are mostly 
Coptic and Arabic ; and the sacred Tau, 
the Egyptian symbol of life, _ 
adopted by these early Chris- O 
tians, frequently occurs here m ^f m 
instead of the cross of their J 
successors. 

There are many other ruins in the 
vicinity of El Khargeh; the others 
are in the southern part of this Oasis, 
on the road to Bayrees. 

The caravans from Darfoor to Egypt 
pass through the Great Oasis, on their 
way to Sioot. Slaves used to be brought 
this way by Takrdorees, who are blacks 
from the interior of Africa, and Mos- 
lems, but are looked upon as an inferior 
kind of merchant. The great and 
wealthy Jelabs were from Darfoor, 
who sometimes brought from 2000 to 
4000 slaves. The rate of travelling 
by the slave caravans was very slow ; 
they only went from sunrise to half- 
past 2 or 3 p.m.. or about 8 hrs.' march : 
and the journey from Darfoor to Bay- 
rees, at the IS. of the Oasis, occupied 
31 days — 10 from Darfoor to the 
Natron plain, called Zeghrawa, 7 to 



Elegeeh, 4 to Seleerneh, 5 to Sheb. 
and 5 to Bayrees. 

The population of this Oasis, ac- 
cording to the natives, is thus calcu- 
lated :— 

Male Inbab. 



At El Khargeh 3000 

Genah 250 

Belak 400 

Bayrees 600 

(Doosh, included in Bayrees.) 

Maks 40 



4290 

The town of El Khargeh is distant 
about 13 m. from the hills that bound 
this Oasis to the E., over which the 
various roads lead to the Nile. The 
length of the central plain, in which 
it stands, extends in a direct line N. 
and S. about 66 m.. great part of which 
is desert, with cultivable spots here 
and there, which depend on the pre- 
sence of springs. 

The productions of the Wah El 
Khargeh are very much the same as 
those of the Little Oasis, with the 
addition of the Theban palm, much 
wild senna, and a few other plants; 
but it is inferior in point of fertility. 
The number of fruit-trees is also much 
less, nor can it boast of the same 
variety. 

The Oases are little noticed by 
ancient writers, except as places of 
exile, which ill accord with the fan- 
ciful name of" Islands of the Blessed." 
given them by Herodotus ; who adds 
another extaordinary assertion, that 
the Great Oasis was inhabited by 
Samians of the iEschrionian tribe. 
Through it the army of Cambyses is 
said to have passed when going to at- 
tack the Ammonians; and it was in 
the desert, about half-way between 
this and Se'ewah, that the Persians 
perished. 

One of the most remarkable persons 
banished to this place was Nestorius, 
who was condemned by the council of 
Ephesus, and was at length sent to the 
Great Oasis in 435 a.d. 



Egypt. route 16. — roads to abydus and esneh. 



315 



k. Distances in the Great Oasis, 

GOING TO ITS SOUTHERN EXTREMITY. 

Miles. 



El Khargeh to Kasr el Goeytah 9J 

Kasr Ain e' Zey'an 2 

Belak 4 

Tomb of Emeer Khaled .. 2J 
Low hills and springs of Deka- 
keen (just beyond the ruined 

village to tbe right) .. 23§ 

Bayrees (about) 8 

Temple of Doosh 8| 



58 

At Kasr el Goeytah is a temple 
with the names of Ptolemy Euergetes 
I., of Philopater, and of Lathyrus. It 
was dedicated to Amun, Mailt, and 
Khonso, — the great Theban triad. 

At Kasr Ain ez Zaydn is another 
temple, which was restored in the third 
year of Antoninus Pius, and was dedi- 
cated to Ameuebis. This deity appears 
to have been the same as Amun, and 
his name was evidently a Greek form 
of Amun-Nepk. A Greek dedicatory 
inscription over the door of the temple 
at Kasr Ain ez Zayan contains this 
name and that of the town, which 
was called Tchonemyris. 

About 2J m. beyond the village of 
Belak is a tomb said to be of the 
famous Khaled ebn el Wele'ed, or 
Emeer Khaled. 

Three hours beyond Bayrees is the 
temple of Doosh, which has the names 
of Domitian and Adrian, and was 
dedicated to Serapis and Isis ; but the 
Greek inscription on the pylon has the 
date of the 19th year of Trajan. The 
ancient name of the town was Cysis ; 
and the inhabitants added this stone 
gateway for the good fortune of the 
emperor, and in token of their own 
piety. 

Z. Road to Abydus. 

The roads to Abydus, to Sioot, and 
to Farshoot, go from El Khargeh. 
The northernmost one is that to 
i Sioot. 

After 6 hours' march with camels, 
on the road from El Khargeh to Far- 
shoot, or to Abydus, you come to a 



Eoman fort of crude brick, about 90 
paces square, with a doorway of burnt 
brick on one side. The walls are 
very thick, about 50 ft. high, and de- 
fended by strong towers projecting at 
the corners and three of the faces; 
and, from its position, about 100 paces 
S. of the spring, it is evident that it 
was intended for the protection of this, 
the only watering-place on the way to 
the Nile. It is called Ed Dayr, " the 
Convent," probably in consequence of 
its having been occupied at a subse- 
quent period by the Christians, who 
have left another ruined buildiDg in 
the vicinity, with two vaulted cham- 
bers, in which are some Coptic and 
Arabic inscriptions. Seven minutes' 
walk to the N.W. from the fort is an- 
other ruin, with vaulted chambers, but 
without any inscriptions. 

The rest of the journey to the valley 
of the Nile at Abydus occupies nearly 
3 days, or from 32 to 34 hours' march. 
Nothing is met with on the way but 
remains of enclosures made with rough 
stones, at intervals ; and much broken 
pottery, during the second day's jour- 
ney. The journey from El Khargeh 
to Farshoot takes about 46 hours ; "but 
you then avoid a bad descent of the 
hills into the valley of the Nile. 

m. Road to Esneh. 

The road from the Great Oasis to 
Esneh, or to Rezekat, goes from near 
Bayrees, and thence across the desert 
to the Nile. The journey is performed 
in about 50 hours from Bayrees to the 
Nile. There is also a road from El 
Khargeh to Rezekat, which occupies 
the same time, 50 hours, and that dis- 
tance is computed at about 125 m. 



p 2 



316 



EOUTE 17. CAIRO TO CONVENTS IN E. DESERT. Sect. H. 



EOUTE 17. 

CAIEO TO THE CONVENTS OF ST. AN- 
TONY AND ST. PAUL IN THE EASTERN 
DESEKT. 

Distances. Miles. 
Cairo to Benisooef by water. 

(See Sect. III., Kte. 18.) 77 
Benisooef by land to the convent 

of St. Antony 76^ 

Convent of St. Paul 14 

167£ 

Several roads lead from the Nile to 
the convents, and to other parts of the 
desert; but the best and most fre- 
quented is that from Dayr Byad, a 
village opposite Benisooe'f. After 
crossing various torrent-beds, it enters 
the Wady el Arraba, a large valley, 
nearly 20 m. broad, which runs to the 
Ked Sea between the ranges of the 
northern and southern Kalalla. It has 
the advantages of several watering- 
places, in the Wady el Arraba, the 
most convenient of which are at Wady 
el Areidah on the N., and at Wady 
Om-Ainebeh on the S. side. 

This desert belongs to the Maazee 
tribe of Arabs, whose camels or drome- 
daries may be engaged at Dayr Byad. 

Dayr Mar-Antonios, " the Monastery 
of St. Antony" is inhabited by Copts, 
who are supported by the voluntary 
contributions of their brethren in 
Egypt. Their principal saint is St. 
George of Cappadocia; but their pa- 
tron is St. Antony of the Thebai'd. 
He was the friend and companion of 
Mar-Bolos, or St. Paul, a hermit who 
founded another monastery, called 
after him Dayr Bolos, distant by the 
road about 14 m. to the S.E. Dayr An- 
tonios is 17 or 18, and Dayr Bulos 9 m. 
from the Eed Sea. The former may 
be considered the principal monastery 



in Egypt ; and its importance is much 
increased since the election of the 
patriarch has been transferred to it 
from those at the Natron Lakes. Dayr 
Bdlos, however, claims for itself an 
equal rank ; and one of the patriarchs 
has been chosen from its members ; 
though Dayr Antonios surpasses it in 
the number of its inmates. Both 
convents have gardens. Those of 
Dayr Antonios are kept in very good 
order, and are an agreeable retreat 
after crossing the desert. The monks 
are hospitable, and the convent is 
famed for its olives. They show the 
cavern where their founder lived in 
the rocks above ; but there is nothing 
remarkable in the convent beyond its 
antiquity and associations. 

Both convents have been destroyed 
and rebuilt. That of St. Antony stands 
below the Kalalla Mountains, a lime- 
stone range of considerable height, 
which bounds the Wady el Arraba 
to the S. This valley has received its 
name from the plaustra, or carts, that 
formerly carried provisions to the two 
monasteries, and is absurdly reported 
to have been so called from the chariots 
of Pharaoh that pursued the Israelites, 
as they crossed the sea to the desert 
of Mount Sinai. 

The quarries of Oriental alabaster, 
from which the stone has been taken 
to ornament the new mosk of the 
citadel, and other works, are in the 
Wady Om-Argoob; a valley running 
into the Wady Moathil, which again 
falls into the Wady Sennoor, to the 
S. of the road leading to the convents. 
There is also a gypsum-quarry near 
the Gebel Khaleel, on the N. side of the 
Wady Arraba ; and Wansleb speaks 
of a ruined town in the same neigh- 
bourhood. 

In this part of the desert the moun- 
tains are all limestone ; like those that 
border the valley of the Nile, from 
Cairo southwards to the sandstones of 
Hagar Silsili and its vicinity ; which, 
with the few variations in the strata 
about Cairo, the secondary sandstone 
of the Eed Mountain, and the petrified 
wood lying over the Gebel Mokattam, 
are the principal geological features 
of Egypt. In the interior of the. de- 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 17. THE QUARRIES. 



317 



sert, however, about latitude 28° 40', 
begins a range of primitive mountains, 
which continues thence, in a direction 
nearly parallel with the sea, even to 
Abyssinia. As it goes southwards it 
increases in breadth, branching off to 
the westward, after passing the latitude 
of Kosseir, and afterwards crosses the 
Nile in the vicinity of Assooan. The 
principal primitive rocks in the Maa- 
zee desert are the famous Egyptian 
porphyry, various granites, serpentines, 
and a few others : in the Ababdeh 
portion, the Breccia Verde, slates, and 
micaceous, talcose, and other schists. 
Along the coast generally, a short 
distance from the sea, is another range 
of low limestone hills, which borders 
the primitive ridge to the E., as the 
others do to the W. ; the lofty peaks 
of granite and other primitive moun- 
tains rising between them like vertebrae 
of the large backbone of the desert, 
one of which, Ghareb, measures 6000 
ft. above the sea. 

The same formation occurs on the 
other side of the sea in the peninsula 
of Mount Sinai, where the limestone 
is succeeded by sandstone beds that 
separate it from the granite and other 
primitive rocks. 

The junction of the limestone and 
sandstone in the Maazee desert takes 
place at about latitude 28° 42' to the 
S. of Dayr Bolos, and the primitive 
rocks begin a few miles farther down. 

Among the remarkable places in this 
desert are the porphyry quarries and 
the granite quarries. 

The porphyry quarries are at Gebel 
ed DoJchan, " the Mountain of Smoke," 
about the latitude of Manfaloot, aud 
27 m. from the Bed Sea. They are 
highly interesting, from their having 
supplied Borne with stone for columns 
and many ornamental purposes, from 
the importance attached to them by 
the ancients, and from the extent of 
the quarries, the ruins there, and the 
insight they give into the mode of 
working that hard stone. The remains 
consist of an Ionic temple, of the time 



of Trajan, left unfinished, a town ir- 
regularly built of rough stones, tanks, 
and two large wells, one cut in the 
porphyry rock, and the ruins of build- 
ings in various parts of the mountains. 

The mention of a well sunk in the 
porphyry rock may appear singular ; 
yet it is not from the difficulty of cut- 
ting through so hard a substance, but 
from its being made in a primitive 
rock ; and it is probable that it was 
only intended to catch the water which 
occasionally runs down the torrent- 
bed during the rains of winter, and 
that it should be considered rather a 
reservoir than a well. 

Boads lead from Gebel ed Dokhan in 
several directions, one to the Nile at 
Keneh, another to the Myos Hormos, 
and others to different places ; and 
that between " the Borphyry Moun- 
tain" and the Nile is furnished with 
fortified stations at intervals, to pro- 
tect those who passed, and to supply 
them with water from the large wells 
within their walls. 

The granite quarries in that part 
of the Claudian mountain now called 
Gelel el Fattee'reh, with the town of 
Fons Trajanus, lie in nearly the same 
latitude as Gow (Antasopolis), on the 
Nile, and about 24 m. S.E. of the 
porphyry mountains. The stone has 
a white ground with black spots, of 
which some columns are still seen in 
Borne. The quarries are very exten- 
sive, and many blocks were evidently 
taken from them. They were prin- 
cipally worked in the time of Trajan 
and Adrian. The Hydreuma, or Fons 
Trajanus, is a town of considerable 
size. The houses are well built, consi- 
dering the roughness of the materials, 
and outside the walls are a temple 
and other buildings. In the quarries 
are some large columns, and round 
blocks, probably iutended for their 
bases and capitals. There are several 
Greek inscriptions. 

An account of the places on the coast 
of the Bed Sea has been given under 
Bte. 7, d. 



( 318 ) 



SECTION III. 
VOYAGE UP THE NILE. 

a. Introduction. — b. Voyage by steamer. — c. Voyage in a dahabeeah with a 
dragoman. — d. Voyage in a dahabeeah without a dragoman.— e. General hints-. 
f. Shooting, and Natural History. — g. Geography and Products. — h. Inhabi- 
tants. — i. Antiquities and Ruins, 

Route 18 —Cairo to Thebes .. Page 339. 



a. Introduction. 

Before entering upon a description of the voyage up the Nile, it will be 
well to give the traveller some preliminary information regarding that 
interesting and delightful trip, which every one who gets as far as Cairo 
should endeavour to accomplish. The railway, it is true, now goes up the valley 
of the Nile as far as Minien, or even a little further, but antiquities there are 
none between Cairo and Minieh ; and the railway, owing to the total want of 
accommodation at any of the places along the line, is useless to the traveller, 
except as a means of joining his boat, should he have sent it on before him up 
the river, or of hastening back to Cairo on his way down. The only highway 
in Egypt beyond Cairo is the Nile, and along this highway the traveller has 
the choice of a dahabeeah or a steamer. There can be no doubt as to which 
he should choose, if he wishes thoroughly to enjoy his journey, and to see and 
know something of the country. It is only in a dahabeeah that these results 
can be attained. On a boat of your own you are your own master, and can 
stop or go on as you feci inclined ; but on a steamer, in addition to being 
amongst a number of people you never saw before, you are obliged to do every- 
thing at a fixed time, and are only allowed a certain number of minutes or 
hours at each place of interest. The advantages of a steamer are economy 
of time and money. In a dahabeeah you are somewhat at the mercy of the 
wind ; and, even should this be ever so favourable, the time occupied by the 
voyage must be longer, and the expense, there is no doubt, is much more con- 
siderable. Time, then, and money are necessary for a voyage up the Nile in 
a dahabeeah. But to all those who have the time to spare and the money to 
spend, we would say, choose the dahabeeah and avoid the steamer. Some 
information has already been given {Introduction) with regard to the voyage 
up the Nile and as to steamers and dahabeeahs (Sect. II., Cairo, Gen. Inf., 
§§ 14, 15). 

b. Voyage by Steamer. 

Those who are going by steamer require to make no preparation in Cairo of 
any kind. Everything is provided for them, and they have only to take their 



Egypt. 



THE NILE VOYAGE. 



319 



tickets. This they may do before they leave England, if they wish, at 98, Fleet 
Street, and also at Alexandria and Cairo, either at the office of the Khedivian 
Steamboat Gompany, or at Robertson and Co.'s, the booksellers. The steamers 
leave at fixed times, generally at intervals of three weeks from November to 
March. Information on this point should be obtained at the above agencies. 
The time occupied in going from Cairo to the 1st Cataract and back is 
20 days, with the following allowance of stoppages on the way up : 
Benisooef, 2 hrs. ; Minieh, 2 hrs. ; Beni Hassan, 3 hrs. ; Asyoot, 5 hrs. ; 
Girgeh, or Bellianeh, for Abydus, 8 hrs. ; Keneh, for Denderah, 8 hrs. ; 
Luxor, for Thebes, 3 days; Esneh, 3 hrs. ; Edfoo, 6 hrs.; Kom Ombo, 2 hrs.; 
Assooan, 1 J day. On the way down they stop 1 hr. at each of the following 
places : Kom Ombo, Edfoo, Esneh, Luxor, Keneh, Asyoot. The price charged 
is 4000 Egyptian tariff piastres, equal to rather more than 4U. This entitles the 
traveller to a berth and his board. There is no 2nd class, and a servant is 
charged at the same rate. Children from 3 to 10 yrs. half-price. Further 
information can be obtained at the above-mentioned agencies. 

c. Voyage in a Dahabeeah with a Dkagoman. 

The cost of a voyage in a dahabeeah is necessarily much greater. In the 
first place it will take from 6 to 8 weeks to go to the 1st Cataract and back, 
even under the most favourable circumstances of wind and weather ; and then 
the hiring of a separate boat and crew, with dragoman, cook, servants, &c, is 
a very expensive thing, however economically done. The most usual thing is 
to make a contract with a dragoman, to pay him so much a day or so much 
for the trip, he in return providing everything — boat, crew, cook, servants, 
food, donkeys, and guides for the ruins, and all kinds of etceteras, except wine and 
spirits. Different dragomen have different prices, and there are a few good 
ones to be depended on for undertaking to do the thing fairly economically, 
and doing it well, being content with a moderate profit ; but, as a rule, a cheap 
dragoman means a bad dragoman, and those who wish to be comfortable and 
have no bother must pay an exorbitant sum. The fact of a voyage up the Nile 
having become one so essentially de luxe does not arise solely from the increase 
in price in Egypt of every article of trade and consumption ; the reason may 
also be found in the increased luxury of all the arrangements for such a voy- 
age — more expensively fitted-up boats, more servants, greater profusion of food, 
&c. As soon as a voyage up the Nile became not only an object to the 
archaeologist, to the artist in search of material for his pen or pencil, or to the 
invalid in search of health, but also to the rich and idle, to whom money was 
no object, a scale of luxury and consequent extravagance hitherto unknown 
was organised, and it is now impossible to persuade the best dragomen to do 
the thing except in the profuse and lavish way to which they have been 
accustomed. You may in vain represent to them that by not giving you what 
you do not care about, or would very much rather be without, they will effect a 
saving in their expenditure which will enable them to make quite as much 
profit out of what you propose to give them, as they could out of a larger pay- 
ment in return fur which these extras would have to be provided. Their idea 
is that, unless they do the thing in a certain style they will lose caste and be 
looked upon as inferior dragomen ; and as there are every year an increasing 
number of persons ready to pay whatever is asked, no wonder the dragomen 
see no inducement to change their system. At the same time it must be 
allowed that, for those who wish thoroughly to enjoy the voyage, and be as 
comfortable as possible, without bother of any kind, there is nothing like get- 
ting hold of a good dragoman, and paying him well. 

According to the prices current during the last few years, a good dragoman 
would ask about 51. or 61. a day for providing two persons with everv tiling 



320 



THE NILE VOYAGE. 



Sect. III. 



required for a Nile voyage, wine and spirits excepted. This would be in- 
creased to 6Z. or 11. for 3 or 4 persons. Beckoning the length of time required 
to go to the 1st Cataract and back at 2 months, and to the 2nd Cataract and 
back at 3 months, this would make the whole expense of the journey — to the 
1st Cataract, for 2 persons, from 300Z. to 350Z., and for 3 or 4 persons, 
from 350Z. to 400Z. ; to the 2nd Cataract and back, for 2 persons, from 450Z. to 
500Z., and for 3 or 4 persons, from 500Z. to 550Z. The charge is lower in pro- 
portion as the distance is further and the party more numerous. In return 
for such prices as these the traveller is entitled to have a large well fitted-up 
boat, and every possible luxury and comfort procurable. 

It is a very common thing now to make a contract with a dragoman 
to give him so much for the trip to the 1st or the 2nd Cataract and back. 
This plan has one advantage over the giving so much per day, in that there is 
no chance of time being unnecessarily wasted on the road, for it is to the 
dragoman's advantage, as it is to the captain's and crew's, who are also hired 
by the trip, to do the voyage in as short a time as possible, and instead of 
3 months being occupied in getting to the 2nd Cataract and back, it will be done 
in 9 or 10 weeks. The disadvantage of the trip contract is that you are not 
master of your own boat, but are often obliged to go on whether you like it or 
not, under penalty of being in perpetual collision with your dragoman. Of 
course an allowance of so many days' stoppages is stipulated for in the con- 
tract, but it is often a subject of dispute whether a delay which the traveller 
may consider necessary, on account of there being too much wind or for some 
other cause, is to be deducted from his allowance of stoppages or not. A late 
traveller on the Nile says, " There are grave objections to hiring a boat by 
time or by trip, though you must select one or the other. If you hire by time, 
your dragoman is tempted to delay on every opportunity ; not to make the 
most of fair wind, and to prolong your journey unnecessarily. I am inclined, 
however, to deem this the lesser evil. For if you hire by trip, you are infallibly 
hurried along in a fair wind, whatever the attractions on shore, and you are in 
perpetual collision with the dragoman regarding stoppages, and you find in 
the morning that you have sailed in the night by places you especially wished 
to visit." There can indeed be no doubt that those to whom the cfcance of a 
few days' delay beyond the anticipated time, and consequent increase in the 
calculated expense, makes no difference, had certainly better choose the time 
form of agreement, as it leaves them much more independent and free to do 
as they like. A clause, too, can always be added to time contracts, arranging 
for a lower rate of payment per day for every day beyond the time agreed on. 
A good dragoman will probably ask for taking 4 persons by the trip to the 
1st Cataract and back, with an allowance of 10 or 15 days' stoppages, from 
400Z. to 450Z. ; to the 2nd Cataract and back, with an allowance of 20 days' 
stoppages, from 450Z. to 500Z. 

The traveller can have a regular form of contract drawn up for him at the 
Consulate, in which he can embody any particular points he wishes. The 
charge for preparing this contract and witnessing the signatures is 1Z. Or 
he can draw up his own contract, and merely pay 5s. for having the signatures 
witnessed. The following form of contract will be found to meet pretty 
nearly every requirement. 

Agreement between A B, dragoman, and C. D. and others, English 
travellers. 

(1 ) (In time contract.) A B agrees to serve the said C D and his com- 
panions as Dragoman and general servant on a voyage up the Nile to 

and back to Cairo, through and in Egypt, and other places they 
may wish to visit ; the route to be taken, and the time, place, and duration of 
halts and stoppages, to be entirely under their direction. 



Egypt. 



BY DAHABEEAH WITH DRAGOMAN. 



321 



(1) (111 trip contract.) A B agrees to serve the said C D and his com- 
panions as Dragoman and general servant, and to take them to 

and back to Cairo in weeks, with an allowance of days' stoppages ; 

the time, place, and duration of these stoppages to be entirely under their 
direction. 

(2) The said A B shall provide boat (approved of by C D and his com- 
panions), boat furniture, service, canteen, bedding, all necessary food in suffi- 
cient quantity, and of the best quality; lights, servants, &c. He shall also 
provide donkeys and guides for seeing the usual objects of interest, viz. Beni 
Hassan, Asyoot, Abydus, Keneh, Denderah, Thebes and its environs, Erment, 
Esneh, Edfoo, and Philse (and any others that may be specified); shall pay for 
guards for the boat at night when required, and satisfy all proper demands for 
backsheesh. He shall also pay all the expenses for passing the Cataract, and 
the wages of the pilot between Philse and Wady Halfah. 

(3) The said A B engages that the boat shall be clean and in good repair, 
and properly fitted with a good kitchen, sails, oars, awnings, cordage, and 
punt-poles, and with sufficient spare ropes, &c, on board to remedy accidents 
without causing delay. That the crew shall consist of a captain (reis), 
2nd captain or steersman (mestdhmel), the proper complement of able- 
bodied men, and a cook-boy. That there shall be a small boat (sandal) in 
good repair, and provided with proper rowlocks and oars, and if required, with 
a sail. 

(4) The said A B agrees that he alone is responsible for the safety of the 
boat and for all accidents that may occur, and all injuries, whether in passing 
the Cataract, or from fire or other casualties. That the whole boat shall be at the 
entire command of the above-named C Dand his companions, and that no other 
passengers or merchandise be admitted without their consent. He also en- 
gages to keep the boat in such a state of cleanliness (the decks to be washed 
every morning) and good order as shall be agreeable to the passengers. 

(5) The said A B undertakes to keep the crew in order and obedient to 
orders, and that they shall use proper diligence in tracking, punting, and row- 
ing ; and that they shall stop for baking only at Asyoot and Esneh in going 
up the river, and at Esneh in coming down. 

(6) The said A B engages to be responsible for his cook and servants, that 
they are fitted for their work, and are clean and trustworthy. 

(7) The said A B engages to provide clean sheets at least once a week, and 
sufficient clean towels, tablecloths, napkins, and other linen ; also to have the 
passengers' clothes washed as desired. 

(8) The said A B engages to provide the following meals daily — Breakfast, 
consisting of tea or coffee, with milk ; bread, butter when it is to be procured ; 
chicken, roast or boiled; eggs, marmalade, or jam. Lunch, consisting of 
bread and biscuit, cheese, oranges, figs, walnuts, dates. Dinner, to consist of 
soup, roast and boiled meats (three dishes of meat), potatoes, pudding, &c, 
with coffee after dinner; and no extra charge to be made for an occasional 
guest. Coffee to be supplied whenever it is called for. 

(9) (In time contract.) In consideration of the fulfilment of the above 
articles on the part of A B, the above-named C D and his companions agree 
to pay to the said A B the sum of per day each, or per day 
for the whole number, for the space of days, beginning to reckon from the 
day of leaving Cairo. Two-thirds of the sum total to be paid in advance, and 

p 3 



322 



THE NILE VOYAGE. 



Sect. III. 



one-third on returning to Cairo. If the above number of days be exceeded, 
the rate of payment for each extra day to be less. 

(9) (In trip contract.) In consideration, &c, the sum of . Two- 

thirds to be paid in advance, and one-third on returning to Cairo. 

Signed this day of 18 , at the British Consulate, Cairo. 

IC D, on behalf of the party 
above-named. 
A B, Dragoman. 

If the contract is for going to the 2nd Cataract, it should be distinctly 
understood that no difficulty will be experienced in taking the boat up the 
1st Cataract, and a clause should be inserted in the contract binding the dra- 
goman to pay a fine of from 15?. to 20L if the boat be not taken up. Very 
large boats cannot, of course, pass the Cataract. 

Information with respect to dragomen has been already given (Sect. II., Caieo, 
Gen. Inf., § 14). It only remains to say that, as a class, they are obliging and 
honest, after an Eastern fashion ; and that, though their one aim and object 
is to make the most of their bargain, they are, at any rate the best of them, 
liberal in the fulfilment of their contract. One tiling, however, the traveller 
must not expect, and that is, to obtain from them accurate information of any 
kind. They know absolutely nothing about the various objects of interest in 
Cairo, and the old ruins on the Nile, which they go to year after year; and 
though always ready with an answer if asked any question about the countiy 
and the people, the probability is that the answer is as inaccurate as it is 
prompt. The dragoman is in fact a courier and maitre dlwtel in one, but he 
has none of the kind of information possessed by the commonest laquais de 
place in a continental town. People often ask which nationality supplies the 
best dragoman. The following terse and humorous description may be taken 
cum grano as an answer : " The dragoman is of four species : the Maltese, or 
the able knave; the Greek, or the cunning knave; the Syrian, or the active 
knave; and the Egyptian, or the stupid knave." — G. W. Curteis. But there 
are, of course, many exceptions. 

d. Voyage in a Dahabeeah without a Dragoman. 

It remains to supply the necessary information to those who may wish to 
make the voyage without the services of a dragoman under the above con- 
ditions. And it may be as well to say at once that, if they do not speak Arabic, 
and do not know the ways and customs of the country, they will find the task 
a difficult and disagreeable one, unless indeed, housekeeping under difficulties 
is their occupation -par preference. Such a system may be adopted by those who 
merely wish to spend so much time upon the Nile — four or five months — 
for the sake of the climate, the shooting, &c. ; but it will not do for those who 
wish to go to a certain point and back within a given time, and see and do 
all they can within that period. In catering for yourself, everything, sup- 
posing you do not speak Arabic, will depend more or less on the intelligence 
and honesty of the man whom you may have engaged as interpreter and 
head-servant. Some idea of what the wages of such a man will be may 
be formed from the information in Sect. II., Cairo, Gen. Inform., § 14, 
where also the wages of other servants are given. The prices of boats too 
will be found under the same heading (§ 15). The contract for the boat 
should be drawn up and signed at the Consulate. The principal points to 
be included in it will be found in clauses 3, 4, and 5 of the form of agreement 
with a dragoman. In addition it should be distinctly specified whether 
the boat is able to go up the Cataract, if required, and whether the expenses 



Egypt. 



BY DAHABEEAH WITHOUT DRAGOMAN. 



323 



of going up are to be paid by the owner or hirer. All the dahabeeahs for 
hire by travellers have their cabins furnished, but a thorough inspection 
should be made, and any necessary articles that are wanting obtained from 
the owner before the contract is signed. Many dahabeeahs have also a 
complete canteen, with linen, &c, so that it is not necessary to hire one 
separately : but few have a cooking canteen. 

With regard to the stock of provisions to be laid in, it is impossible to 
give a list which shall meet the requirements of everybody, either as to items 
or quantity. What is a necessity to some is a superfluity to others, and where 
one person will drink much tea and little coffee, another will think both an 
abomination, and drink nothing but chocolate. The following list however 
will, it is thought, be found to comprise all that is more essentially necessary 
in stocking a boat for a voyage on the Nile. Everything may be bought 
in Alexandria or Cairo, fairly good in quality and reasonable in price ; but 
there are certain things which those who are very particular as to excellence 
and freshness, had better have sent out from England. They have been 
mentioned under Preliminary Information, d. 



List of Provisions. 



Arrowroot. 
Bacon (in tins). 
Biscuits. 
Butter. 

Candles, paraffin. 
Ditto, for lanterns. 
♦Charcoal. 

Cheese. 
♦Coffee. 

Curry powder. 

Dates, dried. 

Figs. 

Flour. 

Hams. 

Jams. 
♦Lemons. 

Liebig's Extractum Carnis. 
*Maccaroni. 

Marmalade. 

Matches. 

Mishmish (dried apricots). 

Mustard. 

Night lights. 



Oil, salad. 
Ditto, lamp. 
♦Oranges. 

Pepper, white and red. 
Peas, split. 
Preserved vegetables. 
Pearl barley. 
Pickles. 
Potatoes. 
*Kice. 
Salt. 

Sardines. 

Sauces. 

Soap. 

Ditto, washing. 
Starch. 
Sugar, white. 

Ditto, brown. 
Tea. 

Tongues. 
♦Vermicelli. 
Vinegar, 



The articles marked with an asterisk can be bought best in the bazaars, and 
not at a provision merchant's, and the stock of them can be renewed at any 
of the large towns on the Nile. Many things might be added to the above 
list, such as chocolate, olives, almonds, raisins, dried fruits, &c. Preserved 
meats and soups may be taken, but are not necessities, as mutton, chickens, 
pigeons, and turkeys can always be bought, beef seldom or never after 
leaving Cairo. Fresh vegetables are rarely procurable : the one exception 
is the onion, which is to be found everywhere, and is the best in the world. 
A small broad bean, a kind of lettuce, and small cucumbers may generally 
be bought in the villages on market-days. Eggs are generally plentiful, and 
milk, principally buffalo's, may always be bought in the early morning at any 
village. Fresh butter can be procured some limes, and would be good if it 
were properly made and not so dirty. Kishteh, a sort of Devonshire cream, 



324 



THE NILE VOYAGE. 



Sect. III. 



is an excellent thing, but cannot often be bought up the river. Any cook, 
however, ought to be able to make it. A certain quantity of fresh meat, and 
some pigeons, chicken', and turkeys should be laid in at Cairo. Meat is sold 
by the oke (about 2f lbs.), or the rotl (rather more than 1 lb.). The prices 
of things vary very much, but the following will be found near the mark : — 



Beef 


6 to 


7 


Mutton . . 


5 to 


6 


Chicken, big 


7 to 


9 


Do., small . 


4 to 


6 


Turkey, big . 


50 to 


60 


Do., small 


20 to 


40 


Pigeons . 


6 to 


8 


A sheep, big . 


250 to 400 


Eggs . . . . 


5 to 


6 


Fresh butter . 


12 to 


15 


Milk . . . 


1^ to 


2 



the pair. 

the dozen, 
the rotl. 

j j 

Nearly all these things are cheaper in Upper Egypt, and it is a good thing 
to fill the coops with turkeys, chickens, and pigeons at some place where 
they are cheap. This should certainly be done before entering Nubia, as 
everything there is scarce and dear. 

All information with regard to wine, medicines, clothes, and other things 
required alike by those who go with, and those who go without, a dragoman, 
will be found in the Introduction, d, or Sect. I., Preliminary Information, e, f. 
A few useful hints, however, may still be added. 

e. General Hints. 

However free the boat may be from rats at starting, it is very probable 
that some may come on board from the country boats near which the 
dahabeeah is moored during the voyage, therefore it is a good thing to take 
one or two iron rat-traps. Many boats are provided with mosquito-curtains ; 
but unless there is any inducing reason, such as bilge-water, to cause the 
presence of mosquitos, no annoyance ought to be experienced from them 
after leaving Cairo. Neither bugs nor fleas should be found on any properly 
clean boat, but it is as well to have some Persian flea-powder, which is the 
best remedy for these unwelcome visitants. The great plague on the Nile is 
flies, and the most effectual snare for them is what is known as "'fly-paper," 
which can be procured at Cairo ; fly-flaps are also very useful. If the traveller 
be a smoker, he will know how to supply his own wants in that line ; but even 
though he himself should not smoke, he ought to take with him a little Turkish 
tobacco and paper for cigarettes, and Jebely tobacco for pipes, together with 
one or two chibooks, so as to be able to offer a smoke to any native visitors. 
Some common tobacco also may be taken for occasional distribution among 
the crew. Coffee should always be handed round on the occasion of any 
visit, and it is well to have a few bottles of sirop for making the so-called 
sherbet. It is customary to fly the national ensign of the passengers at 
the stern of the dahabeeah, and a special distinguishing pennant at the 
yard-end : the former can be bought at Cairo, and the latter made, but it 
is better to bring them from England. 

Insist upon your dragoman always helping to wait at table; and never 
allow him to give himself the air of being master of the boat, the crew, the 
servants, and yourself ; but keep him strictly in his place, as a servant hired 
to carry out your wishes, and not as a great personage, condescendingly 
showing you up and down the Nile, and hardly allowing you to choose where 
you will go or what you will do. 



Egypt. 



GENERAL HINTS. 



825 



Strict discipline should be maintained with the crew, and invariable obedi- 
ence to orders, whatever they may be, with the full understanding of course 
that they are reasonable and* ju^t. But the stick need never be resorted to : 
firmness and the determination of being obeyed seldom fail to command 
respect and obedience ; for, when they know you ivill be obeyed, they will 
seldom disregard an order. "When once that obedience is established, then 
you may be as indulgent as you like ; and every good office, every reward, will 
be received as a favour. Without it, kindness will be construed into fear or 
ignorance ; every attempt will be made to deceive the too easy traveller ; and 
in order to have a moment's peace, he will be obliged to have recourse to the 
very means he had been hoping to avoid ; by applying to some governor, or 
by substituting too late severity, either of which will Only draw upon him 
hatred and contempt. One thing is, however much they may try to impose 
on one whom they think to get the upper hand of, they never harbour any 
feelings of revenge. They are like the frogs in the fable with the log of 
wood. In short, be strict and just, without unnecessary violence, in order to 
have the satisfaction of being indulgent. When properly managed, no people 
are so willing or good-natured as the Nile boatmen; when not understood, 
none so troublesome. When going ashore to shoot or visit any ruins, it is 
customary to be accompanied by one of the crew, for the purpose of carrying 
anything that may be required. A few piastres to buy tobacco may occa- 
sionally be given in return for this service. 

The traveller will probably be asked before leaving Cairo for money to 
buy the crew a tambourine and a tarabooka, a sort of drum, these being the 
musical instruments with which the sailors accompany their songs. There is 
no necessity for acceding to this request, and some may not care to encourage 
the men in singing ; but few would probably be disposed to put a stop to 
what is one of the chief delights of a Nile boatman, and is itself in moderation 
not unpleasing to the ear. 

One very necessary precaution in sailing is to order the reis to forbid the 
boatmen to tie the sails, and. to insist upon their holding the rope called shoghool 
in their hands, which is termed keeping it khdlus, " free ;" for to the neglect 
of this precaution almost all the accidents that happen on the Nile are to be 
attributed. In those parts where the mountains approach the river it should 
be particularly attended to, as at Gebel Sheykh Umbarak, Gebel et Tayr, and 
thence to Sheykh Timay, Gebel Aboo-Faydah, Gebel Sheykh Here'edee, 
and Gebel Tookh below Girgeh. Care should also be taken to have the 
proper quantity of ballast on board, which is often curtailed in order to make 
the boat lighter for towing. 

It has been truly said that " no estimate of the expense of life in Egypt 
would be at all complete without a due reference to backsheesh .... Backsheesh 
is the first word that meets the ear on landing in the country ; it is the last 
that salutes it on leaving . . . . It is a bore from which there is no escape .... 
But backsheesh is not a mere bore, for it is the motive power of Egypt. The 
mechanist, who with a lever would move the earth, could with backsheesh turn 
Egypt upside down, or put a girdle round her deserts with the Nile . . . . It 
makes your stay in Egypt agreeable, and soothes every difficulty, social, 
political, or official .... But this potent djin must be used with discretion, or 
it will turn and rend you. Give when it is customary to give, and on the 
scale that is sanctioned* by long use, and you will be respected and liked. Give 
too often, inopportunely, or in excess, and it were better for you not to give at 
all . . . . Common sense will here as ever point out that middle path so safe to 
travel in, so easy to stray from; and by the observance of two simple rules 
backsheesh may be made an useful servant. Never give except Mhere an 
extra service justifies, or custom prescribes the gift." — F. Eden. 

Backsheesh to the crew is now specially mentioned iu the contract as 



326 



THE NILS VOYAGE. 



Sect. III. 



devolving on the dragoman ; and the men have no right to expect a piastre 
from the traveller. He may, however, at such places as Thebes and Assooan 
give them a small sum, say 10 francs between them, especially if they have 
behaved well, and have had a good deal of towing. At the end of the voyage 
it is customary to give a present to the reis, the steersman, and the crew. 
This should be done in the following proportion : three times as much to the 
reis, twice as much to the steersman, and half as much to the cook-boy as to 
each man. A fair present at the end of an ordinary voyage to the 1st 
Cataract and back would be 11. to the reis, 12s. to the steersman, 6s. to each 
man, and 3s. to the cook -boy. The money for the reis, steersman, and cook- 
boy should be given to them separately, and that for the men to the member 
chosen by them to receive it. Of course if the traveller has reason to be 
dissatisfied with his crew, he will give nothing at all. In the same way 
circumstances may make him wish to give more than the sums above men- 
tioned, either to the whole number, or to some one in particular. The 
cook and other servants have no right to expect any backsheesh, but it 
is sometimes given. When the traveller hires his own boat, it is customary 
for him to give a small sum, say 4s. between them, to the men at the prin- 
cipal towns, such as Minieh, Asyoot, Keneh, Thebes, Esneh, Assooan, and 
Wady Halfah, if they have had much towing and have worked well. A most 
unnecessary custom has sprung up lately of leading the crew, cook, and 
servants in a dahabeeah to expect a backsheesh on Christmas Day and New 
Year's Day, and also on certain Mohammedan festivals, when these happen 
to fall during the time of the voyage. Of course, if the traveller chooses to 
submit to it he can, but there is no necessity for his doing so. 

/. Shooting and Natural History. 

Egypt, above Cairo, as well as in the Delta, offers a wide field to the 
naturalist, and' also to the sportsman, especially in the matter of aquatic 
birds. Of wild animals it possesses but few. The wild boar {halcof) is met 
with in the Delta, and on the shores of the Birket el Korn in the Fyodm : 
the hyena (dhabd) is seen occasionally on moonlight nights in the outskirts 
of the desert, and among extensive ruins, such as Karnak: the gazelle 
(cjhazalcL) is often met with in parts where the desert approaches the Nile, 
but requires great patience and watching to get at : the jackal (ta'dleb) is 
very common ; and the fox (aboo hosein) may often be put out of a patch of 
standing corn : a species of the lynx or wild cat is sometimes seen, and also 
the curious little fennec fox : wolves (deeV) are rare : the desert hare (arneb) 
is found in great numbers in some places in the Fyoom, and now and then 
in the desert up the Nile. 

The principal land-birds for the sportsman are sand grouse, pigeons, quail, 
and snipe. Sand-grouse (gattah) are often to be found m large numbers near 
the edge of the desert, and in barren sandy tracts coveied with Ml/eh grass: 
they may sometimes be seen soon after sunrise and just before sunset coming 
in flocks to the river to drink. Pigeons (Jiammam) should never be shot at in a 
village, and care should always be taken not to shoot tame ones anywhere ; 
they may easily be distinguished from the quasi-wild ones which are kept in 
the pigeon-towers for the sake of the manure they afford, and which the natives 
offer,no objection to the shooting of in moderation away from the village. Quails 
{summdn) are very abundant; they reach Egypt in their way north in the 
winter, and the traveller will probably first meet with them in any numbers 
near Kom Ombo in January or February ; they then go gradually down the 
river, and reach the neighbourhood of Cairo about the middle of March. They 
afford most capital sport, and are first-rate eating, as soon as they have settled 
down a bit and had time to get fat on the ripe corn. Alternate patches of corn 



Egypt 



SHOOTING AND NATCEAL HISTOET. 



327 



and green stuff, such as herseem, clover, hummus, a kind of vetch, meldneJi, 
chick-pea, and ads, lentils, are their favourite resort. Snipe are rarely met with 
above Cairo, but there are places in the Delta where they are very numerous 
in the winter. Atfeh is an especially good place, and there are some capital 
marshes near Benha ; but the traveller will have some difficulty in finding 
out the best snipe preserves unless he happens to know some resident in 
the country well up in these matters. The painted snipe is often found in the 
Delta. 

The aquatic birds of Egypt are very numerous and varied in kind. Of 
wild duck (battali) and teal alone there are more than 10 kinds, some very 
common, and others, such as the ruddy sheldrake, the pintail, the gargancy, 
&c, more rare. The grey goose (wiz) is extremely common; but his hand- 
some congener, the Egyptian goose (Vulpanser, or Chenalopex JEgyptiacus) 
is not so frequently seen. These geese and ducks, together with pelicans, 
spoonbills, storks, herons, and all kinds of birds, are to be found in great 
numbers on the sandbanks in the river during the months of November, 
December, January, and February, and in some small lakes and canals inland. 
But, except under certain favourable circumstances, it is very difficult to get 
within shot of them. To do so with any chance of success requires a small 
boat, in which to sail up to, or float down upon them. The larger birds offer 
a very good mark for a light rifle. After February the river sandbanks 
become comparatively deserted, but rare birds are often met with in the 
spring and summer. The Fyodm is perhaps the best shooting-ground in 
Eygpt. 

To the naturalist the birds of Egypt offer a wide and varied field. Some 
250 kinds are already known. Among these the vultures, hawks, falcons, 
and kites occupy a prominent place. The roller, golden oriole, and large 
and small bee-eater, on land ; and the rosy pelican, pink flamingo, greater 
and lesser egret, demoiselle crane, purple gallinule, and various kinds of 
geese and ducks on the sandbanks and the water are all remarkable for their 
plumage. Warblers, chats, and all sorts of small birds abound. The white 
bird, by some miscalled the ibis, and by others the paddy bird, so commonly 
seen in the fields of Egypt, and the constant friend and companion of the 
buffalo, is the buff-backed heron (Ardetta russata). It is somewhat doubtful 
whether the sacred ibis is ever seen in Egypt; but the glossy ibis (Ibis 
fulcinellus) is occasionally found. 

Of amphibious animals, the crocodile (timsdli) is the only monster that the 
ordinary Nile traveller will see. Careful inspection will probably discover a 
specimen of him under the rocks of Gebel Aboo Feydah, and he may sometimes 
be seen on the large sandbank near the landing-place for Keneh ; but if the 
weather is at all favourable — calm and sunny — several may often be seen 
basking in the sun on the sandbanks between Silsilis and Kom Ombo. 
Nubia, however, is the great place for them, and on the sandbanks near 
Derr and Ibreem as many as 10 or 15 are sometimes basking in the sun 
together. It is by no means easy to get a shot at them, as they are very shy, 
and slip into the water on the slightest alarm. Of course any one devoting 
two or three days to waiting in a hole in the sand, near where they are in the 
habit of coming up, will be pretty certain to get a shot at one, but he must 
hit the eye, or the softer skin just behind the shoulder, to have much chance 
of killing. There is a kind of lizard, wdrran, sometimes found close to the 
river-side : the traveller will probably have stuffed ones offered him as " young 
crocodiles." 

The fish of the Nile are very numerous, but there is not one worth eating : 
they are all soft and woolly, and have a strong flavour of mud. 

Guns should be brought from England. They may sometimes be hired at 
Alexandria and Cairo. If a breech-loader is taken, cartridges (unloaded) should 



328 



THE NILE VOYAGE. 



Sect. III. 



be brought from England, though there are now several shops at Alexandria 
and Cairo, where pin-fire cartridges can generally be bought, but No. 16 is the 
bore most often kept. It would not do to reckon on finding central-fire. If it is 
intended to go in for snipe and quail shooting, a large number of cartridges 
will be required. Shot of any kind can be bought at Alexandria, Cairo, Port 
Said, Suez, &c, and at towns like Asyoot and Keneh up the river. Powder is 
a great source of difficulty, as the Egyptian Government forbid its importation 
and sale : consequently, if the traveller overcomes the difficulty of getting it 
conveyed to Egypt, he will find it seized at the custom-house, and be obliged 
to apply to tbe consular authorities, not always successfully, to get it out for 
him ; and if he trusts to purchasing it under the smuggled name of mixed 
pickles, arrowroot, &c, he will find it scarce, bad, and six to seven shillings 
the pound. The best plan is to send out a moderate quantity, and apply in 
time to the Consulate at Alexandria to get it passed. A heavy big game- 
rifle is useless during the ordinary voyage in Egypt. A common rifle with 
an explosive bullet is quite enough for a crocodile. As has been said, 
no really good wild-fowl shooting can be had without a small boat. The 
native sandal, or small boat attached to the dahabeeah, is of no use what- 
ever ; it draws a great deal too much water, is clumsy to manage, and requires 
two men to row it. A light English pair-oar gig with a small lugsail is the 
best thing : it will float in the shallows, and at the same time weather the 
extremely rough water which is often experienced on the Nile when the wind 
is high and the current strong. A punt and duck-gun is a method of whole- 
sale slaughter most strongly to be reprobated. 

The hawagha in Egypt is accustomed to go where he likes in pursuit of 
game : ripe standing crops offer no obstacle to him, and very often the pro- 
prietor will look calmly on and make no objection ; but this licence should not 
be abused, and a request to keep off any ground should instantly be complied 
with. 

' The Birds of Egypt,' by Captain Shelley, will no doubt prove a valuable 
companion to the naturalist and the sportsman. Some useful information on 
this subject will also be found in Smith's ' Attractions of the Nile.' 

g. Geography, Products, &c. 

Above Cairo, Egypt and the Valley of the Nile are more than ever synony- 
mous terms. The Egyptian territory certainly extends to the Red Sea on the 
one side, and the Oases on the other, but the cultivated land on the banks of 
the river is the real country. In no part is this more than 10 miles wide, 
except where the quasi-oasis of the Fyodm joins the W. bank at Benisooef ; 
and in many places only a few hundred yards of soil border the river on one 
side, while the desert comes to the water's edge on the other. The general 
name given to the whole country lying between Cairo and Assooan is the 
Saeed, though strictly speaking the Saeed, or Upper Egypt, does not begin till 
past Minieh. Aboolfeda says that it begins at Fostat. or Old Cairo, and that 
all the country to the S. of that city is called Saeed, and all to the N. Eeef. 
At the present day, however, Keef is the term applied to all "the cultivated 
land," in contradiction to " the desert." 

The whole of Egypt is styled in Arabic Ard-Mmr. or simply JSIusr (Misr), a 
name given also to Cairo itself; which recalls the old Hebrew Mizraim (Mizrim), 
" the two Mizrs." In the ancient Egyptian language it was called Kherni, or 
" the land of Khem," answering to the land of " Ham," or rather " Khem," 
mentioned in the Bible ; and in Coptic Chrae or Chemi ; by the Greeks it was 
named Atyvn-ros. According to Arab tradition, Mizraim, the son of Ham, had 
4 sons, Oshmoon, Athreeb, Sa, and Copt. The last of these peopled the country 
between Assooan and Coptos; Oshmoon that to the N., as far as Menoof 



Egypt 



GEOGKAPHY. 



329 



(Memphis) ; Athreeb the Delta ■ and Sa the province of Beheyrah, as well as 
the land of Barbary. Copt, however, having conquered the rest of Egypt, 
became sovereign of the whole country and gave it his name. 

The two sides of the valley seem at all times to have been distinguished, 
generally with reference to their position E. and W. of the river. By the 
ancient Egyptians the desert on each side was merely styled " the eastern and 
western mountain ;" and at a later period, " the Arabian and Libyan shore ;" 
parts of the mountain ranges having always had certain names attached to 
them, as at the present day. They are now called " the eastern shore " and 
" the western shore." 

In the time of the Pharaohs Egypt consisted of two great regions, the upper 
and lower country, both of equal consequence, from which the kings derived 
the title of Lord of the two Begions. Each of these had its peculiar crown, 
which the monarch at his coronation put on at the same time, showing the 
equal rank of the 2 states, while they prove the existence of 2 distinct 
kingdoms at an early period. 

Egypt was then divided into 36 nomes (departments, or counties), from 
Syene to the sea. In the time of the Ptolemies and early Csesars this 
number still conthmed the same ; " 10," says Strabo, "being assigned to the 
Theba'id, 10 to the Delta, and 16 to the intermediate province." Pliny gives 
44 nomes to all Egypt. 

The triple partition of the country described by Strabo varied at another 
time, and consisted of Upper and Lower Egypt, with an intermediate province, 
containing only seven nomes, and thence called Heptanomis. Upper Egypt, 
or the Thebaid then reached to the Thebaica Phylace (^vXaKv), now Daroot 
esh Shereef ; Heptanomis thence to the fork of the Delta ; and the rest was 
comprehended in Lower Egypt. In the time of the later Eoman emperors, the 
Delta, or Lower Egypt, was divided into 4 provinces or districts — August- 
amnica Prima and Secunda, and JEgyptus Prima and Secunda; being still 
subdivided into the same nomes : and in the time of Arcadius, the son of Theo- 
dosius the Great. Heptanomis received the name of Arcadia. The Thebaid, 
too, was made into two parts, under the name of Upper and Lower, the line of 
separation passing between Panopolis and Ptolemais Hermii. The nomes also 
increased in number, and amounted to 57, of which the Delta alone contained 
34, nearly equal to those of all Egypt in the time of the Pharaohs. 

Ammianus Marcellinus says, " Egypt is reported to have had 3 provinces 
in former times — Egypt Proper, the Theba'id, and Libya ; to which posterity 
added 2 others, Augustamnica, an offset from Egypt, and Pentapolis, separated 
from Libya." 

The northern part of Ethiopia, or of what is now called Nubia, had the 
name of Dodeca-Schcenus, or "12 schcenes," and comprehended the district 
from Syene to Hierasycaminon, now Maharraka. 

The schcene, according to Strabo, varied in different parts of Egypt. In 
the Delta it consisted of 30 stadia ; between Memphis and the Thebaid of 120 : 
and from the Thebaid to Syene of 60. The Itinerary of Antoninus reckons 
80 m., or 640 stadia, from Syene to Hierasycaminon : the schcene was there- 
fore (at 8 stadia to a Boman mile) of 53* stadia above Syene. 

Some of the towns on the 2 banks of the Nile are mentioned in the Itinerary 
of Antoninus. 



330 



THE NILE VOYAGE. 



Sect. III. 



X. Alexandria to. Hierasycaminon (in 
Nubia), by the west bank. 

M.P. 

Alexandria to Cliereu .. .. 24 

Herniupoli 20 

Andro 21 

Niciu 31 

Letus 28 

Memphi 20 

Peme 20 

Isiu 20 

Cene 20 

Tacona 20 

Oxyrhyncho 24 

Ibiu 30 

Hermupoli .. . 24 

Chusis 24 

Lyco 35 

Apollonos Minoris 18 

Hisoris 28 

Ptolemaida 22 

Abydo 22 

Diospoli 28 

Tentyra 27 

Contra Copto 12 

Papa 8 

Hermunthi 30 

Lato 24 

Apollonos Superioris . . . . 32 

Contra Thnrois 24 

Contra Ombos 24 

Contra Syene 23 

Paremboli 16 

Tzitzi 2 

Taphis 14 

Talmis 8 

Tutzis .. 20 

Pselcis 12 

Corte .. 4 

Hierasycaminon 4 



2. By the east bank from Heliopolis to 
Contra Pselcis and Hierasycaminon 
in Nubia. 



Heliopolis to Babylon 12 

Scenas Maudras 12 

Aphrodito 20 

Thimonepsi 24 

Alyi 16 

Hipponon 16 

Musse 30 

Speos Artemidos 34 

Antinou 8 

Pesla 24 

Hieracon 28 

Isiu 20 

Muthi 24 

Anteu 8 

Selino 16 

Pano 16 

Thomu 4 

Chenoboscio 50 

Copton 40 

Vico Apollonos 22 

Thebas 22 

Contra Lato 40 

Contra Apollonos 40 

Ombos 40 

Syene 30 

Philas 3 

Contra Taphis 24 

Contra Talmis 10 

Contra Pselcis 24 

Hierasycaminon 11 



At the present day Egypt is divided into 3 parts, — Upper, Middl?, and 
Lower Egypt ; and these again are subdivided into 15 provinces, as under : — 



Lowek Egypt. 

Province. 
Gharbeeyah. 
Kalioobeeyah. 
Gheezeh. 



Province. Chief Town. 

Beheyrah. Damanhoor. 

Menoofeeyah. Shibeen. 

Sliarkeeyah. Zagazig. 

Dakaleeyah. Mansoorah. 

Middle Egypt. 

Benisooef. Benisooef. I Minieh. 

Fyoom. Medeenet el Fyoum. | Beni Mazar. 



Chief Town. 
Tantah. 
Benha. 
Gheezeh. 



Minieh. 
Beni Mazar. 



Egypt. 



PEODUCTS. 



331 



Upper Egypt. 



Province, 
Asyoot. 
Girgeh. 



Chief Town. 
Asyoot. 
Soohag. 



Province. 
Ken eh. 
I Esneh. 



Chief Town. 
Keneh. 
Esneh. 



Each of these provinces has a governor called a Mucleer ; and they are sub- 
divided again into districts, each under a Nazir, or deputy-governor. The 
towns of Alexandria, Cairo, Suez, Port Said, Ismailia, Rosetta, and Damietta 
have their own governing body, independent of the provinces in which they 
are situated. 

The following are some of the common Arab appellations of towns, &c. : — 
The large, or market, towns have the title of Bender. Medeeneh is a 
" capital," and is applied to Cairo, and the capital of the Fyoom. Bellet, or 
Beled, is the usual appellation of a " town ;" whence Ebn beled, <; son of a 
town," or " townsman." Kafr is a village; Nezleh, or Nezle, a village founded 
by the people of another place, as Nezlet el Pent. Minieh (corrupted into Mit, 
particularly in the Delta) is also applied to villages colonised from other 
places. Pent, " the sons," is given to those founded by a tribe, or family, as 
Beni Amran, " the sons of Amran," and then many villages in the district are 
often included under the same name. Zow'yeh is a hamlet having a mosk. 
Kasr, or Knsr, is a " palace," or any large building. Boorg is a " tower " (like 
the Greek llvpyos) ; and it is even applied to the pigeon-houses built in that 
form. Sahil, a level spot, or opening in the bank, where the river is accessible 
from the plain. Merseh, an anchoring-place, or harbour. Dayr is a " con- 
vent," and frequently points out a Christian village. Kom is a "mound," 
and indicates the site of an ancient town, and Tel is commonly used in the 
Delta in the same sense. Khardb and Kooffree are applied to " ruins." 
Beerbeh, or Birbeh (which is taken from the Coptic), signifies a " temple." 
Wddy is a "valley;" Ge'bel, a "mountain;"' and Birkeh, a "lake," or a 
" reach " in the Nile. The W. bank of the river is called ghdrbee and the 
E. bank shurgee, and the common expressions for N. and S. are bcihree, 
" seawards," and giiblee, " mountainwards." 

The principal products of Middle and Upper Egypt are : wheat, maize, and 
doorah, of which these provinces supply three-fourths of the total yearly crop ; 
sugar, of which they supply the whole crop ; beans and lentils, two- thirds the 
yearly crop ; barley, one-half the yearly crop ; and Cotton, one-sixth the yearly 
crop. The remaining portions of these crops are from the Delta. Among the 
many other products may be mentioned indigo, hemp, flax, opium, clover, 
coffee, tobacco, &c. The wheat harvest in Upper Egypt takes place in March. 
In some parts which are carefully irrigated, 3 and even 4 crops of different 
kinds are obtained off the soil during the year. 

The trees indigenous to the valley of the Nile are few. Pre-eminent among 
them is the palm-tree, alike for the value of its fruit, trunk, and branches, 
and the revenue which the tax on it yields to the Government. This last is 
calculated at 150,000L yearly. The dried date is a great article of food 
among the common people ; and of the fibres of the trunk and branches 
are manufactured baskets, beds, chairs, cord, and various other things. 
The other principal trees are the lebbekh acacia, a tkick-foliaged tree with 
broad pods ; the sont acacia, a thorny small-leaved tree with a small yellow 
flower, its wood is largely used in the construction of the Nile boats ; the 
sycamore-fig, the finest tree in Egypt, its fruit is small and insipid ; the tama- 
risk, and the dom-palm. Various fruit-trees are cultivated, principally in 
gardens ; such as the orange-tree, of which there are fine groves near Benha ; 
the lemon ; the olive ; and some others ; and a variety of new trees and 
plants are being tried in many of the Khedive's gardens. 

The wild animals have been already mentioned. The principal domestic 



332 



INHABITANTS OF EGYPT. 



Sect, III. 



ones are the camel, the horse, the buffalo, the ox, the ass, the sheep, the goat, 
the pig, and the dog ; and of the feathered tribe, turkeys, geese, chickens, 
and pigeons. Of these it is curious to remark that neither the camel, the 
buffalo, the sheep, nor the chicken are found among the old sculptures, conse- 
quently we must suppose that they were unknown to the ancient Egyptians ; 
and the horse does not appear till after the return of Thothmes III. from his 
conquests in Asia. The camel and the ass are the most characteristic animals 
of Egypt, and they may certainly be said to bear the burden and heat of the 
day in the way of work. The heavy baggage camel is the one most commonly 
seen. The ass is of many kinds, from the magnificent animal of 14 hands, 
worth from 1001. to 200L, down to the wretched little drudge whose miserable 
carcase seems only fit for the vultures and the jackals. Horses are compara- 
tively not numerous, and the possession of them is confined principally to rich 
people and Europeans. The old native Egyptian breed is nearly extinct, but 
the Khedive is endeavouring to renew the stock. The buffalo is a most useful 
animal, and has to a great extent taken the place of the ox since the last two 
or three outbreaks of murrain. Pigs are kept only by the Copts and by 
Europeans. The native, or pariah, dog is generally considered unclean, 
and a wretched miserable beast he is to look at, but he performs, with the 
hawks, the useful duty of a scavenger ; and when taken care of as a puppy, 
grows up a fine handsome-looking animal. There is a breed of big, rough- 
haired, black dogs to be found at Erment, and one or two villages near 
Thebes, that are celebrated for their fierceness and courage. The turkeys of 
Upper Egypt are famed for their large size; and the chickens are equally 
remarkable for their smallness. 

Ji. IjfHABITANTS. 

The population of Egypt Proper is estimated at about 5,000,000. It may be 
divided roughly into Muslim Egyptians, Christian Egyptians or Copts, Turks, 
and Europeans. 

The Muslim Egyptians are of 3 kinds : the inhabitants of the towns, the 
country population (Fellaheen), and the wandering tribes (Bedaweeri). Of 
these the most numerous, and the most important, amounting to more than 
three-fourths of the whole population, are the Fellaheen. The Fellah (fern. 
Felldhah) is the representative of the conquering Arabs who came with 
Amer; but these have so mingled and intermarried with the original 
inhabitants, and with Abyssinians, Nubians, and others, that they present 
but very slight resemblance to the original stock. Indeed in many parts of 
Egypt the peasantry exhibit more likeness to the old Egyptians, as depicted 
on tlie monuments, than to the true descendants of their Arab ancestors, the 
Bedaween. They are, as a rule, a handsome well-formed race, with fine 
oval faces, bright deep-set black eyes, straight thick noses, large well- 
formed mouths, full lips, beautiful teeth, broad shoulders, and good-shaped 
limbs. It is astonishing that such well-shaped, perfectly-proportioned men 
and women should grow out of such pot-bellied, shrunken-limbed things as 
the children are. The colour of the skin varies considerably, — light and 
tawny in the north of Egypt, and gradually getting darker in the south. The 
most beautiful tint is the deep bronze one of Upper Egypt. 

The Copts are considered to be the descendants of the ancient Egyptians ; 
but they are by no means an unmixed race. Their name in Arabic, Kubtee, 
or Gubtee, singular, Kubt, or Gubt, plural, may be derived from Coptos in 
Upper Egypt, now Kuft, the head-quarters of the Christians till the Moham- 
medan conquest ; but it has probably some analogy with the Greek Alyvimos. 
Much stress has been laid upon their resemblance to the sculptured portraits 
of the ancient Egyptians, but it is difficult to trace the likeness much more in 



Egypt. 



INHABITANTS — ANTIQUITIES, EUINS, ETC. 



333 



them than in their Muslim fellow-countrymen, except perhaps in the eyes, 
which are exceptionally large and almond-shaped, and slope slightly upwards 
from the nose. The Copts, too, are slightly under the middle size, as were, 
to judge from the mummies, the ancient Egyptians. Their dress is the same 
as the Muslims, except that they often wear a black or blue turban, which 
the latter never do. It should be remembered, however, that there are 
Muslim Copts as well as Christian Copts, though the name is generally 
applied exclusively to the native Christians of Egypt. The number of Copts 
has been variously estimated from 150,000 to 500,000. In Upper Egypt there 
are whole villages composed of them, and they are numerous at Cairo and in 
the Fyoom; there are but few in the Delta. They are in general better 
educated than the rest of their countrymen, and are extensively employed in 
all the public offices as clerks, accountants, &c. 

The tenets of the Coptic Church are those of the sect called Jacobites, 
Eutychians, Monophysites, and Monothelites, pronounced heretical by the 
Council of Chalcedon in the year 581 a.d. Their secession from the orthodox 
Oriental Church was the occasion of bitter enmity between them and the 
Greeks, and they gladly welcomed the Arabs, and helped to drive out their 
hated fellow Christians. The orders in the Coptic Church are the Patriarch 
(Batrak), Metropolitan of the Abyssinians (Mitrdn), Bishop (Usfaif), Arch 
Priest (Kummoos), Priest (Kasees), Deacon (Shemmds), and Monk {Balifb). 
The convents and churches are very numerous ; the most interesting are those 
of Old Cairo. A full account of them, and of the various objects connected 
with them, is given in Sect. II., Descript. of Caieo, Esc. v. 

The language of the Copts of the present day is that of the rest of the 
country, the Egyptian dialect of Arabic. Coptic is only used in some of 
the Church prayers, and then they are repeated in Arabic for the benefit 
of the hearers ; indeed the priests who use them have merely learnt them by 
heart, and know nothing of the language. The Coptic language began to 
fall into disuse after the Mohammedan conquest, and by the 15th or 16th 
century was quite replaced by the Arabic. It is undoubtedly one of the 
oldest used by mankind, and in its original purity was that of the old 
Egyptians. It underwent a great change after the conquest of Alexander, 
and the spread of the Greek language, and especially after the introduction 
of Christianity into Egypt. It then began to be written from left to right, 
contrary to the ancient and Oriental manner, and in a character mostly 
adapted from the Greek, from which the Copts also borrowed many words 
and expressions. But notwithstanding the modification it has undergone, it 
is still the language written on the monumental walls of old Egypt, and to it 
the world is indebted for the key by which the hieroglyphics have been 
interpreted. 

The Turks were formerly much more numerous than they are now, and 
occupied a position of greater importance in the country. Though many .of 
the higher functionaries are still Turks, they no longer fill all the important 
civil and military posts. 

The remaining classes of the population, Levantines, Armenians, Syrians, 
Jews, &c, are nearly all found in Cairo and Alexandria and the towns of the 
Delta. As also are the Europeans, whose number may be reckoned at about 
85,000 in all. 

i. Antiquities, Euins, &c. 

The various interesting ruins of the country are fully described in their 
proper place, but a few general remarks on the history and archaeology may 
help the traveller to a better understanding of what he is about to see. 

The monumental remains of Egypt consist entirely of temples and tombs. 



334 



EGYPTIAN TEMPLES. 



Sect. III. 



The Egyptian temple was not a place of public worship like a Greek or Koinan 
temple, or a Christian church. It was an edifice erected by a king in honour 
of some divinity, or rather triad of divinities, to whom he wished to pay special 
homage, either in return for benefits conferred, or in the hope of future favours. 
This is shown by the sculptures on the walls, in all of which the king is the 
principal subject. He wages war with the enemies of Egypt and brings them 
home captive ; or he offers, in times of peace, gifts and sacrifices. The prayers 
are all recited in his name, and he leads the processions in which are carried 
the statues and emblems of the divinities. The temples are always built of 
stone, and surrounded by a high and massive crude-brick enclosure, which 
shut out from the vulgar gaze all that took place inside. Near every temple 
was a lake. The following diagrams will show the various plans and arrange- 
ments usual in Egyptian temples : — 




Fig. 1 is a simple form of a temple, consisting of (b b 6) the Dromos of sphinxes, sss; three 
prop'ylons or pylons, a a a; the pronaos or portico, d ; and the adytum (sekos) or sanctuary, e, 
which was either isolated, or occupied the whole of the naos, as in jig. 2. c c are screens, reach- 
ing half-way up the columns, as seen in fig. 3. In the adytum (e,fi.g. 2) is an altar,/. W W, 
the crude-brick wall of the temenos, " grove," or sacred enclosure. Fig. 4, a, the pylon or pylone ; 
b, the dromos without sphinxes; c c, screens; d, pronaos or portico; e, the hall of assembly; 
f, transverse ante-room, or proselcos, a sort of transept ; g, the central adytum, or sekos ; h h, side 
adyta. Fig. 5, a, pylon or pyloni; b, dromos of sphinxes; c c, obelisks; d d, propyla or pyra- 
midal towers of the propylozum : e, propylozum, area, or vestibulum ; f f, statues of the king; 
g g, inner towers with staircases leading to the top, as in d d ; h, inner vestibulum ; i i, screens 
from pillar to pillar, forming a sort of ante-room (?) to the hall of assembly (k) : this ante-room 



Egypt. 



EGYPTIAN TEMPLES. 



335 




(j) may be considered the portico. I, transept; m, central adytum or sekos; n n, side adyta. 
Fig. 6, a raised hypa?tbral building of columus and connecting screens, -with, steps leading to it 
from within the dromos (6). Tbe rest as jig. 5 to the inner hall (7), which has several small 
chambers at the side, o, an isolated adytum, with a pedestal in the middle for holding the 
sacred ark of the deity, p, qq,n n n, three adyta and other chambers. All behind the pronoos, 
or portico, is called the naos, which includes the sekos within it, and answers to the cella of 
Greek temples. 

Fig. 7, a, pylon or pylone. Fig. 8 shows the pyramidal towers (b), with the pylon (a) between 
them, and the liues d d {naremvevova-as ypa/j-fxa^ curving over towards each other, with the 
colossal figures commonly sculptured on them. These d d are seen better in fig. 9 ; but their 
position is not, as Strata) says, on either side of the portico or jonnaos, but of the pylon, being as 
far apart at the bottom as the breadth of the pylon ; h h, the colossal figures ; g g, the flag-staffs ; 
/, a torus that runs up the wall, and under the cornice ; c, fillet of the cornice. 

Fig. 10, a peripteral temple, a, the pylon; b, dromos; c, adytum, surrounded by a peristyle 



336 



EGYPTIAN TOMBS. 



Sect. III. 




of seven square pillars at each side, and two round columns at either end; the whole standing 
on a raised platform. One of these temples stood at Elephantine, and another at Eileithyias, 
both of the early time of the XVIIIth dynasty. 

With regard to the use of the word propylon, it may be observed, that propylon, pylon, and 
pylone, are all properly applied to the gateway {fig. 7, or a, figs. 4 and 5) ; but the first of these 
was also used to designate the pylon with its towers : to prevent confusion, therefore, and to 
avoid the long expression " towers of the propyheum," the word pylon has been adopted for the 
gateway, and pi-opyla for the towers. 

The tombs of the old Egyptians were always situated either in the desert or 
in the side of a mountain. For a full description of them, and a plan of their 
method of construction, the reader is referred to Sect. II., Descript. of Cairo, 
Exc. vii., h. The principal exception to the account there given is found in 
the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes, which are constructed and decorated on 
a different principle. 

The materials for a knowledge of the history, and the manners and customs 
of the old Egyptians, have been almost entirely derived from these two 
sources. Their public annals are written on the walls of the temples — their 
private history on the walls of the tombs. It is from the temples and tombs 
too that have been taken the greater part of the various objects in the different 
museums, which help to throw such light on this subject. 

First among these is the Bosetta Stone in the British Museum, by means of 
which the hieroglyphics were first deciphered. It was part of a stone tablet 
found at Kosetta, in 1798, by the French, containing three inscriptions ; 
two were in the old Egyptian language, one written in the hieroglyphic 
characters used by the priests, and the other with the cursive letters under- 
stood by the people generally ; the third was in Greek. In the Greek inscrip- 



Egypt. 



ANTIQUITIES. HISTORY. 



387 



tion were several proper names, e. g. Ptolemy, and it was observed that in the 
corresponding place in the Egyptian text were several signs with a line drawn 
round them, so as to form a kind of oval. This led to the conclusion that 
royal names were always written in the Egyptian writing on this kind of 
shield, to which Cliampoliion gave the name of cartouche, and that the signs 
on this particular one must represent, letter for letter, the name of Ptolemy. 
The gradual following up of this discovery revealed in time more or less of the 
Egyptian alphabet ; and it was further found that the words thus deciphered 
were Coptic — a language which, though much changed and altogether fallen 
into disuse, was not lost to science. From that time the hieroglyphics ceased 
to be mere signs without a meaning. 

The mutilated Tablet of Abydus in the British Museum served as an excel- 
lent guide towards the chronological arrangement of a. certain number of the 
kings of Egypt ; but the perfectly complete tablet, from which the other was 
copied, found, and still remaining, on a wall of another temple at Abydus, is 
of course a much more valuable monument. It contains the names Of 76 kings 
— a comparison of whose names with the lists of Manetho has much helped 
towards the work of reconstructing portions of Egyptian history. 

Of the same character are the Tablet of Sakkdrah, containing the names of 
55 kings ; the Hall of Ancestors, a small chamber at Karnak, on whose walls 
was a tablet, now in Paris, containing the names of 60 kings ; and the Papyrus 
of Turin, containing also a list of kings, but so mutilated as to be of compara- 
tively less value than the others. 

The Ritual, or Book of the Dead, is a papyrus found buried with the mum- 
mies. It consists of chapters describing the adventures of the soul after death, 
and the prayers offered to the gods. The largest and most complete specimen 
is in the Turin Museum. From this book is learnt the ideas held by the old 
Egyptians as to a future state. 

It would be impossible to enumerate all the other almost equally important 
objects, existing either in museums or in situ, which help to a knowledge of 
the public and private life of the old Egyptians. There is hardly any one 
of them indeed which does not contribute its share. 

The first who attempted to write a history of Egypt was Manetho, an 
Egyptian priest who lived in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, circ. 263 B.C. 
His history was written in Greek, and contained a list of the kings who had 
reigned in Egypt from the earliest times to the conquest of Alexander. The 
his lory is lost; but the lists are preserved in the Chronology of George the 
Syncellus, a Byzantine monk who lived at the beginning of the 9th century. 
He had collected them, not from the original work, which had long been lost, 
but from copies made by Julius Africanus in the 3rd century, and Eusebius 
in the 4th. To what extent credence can be given to tht se lists, which, sup- 
posing them originally correct, had probably been altered and manipulated 
by the Christian writers above mentioned, is a point much disputed by modern 
Egyptologists. Many are now disposed to consider that recent discoveries 
have rather confirmed their title to be looked upon as to a certain extent 
trustworthy guides. 

What the classic historians have to say about Egypt may be read in the 
2nd book of Herodotus, the 1st book of Diodorus, the 17th book of Strabo, and 
the treatise de hide et Os'.ride of Plutarch. 

Mention has already been made of the group of signs, enclosed in an 
elliptical frame with a base, which mark a royal name, called by Champollion 
cartouches, and by others ovals or shields. When it is a king's name that is 
signified there are always two cartouches side by side, one containing the 
prenomen, and the other the nomen. The prenomen is generally preceded by 
the title "King of Upper and Lower Egypt," the nomen by that of "Son of 
file Sun." Sometimes these are exchanged, for other titles. It is from these - 
cartouches that the op ch of the monument on which they appear may gene- 



338 



EGYPTIAN DYNASTIES. 



Sect. III. 



rally be known. They are very numerous, but the eye will soon get accus- 
tomed to recognise those that occur the oftenest and are the most important. 
The following list will show the places at which the names of the kings of 
the different dynasties are to be looked for. 

No names of any kings of the first three dynasties are found anywhere, 
except perhaps that of Ouenephes at tbe Pyramid of Sakkarah. 

Those of the IVth dynasty, such as Cheops, Chephren, Mycerinus, &c, are 
found at the Pyramids and at Sakkarah. 

Those of the Vth, at Sakkarah and Abooseer. 

Those of the 'Vlth, at Memphis, San, Zowyet el My'iteen near Minieh, at 
Kasr es Svad, and some other unimportant places. 

Those of the VTlth, VHIth, IXth, and Xth, are found nowhere. 

Those of the Xltii, at Drah Aboo '1 Neggah, at Thebes. 

Those of the Xllth, the Osirtasens and Amenemhas, at Heliopolis, the 
Fyoom, Beni Hassan, Asyoot, and Semneh above Wady Halfah. 

Those of the XIHth and XlVth, at Asyoot, and on the rocks at Assooan 
and the Island of Sehayl. 

These of the XVth and XVIth, nowhere. 

Those of the X Yllth, the Shepherds, at San. 

Those of the XVIIIth, the Amunophs and Thothmes', at Tel el Amarna, 
El Kab, both sides of the river at Thebes, Silsilis, Kom Ombos, Amada, 
Wady Halfah, &c. 

Those of the XlXth, the Eameses', at San, Memphis, Abydos, both sides of 
the river at Thebes. Bayt Wely, Derr, Aboo Simbel. 
Those of the XXth, at Thebes. 
Those of the XXIst, at San. 

Those of the XXIInd, the Sheshonks, &c, at Karnak. 
Those of the XXIIIrd and XXIVth, nowhere. 
Those of the XXVth, at Karnak. 

Those of the XXVIth, Psammetichus and others, at San, Sakkarah, Karnak, 
Luxor. 

Those of the XXVIIth, on the rocks at Ha ma mat. 

Those of the XXVlIIth, XXIXth, and XXXth, Nectanebo and others, at 
Sakkarah, Medeenet Haboo, Karnak, Philse. 
Those of the XXXIst, nowhere. 
Those of the XXXIInd, Alexanders, at Karnak. 

Those of the XXXIIIrd, the Ptolemies, at Alexandria, Sakkarah, Denderah, 
Thebes, Erment, Esneh, Edfoo, Kom Ombos, Philse, Kalabsheh, aud various 
other places in Nubia. 

Those of the XXXIVth, the Eoman Emperors, at Denderah, Thebes, Erment, 
Esneh, Edfoo, Philae, and in Nubia. 

The substance of some of the above matter has been culled from an excel- 
lent little work by M. Mariette, published at Alexandria, entitled Itineraire 
de la Haute Egypte. It should be bought by all who are interested in the 
antiquities of Egypt, and will be found a most useful little companion. 

Some further information on the subject of Egyptian antiquities is given in 
the account of the Museum at Cairo (Sect. II., Description of Cairo, § 17). 
Those who intend to make this subject their study will find the names of tome 
of the best works in the list of books given in the Introduction, d. 

The interest attaching to the remains of old Egypt, and the importance of 
preserving those pages of its history which cover every wall of the ruined 
temples and tombs, ought to be sufficient to prevent visitors from civilised 
Europe and the West from indulging in the childish pastime of scribbling 
their names upon tnein and destroying them. But the Tomb of Tih, at 
Sakkarah, the Tomb of Seti I., at Thebes, and indeed every sculptured ruin in 
the country, furnish lamentable instances to the contrary. No words can 
condemn too strongly this mischievous habit. There are plenty of rocks and 



Egypt 



EOUTE 18. CAIRO TO TKEBES. 



339 



unsculptured stones w here the practice may be indulged in harmlessly enough, 
but to disfigure in any way paintings, sculptures, or ttatues, is an act of igno- 
rant 1 arbarism, the authors of which it is to be regretted should be allowed 
to escape unpunished. The following judgment may be severe, but it is 
deserved. u The first thing that strikes you on approaching the monument 
(Pompey's Pillar), are the proper names written in gigantic characters by 
travellers, who have thus insolently engraved a record of their obscurity on 
a column centuries old. Nothing can be more silly than this mania, derived 
from the Greeks, which disfigures where it does not destroy. Many hours 
of patience have been expended in cutting on granite the large letters which 
dishonour it. How can people give themselves the trouble to inform the 
world tl.at a perfectly unknown person has visited a monument, and that 
that unknown person has mutilated it ? " — J. Ampere. 

All excavating among the ruins is now forbidden. The so-called antiquities 
offered to the traveller for sale are generally false, more especially at Thebes, 
where there are several manufactories of them ; and the imitations are some- 
times so good that it requires a practised eye and hand to detect the difference. 



EOUTE 18. 

CAIRO TO THEBES. 

Cairo (Boolak), to Bedre- 
shayn (for Sakkarah) . . 

Zowyeh 

Benisooe'f 

Feshun 

Maghagha 

Aboo Girgeh 

Golosaneh 

Minieh 

Benihassan 

Khoda 

Mellawee 

Hadji Kandeel (for Tel el 

Amarna) 

Gebel Aboo Faydah 

Manfaloot 

Asyoot 

Abooteeg 

Gow el Kebeer 

Tahtah 

Sooha'g 

Mensheeyah 

Girgeh 

Bellianeh (for Abydos) . . 

Farshoot 

How and Kasr es Syad . . 
Keneh (for Denderah) 

Neggadeh 

Luxor (Thebes) 



Miles. 



15 




Aft 




18 




19 




1 A 
J4 




15J 




12J 




22^ 






156* 


34i 


11 




6 




7 




17 




Hi 




26 






- 93 


15 








m 




26 




11 




13 




8 

18| 
8 




29± 




22J 




22 






200J 



450 



After passing the palaces of Kasr en 
Nil and Kasr el Amee ; the island of 
Ehoda, and Old Cairo, to the 1., and 
the palaces of Gezeereh and Geezeh, 
and the village of the latter name on 
the rt.j you may be said to enter the 
Saeed. About 1^ m. beyond the old 
capital and the mounds of the still 
older Babylon is the picturesque mosk 
of Attar en Nebbee, situated on a pro- 
jecting point of the eastern bank, at 
the end of an avenue of fine trees. Its 
name is derived from an impression of 
" the prophet's footstep" said to be 
preserved there. Some, however, derive 
Attar from Athor, the Egyptian Venus. 
A short distance inland, to the east- 
ward, is a ruin of late time, at the 
southern extremity of a low ridge of 
hills, which has received the not un- 
common name of Stabl Antar. Here 
is a powder-magazine ; and on the low 
ground beyond it to the E. are the 
remains of an aqueduct of Arab con- 
struction. A long reach of the Nile 
extends from Attar en Nebbee to the 
village of ed Dayr, " the convent," in- 
habited by Copt Christians ; and in- 
land to the E. is the village of Bussa- 
teen once famed for its " gardens," 
whence its name. Near it is the 
burial-ground of the Jews, in the 
sandy plain below the limestone hills 
of the Mokattam. That range is here 
rent assunder by a broad valley called 
Bahr - bela - me, "the Biver without 
Water," which comes down from the 
eastward, and measures to its head 
Q 2 



340 



EOFTE 18. CAIRO TO THEBES. 



Sect. III. 



about 8 in. It separates that part I 
called Gebel ej Jooshee from the rest j 
of the Mokattani range. 

The name Bahr-bela-me (or -ma) is j 
applied to several broad deep valleys, j 
both in the eastern and western deserts, 
the most noted of which lies beyond 
the Natron lakes. 

One of the Suez roads, called Derb 
et Tarabeen. passes over this part of 
the Mokattam, and comes down to 
the Nile by this valley to the village 
of Bussateen ; and immediately above 
the brow of the cliff on its N. side is 
the plain of petrified wood already 
mentioned, as well as an ancient road 
that led from Heliopolis over the hills 
to this part of the country. (See 
Sect. ii. Desceipt. of Cairo, Excur- 
sion iii.) 

On the rt. the majestic pyramids 
seem to watch the departure of the 
traveller when he quits the capital, as 
they welcomed his approach from the 
Delta: and those of Abooseer, Sakkarah 
and Dashoor, in succession, present 
themselves to his view, and mark the 
progress of his journey. 

(E.) A little below Toora, on the 
E. bank, are some low mounds of 
earth, probably ancient walls of de- 
cayed crude bricks, belonging to an 
enclosure, once square, but now partly 
carried away by the river ; and to the 
E. of it is another long mound, through 
which a passage led to the plain behind. 
The name of Toora signifies " a canal," 
but it is more likely to have been 
originally derived from that of the 
ancient village that once stood near 
this spot, called Troja, or Troicus 
pagus ; the conversion of an old name 
into one of similar sound in Arabic 
being of common occurrence in modern 
Egypt. 

(2?.) The wall stretching across the 
plain to the hills, and the fort above, 
were built by Ismail Bey, whose name 
they bear. On the recovery of Egypt 
by the Turks under Hassan Pasha, 
in 1837, Ismail Bey was appointed 
Sheykh-Beled of Cairo; and Murad, 
with the other Memlook Beys, being 
confined to Upper Egypt, this wall 
was erected to prevent their approach 
to the capital. But Ismail Bey dying 



of the plague in 1790, Ibrahim and 
Murad shared Upper and Lower Egypt 
between them till the French invasion. 

A short distance to the S. of the fort, 
on the top of the same range of hills, 
are the ruins of an old convent, called 
Dayr el Bughleh, which is mentioned 
by Arab writers, and was discovered 
by Linant-Bey. 

(E.) El Masarah, or Toora Masara, 
about If m. further to the S., claims, 
with Toora, the honour of marking 
the real site of the Tro'icns pagus, 
which, according to Strabo. stood near 
to the river and the quarries. Strabo 
and Diodorus both report that it was 
built and named after the Trojan cap- 
tives of Menelaus, with what proba- 
bility it is difficult now to decide ; and 
some ancient Egyptian name of similar 
sound is as likely to have been changed 
by the Greeks and Bon.ans into Troja, 
as by the modern Arabs into Tooia. 
The mountain to the eastward is 
evidently the Troici lapidis mons, or 
Tpcoiicov opos of Ptolen.y and Strabo. 
and from it was taken the stone used 
in the casing of the pyramids. It is to 
the same mountain that Herodotus 
and Diodorus allude vhm they say 
the stone for building the great pyra- 
mid came "from Alalia," or the 
J eastern side of the Nile, 
j The quarries are < f great extent ; 
1 and that they were worked from a 
i very remote period is evident from the 
! hieroglyphic tables, and the names of 
i kings inscribed within them. Those 
•to ihe N., to which a railway has been 
I laid down, are sometimes distinguished 
| by the name of the quarries of Toora ; 
j those to the S., of Masarah. At the 
I former are tablets bearing the names of 
i Amun-m-he, of Amunoph II. and III., 
'and of Neco; at the latter are those 
' of Ames, Amyitaeus, Acoris (Hakori), 
and Ptolemy Philadtl] hus, with Ar- 
1 sinoe ; and other tablets have the 
J figures of deities, as Athor and Thoth, 
' and the triad of Thebes — Amun, Maut, 
and Khonso — without royal ovals. In 
: one of those at the quarries of Masarah. 
sculptured in the 22nd year of Ann s 
or Amos ; s, the leader of the XVIIith 
dynasty, is the representation of a 



ROUTE 18. QUARRIES OF TOORAK-MASARAH. 



341 



sledge bearing a block of stone drawn i 
by 0' oxen. The hieroglyphic inscrip- 
t on above it is much defaced ; but in 
the legible* portion, besides the titles of , 
the king and queen, " beloved of Phtah \ 
ami Atmoo " (Atum), we find that in 
his 22nd year Ames took stones from 
these quarries both for the temple of j 
Phtah at Memphis, and for the temple j 
of Aniun at Thebes ; showing that he i 
ruled both Upper and Lower Egypt, | 
In another quarry towards the S. is a 
large tablet, representing king Amyr- j 
tarns (ur, as some suppose him to be, } 
Xectanebo) offering to the triad of the 
place, Thoth, the goddess Nehiineou, j 
and Horus (Nofre-Hor, "the lord of 
the land of Bahet "), and below the 
king stands a small figure in the act 
of cutting the stone with a chisel and 
mallet. Besides the hieroglyphic ovals 
of the kings, are numerous inscriptions \ 
enchorial, particularly in the southern ■ 
quarries, with numbers and quarry- i 
marks ; and here and there the encho- j 
rial inscriptions begin with the year | 
and m >nth < if the king's reign in which 
that part of the quarry was commenced. 

The quarries are not only interesting 
from Their extent and antiquity, but 
from their showing how the Egyptian 
masons cut the stone. They first began 
by a trench or groove round a square 
space on the smooth perpendicular face 
of the rock ; and having pierced a 
horizontal shaft to a certain distance, 
by cutting away the centre of the 
square, they made a succession of 
similar shafts on the same level; after 
which they extended the work down- 
wards in the form of steps, removing 
each tier of stones as they went on till 
they reached the lowest part m in- 
tended floor of the quarry. Sometimes 
they began by an oblong shaft, which 
they cut downwards to the depth of 
one stone's length ; and they then con- 
tinued horizontally in steps, each of ! 
thes • forming as usual a standing-place ' 
while they cut away the row above it. i 
A similar process was adopted on the j 
opposite side of the quarry, till at 
length two perpendicular walls were j 
left, which constituted its extent ; and 
here again new openings were made. | 
and another chamber, connected with ; 



the first one, was formed in the same 
manner ; pillars of rock being left here 
and there to support the roof. These 
communications of one quarry, or 
chamber of a quarry, with the other, 
are frequently observable in the moun- 
tains of Masarah, where they follow in 
uninterrupted succession for a con- 
siderable distance ; and in no part of 
Egypt is the method of quarrying more 
clearly shown. The lines traced on 
the roof, marking the size and division 
of each set of blocks, were probably 
intended to show the number hewn by 
particular workmen. Instances of this 
occur in other places, from which we 
may infer that, in cases where the 
masons worked for hire, this account 
of the number of stones they had cut 
served to prove their claims for pay- 
ment; and when condemned as a 
punishment to the quarries, it was in 
like manner a record of the progress 
of their task — criminals being fre- 
quently obliged to hew a fixed number 
of stones according to their offence. 
The mountain of Masarah still con- 
tinues to supply stone for the use of 
the metropolis, as it once did for 
Memphis and its vicinity ; and the 
floors of the houses of Cairo continue 
to be paved with flags of the same 
magnesian limestone which the Egyp- 
tian masons employed iOOO years ago. 

The occasional views over the plain, 
the Nile, and the several pyramids on 
the low Libyan hills beyond the river, 
which appear between openings in the 
quarries as you wander through them, 
have a curious and pleosing effect : 
and on looking towards the village of 
Masarah, you perceive on the left a 
causeway or inclined ro<d. leading to- 
wards the river, by which the stones 
were probably conveyed to the Nile. 

(E.) Helwdn, a village on the E. 
bank, is known as having been the 
first place where the Arabs made a 
Nilo:ueter, under the Caliphate of Abd 
el Melek, about the year 700 a.d. It 
was built by Abd el Azeez, the brother 
of the caliph ; but being found not to 
answer there, a new one was made by 
El Weleed, his successor, about 10 
years afterwards, at the Isle of Koda. 



342 



EOUTE 18. CAIBO TO THEBES. 



Sect. III. 



where it has continued ever since. 
Part of the pillar of this Helwan 
Nilometer was found near the village. 
Aboolfeda speaks of Helwan as a very- 
delightful village, and it was perhaps 
from this that it obtained its name, 
liel toa signifying "sweet;" though, as 
Norden observes, it possesses nothing 
more to recommend it on this score 
than its opposite neighbour. It has, 
however, some remarkable sulphur- 
springs, which, though known to the 
peasantry, were not brought into 
general notice till a few years ago, 
since which time they have been 
visited both by Europeans and Turks, 
and a bath-house with a plunging-bath 
has been built at one of the springs for 
the accommodation of those who fre- 
quent them. They are a little dis- 
tance from the village, in the desert 
plain between it and the hills, and 
near one of them are low mounds 
abounding in fragments of a common 
greenish glass, which appears to have 
been made there of old, and is fre- 
quently found amidst the mounds of 
Memphis. The water is clear with a 
slightly salt and sulphurous taste, and 
issues from the spring at a temperature 
of 110° Fahr. In its composition it 
resembles that of Aix in Savoy, and is 
said to be very efficacious in all cases 
in which sulphurous waters are usually 
employed. These sulphur-springs are 
probably the very place to which king 
Amenophis sent "the leprous and 
other cureless persons, in order to 
separate them from the rest of the 
Egyptians," as related by Mane! ho. 
It was said to be at the quarries on 
the E. side of the Nile ; and the king 
may have had the double motive of 
curing them, and of profiting by the 
labour of those who were able to work ; 
or Josephus may have misinterpreted 
the statement of Manetho, and sug- 
gested their labours in the quarries, 
from being unacquainted with the 
springs that were to effect their cure. 

(W.) Bedreshayn (15 m., Eailway 
Stat.) is nearly opposite Helwan. The 
village is a little way from the bank ; 
and a short distance further inland may 
be seen the mounds of Mitrahenny 



marking the site of Memphis, with the 
pyramids of Abooseer, Sakkarah, and 
Daskoor, in the distance. This is the 
best point on the river from which to 
make the excursion to Sakkarah (see 
Sect. II., Desckipt. op Cairo, Excur. 
vii.). About 4 m. farther up the stream 
you pa^s Shobuk, with the pyramids 
of Dashdor 4 m. inland to the rt. ; and 
Masghoon, 2 m. to the westward of 
which is El Kafr, a small village, from 
which one of the principal roads leads 
to the Fyodm across the desert. The 
scenery here on the W. bank is very 
iovely in the winter ; glades of young 
bright-green corn run up into groves of 
beautiful palms, with here and there a 
splendid sycamore-fig filling up the 
open spaces in the landscape. The 
sandbanks in this part of the river, 
beginning indeed from a little way S. 
of Cairo, will be found covered with 
wild-fowl and large flocks of pelicans 
in the early winter. 

(IT.) In this neighbourhood, pro- 
bably near Dashdor, were " the city of 
Acanthus, the temple of Osiris, and 
the grove of Thebaic gum-producing 
Acanthus," mentioned by Strabo ; 
which last may be traced in the many 
groves of that tree (the sont. or AcaHa 
Nilotica) which still grow there at the 
edge of the cultivated land. The town 
of Acanthus was, according to Dio- 
dorus, 120 stadia, or 15 m. p., from 
Memphis, equal to 13;} or nearly 14 
Eng. nr., which, if correct, would 
place it much further S., to the west- 
ward of Kafr el Iyat, though it is 
generally suppose d to have stood near 
JDashodr. 

( W.) In the hills near El Kafr are 
some small tombs not worth visiting. 

( HP".) On the same bank, and near 
Kafr el Iyat (Aiat), at the extremity 
of a large bend of the river, is the sup- 
posed site of Menes' Dyke (see Sect. II., 
Descript. of Cairo, Excur. vii., c). 

(TT.) At Tahaneh, about lj m. from 
Kafr el Iyat, and near the edge of the 
desert, are mounds, but no remains 
except small fragments of stone ; and 
the same at Babayt, about 1 m. N.N.W. 
from Kafr el Iyat. 

Already, before reaching Kafr el 
Iyat, are descried the two ruined 



Egypt 



ROUTE 18. PYRAMID OF MAYDOOM. 



343 



pyramids of Lisht, built of small blqcks 
of limestone, which were probably once 
covered with an exterior coating of 
larger stones. 

( W.) 3 m. to the N.W. is a conical 
hill resembling a pyramid. It is, how- 
ever, merely a rock, with no traces of 
masonry ; and in this part of the low 
Libyan chain are a great abundance 
of fossils, particularly oyster - shells, 
with which some of the rocks are j 
densely filled, in some instances re- 
taining their glossy mother-of-pearl 
surface. 

(E.) Wady Ghomyer (or El Gho- 
meir) opens upon the Nile at Es Suf 
on the E. bank. By this valley runs 
the southernmost of tue roads across 
the desert to Suez. 

( W.) About 4 m. inland from Bigga 
is the pyramid, of Maydoom, near the 
village of that name. It is called by 
the Arabs Haram el Keddb, or " the 
False Pyramid," from the idea that the 
nucleus is of rock built round, so as to 
give the shape of a pyramid. Whether 
this is so or not it is impossible to say, 
as the pyramid has never b> en opened ; 
but there is enough evidence to show 
that it was the most carefully con- 
structed pyramid in Egypt. It is built 
in stories or degrees, the triangular 
spaces being afterwards filled in with 
a triangular mass of masonry to com- 
plete the external slope of the pyramid : 
but it is remarkable that the parts 
against which this was placed are 
smooth, not left rough, nor in steps; 
and the stones of the triangular part 
are placed very irregularly, except 
towards the outer face, where the 
masonry is beautiful, the stones being 
fitted together witii great precision. 
Some of them in the triangular part 
lie nearly at the complement of the 
exterior angle, and not horizontally, as 
in other monumeuts. It has been con- 
jectured that this pyramid was built 
by Senefroo, the predecessor of Cheops. 
All round it are the remains of a ne- 
cropolis belongiug principally to that 
period. In the most southern mastabuh 
two statues, now in the Cairo Museum, 
were discovered in 1872. At the vd- 
lage of Maydoom near the False 



Pyramid are the mounds of an ancient 
town; and also at Surf, about 1 m. to 
to the N. The canal, which runs close 
by, will often be found in the late 
winter and early spring covered with 
wild-duck, which can easily be got at 
from the banks. 

(E.) At Atfeeyah are the mounds of 
Aphroditopolis, or the city of Athor, 
the Egyptian Venus. It presents no 
monuments ; but a stone with the 
name of Ramesis II. has been found in 
a ruined mosk : it may be well to re- 
mind those who are particularly in- 
terested in the discovery of monuments, 
that an occasional visit to the sites of 
old cities, even when reputed to 
have no remains, may be repaid by 
some monument accidentally laid open 
by the peasants while removing the 
nitre for their lands. The Coptic 
name of Aphroditopolis is Tpeh, or 
Petphieh, easily converted into the 
modern Arabic Atfeeyah. It was the 
capital of the Aphroditopolite nome, 
and noted, as Strabo tells us, for the 
worship of a white cow, the emblem of 
the goddess. 

{E.) Opposite Zow'yeh, at the N. 
corner of the low hills overlooking the 
Nile, is Broombel, where mounds mark 
the site of an old town, probably Ancy- 
ronpolis. That city is supposed to 
have owed its name to the stone 
anchors said to have been cut in the 
neighbouring quarries. 

(TT.) Zoutyeh (40 m.) appears to be 
Iseum, in the Coptic Naesi, the city of 
Isis, which stood near the canal lead- 
ing to Pousiri, or Nilopolis, and thence 
to the Crocodilopolite nome. This 
canal on the N., with part of the pre- 
decessor of the Ba'ir Yoosef on the W., 
and the Nile on the E., formed the 
island of the Heracleopolite nome ; 
and the city of Hercules was, according 
to Strabo, towards the southern extre- 
mity of the province, of which it was 
the capital. And this agrees with the 
position of Anasieh, or Om el Keeman, 
" the Mother of the Mounds," as it is 
often called by the Arabs, from the 
lofty mounds of the old city, which are 
seen inland about 12 m. to the west 
ward of Benisooef. 



344 



ROUTE 18. CAIRO TO THEBES. 



Sect, III. 



(/?.) Wasta (Railway Stat.) close to 
Zow'yeh. This is the junction station 
for the Fyodm There is one train a 
day each way, leaving Medeenet el 
Fyoom at 9.40 a.m., and Wasta on its 
return at 2.10 p.m. This last departure 
however is very uncertain, as the train 
from up the river has to be waited for. 
It takes hr. to go from Wasta by 
train to Medeeneh, the distance being 
25 miles, and there being one station 
on the way, El Edwah, near to which 
at the proper season is some excellent 
shooting. (See Kte. 15). 

Nothing of interest is met with on 
the Nile between Zow'yeh and Beni- 
soo ef. 

(W.) Tnland, about 9 m. to the 
S W. of the former, is Abooseer, the 
site of Busiris or Nilopolis, in Coptic 
Pousiri, upon the canal already men- 
tioned, bounding the Heracleopolite 
nome to the W. The position of the 
city of the Nile, at a distance from the 
river, was evidently chosen in order to 
oblige th3 people to keep the canal in 
proper repair, that the water of the 
sacred stream might pass freely into 
the interior, and reach the town, where 
the god Nil us was the object of par- 
ticular veneration; a motive which 
M. de Pauw very judiciously assigns 
to the worship of the crocodile in 
towns situated far from the river. 

(TF.) Zaytoon has succeeded to an 
ancient town called in the Coptic Phan- 
nigoit. It was in the district of 
Poushin, the modern Boosh, which is 
distant about 3 m. to the S., and is 
marked by lofty mounds. It is re- 
markable that Zaytoon, signifying 
"olives," is an Arabic translation of 
the old name Pha-fi-ni-goit, '■ the Place 
of Olives," probably given it to show 
a quality of the land winch differed 
from the rest of the Heracleopolite 
nome. 

(W) Dallas, about a mile to the 
S.W. of Zaytoon, appears to be the 
Tgol (or Tlog) of the Copts; and at 
Shenoweeyah, close to Boosh, are 
mounds of an ancient town whose 
name is unknown. 

(E.) El Marazee, a picturesque vil- 
lage shortly before reaching Boosh. 
Two miles from it is a Coptic convent. I 



(TF.) Boosh is a large village with 
about 600 inhabitants, half of whom 
are Copts ; and it has a large depot ,of 
monks, which keeps up a constant 
communication with the convents of 
St. Anthony and St. Paul, in the 
eastern desert, supplying them with 
all they require, furnishing them occa- 
sionally with fresh monastic recruits, 
and superintending the regulations of 
the whole corps of ascetics. 

(W.) Benisooef (IS m. Eailway Stat., 
4 hrs. by train from Cairo, and 4£ 
foom Mmieh), a large and important 
town, 73 m. from Cairo. It is the 
capital of the province of the same 
name, and the residence of the Mudeer 
or governor. Population about 500 ). 
At the railway station are a telegraph 
office and a post office. The bazaar is 
tolerably well supplied, and there is a 
weekly market. The chief industry 
is the manufacture of woollen carpets 
and coarse linen stuffs for the fellaheen. 
In the time of Leo Africanus it was 
fimous for its linen fabrics, and sup- 
plied the whole of Egypt with flax, 
and exported great quantities to Tunis 
and other parts of Barbary. This 
industry was revived by Mohammed 
Ali, who built a manufactory here in 
ls26. The view of Benisooef from the 
river is rather pretty : the banks being 
well covered with trees and presenting 
an animating appearance. 

Here may be watched the ordinary 
scenes common to all the large towns 
on the Nile; among which are nume- 
rous boats tied to the shore— buffaloes 
standing or lying in the water — women 
at their usual morning and evening 
occupation of filling water-jars and 
washing clothes — dogs lying in holes 
they have scratched in the cool earth — 
and beggars importuning each newly- 
arrived European stranger with the 
odious word " backsheesh." 

Though the idle occupation of lying 
in the water gives no very exalted 
notion of the utility of the buffalo, it 
is justly prized for many very useful 
qualities. Being hardier and stronger 
than the ox, it is employed in its place 
for many agricultural purposes : its 
milk, too, is excellent, and makes very 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 18. BENISOOEF BIBB EH. 



345 



good butter, and the best kishteh, a sort 
of Devonshire cream, which may be 
ma le very well on a Nile boat. 

From Benisooe'f is one of the prin- 
cipal routes to the Fyoom (see Sect. II.. 
Ete. 15); and the brick pyramid of 
Illahodn, at its N.E. entrance, may be 
seen from the town. On the opposite 
bank is the Wady Byad, by which 
the road leads to the monasteries of 
St. Antony and St. Paul, situated in 
the desert near the Bed Sea. (See 
Ete. 17.) 

(E.) The village of Dayr Byad, in 
an island opposite Benisooef, so called 
from a neighbouring convent, is in- 
habited by people originally of the 
tribe of Beni-Wasel Arabs. 

(E.) Some small mounds, called Tel 
en Nassara and Tel et Teen, inland on 
the S. of the island/ mark the site of 
ancient villages; and on the opposite 
bank are many mounds of larger 
towns, whose ancient names are un- 
known. 

(W.) Isment, between 2 and 3 m. 
S. of Benisooef, on the river-side, has 
mounds, but no vestiges of ruins, n >r, 
indeed, any relic of antiquity, except 
the margin of a well. It is called 
Isment el Bahr ("of the Bivcr"), to 
distinguish it from Isment (miscalled 
Sidment) eg Gebel (" of the Mountain "), 
which stands at the foot of the hills 
separating the Fyoom from the valley 
of the Nile. This name cannot fail to 
call to mind Ismendes, and may, per- 
haps, be the Shbent of the Coptic list 
of towns in this district. 

(IT.) Anasieh, or Urn el Ke'emin, 
"the Mother of the Mounds," the 
anci» nt city of Hercules, lies 9 m. 
inland from Isment. It marks the 
site of the ancient city of Hercules, 
Heracleopolis. The Coptic name of 
that town, Ehnes or Hnes, is readily 
traced in the modem Anasieh, as its 
position by the lofty mounds on which 
it stands. That this is the site of 
Heracleopolis there is no question, 
though the Arabic and Coptic names 
bear no resemblance to that of the 
deity, Sem or Gom, the Egyptian 
Hercules. It was here that the ich- 
neumon, the enemy of the crocod.le, 



was particularly worshipped ; and the 
respect paid to that animal by the 
Heracleopolites, the immediate neigh- 
bours of the Arsinoite or Crocodilo- 
polite nome, led, m late times, during 
the rule of the Eomans, to serious 
disputes, which terminated in blood- 
shed, and made the contending parties 
forget the respect due to the sacred 
monuments of their adversaries. And 
judging from what Pliny says respect- 
the injuries done to the famous Laby- 
rinth, there is more reason to attribute 
the destruction of that building to 
the superstitious prejudices of the 
Heracleopolites than to the ordinary 
lavages of time. 

(W.) At Tanseh, Brangeh, Bibbeh, 
Sits, and other places, are the mounds 
of old towns, with whose names we 
are unacquainted. Pococke supposes 
Brangeh (or, as he calls it, Beran- 
gieh) to be Cynopolis ; but the posi- 
tion of that town was farther to the S. 

Bibbeh (Ely. Stat.), a rising village 
which has succeeded to an ancient 
town, is noted for a Copt convent, 
and for an imaginary Moslem santon, 
thence called El Bibbawee. This 
holy individual is the offspring of a 
clever artifice of the Christians ; who, 
to secure their church from outrage 
during the disturbances that formerly 
took place in Egypt, gave out that a 
Moslem sheykh presided over and dwelt 
in its precincts; and the priests to 
this day, as they show the picture of 
St. George, tell them a heterodox story 
of his exploits, and his wars against 
the infidels. The name of infidel is 
indefinite ; it may satisfy the Moslem 
or the Christian, according to his 
peculiar application of the word -; and 
the "pious fraud" is at all events as 
true as the scene represented by the 
picture. So well indeed has it suc- 
ceeded, that visits are frequently paid 
by the passing Moslem to the sanc- 
tuary of this revered personage; he 
reads the Fat' ha before the likeness of 
a man (though so strictly foi bidden by 
his religion), and that too within the 
walls of a Christian church; and he 
gladly contributes a few paras for the 
lamps burnt before it, with the full 
Q 3 



346 



ROUTE 18. CAIRO TO THEBES. 



Sect. III. 



persuasion that his voyage will be 
prosperous, through the good offices of 
the saint. But while the priest who 
receives the boon tells the plausible 
tale of the power of the " sheykh," the 
indifferent spectator, who recognises 
the usual representation of St. G< orge 
and the Dragon, may smile at the 
credulity and the ignorance of the 
donor. The conversion of St. George 
into a Moslem saint may appear 
strange to an Englishman; but it is 
found to be far less difficult to deceive 
an Egyptian by this clumsy imposition, 
than to persuade a Copt Christian that 
his guard an saint, with the same 
white horse, green dragon, and other 
accessories, holds a similar tutelary 
post in England. The most credulous, 
as well as the most reasonable Copt, 
immediately rejects this statement as 
a glaring impossibility ; and the ques- 
tion, "What can our St. George have 
to do with England?" might perplex 
the must plausible, or the most pious, 
of the Crusaders. 

(E.) Nearly opposite Bibb eh is 
Shekh Aboo Noor, the site of an an- 
cient village ; and beyond Bibbeh the 
pos.tions of some old towns are marked 
by the mounds of Sits, Miniet eg Geer, 
and Feshun. 

(W.) Feshun (19 m. Ely. Stat.) The 
country near the river-bank is very 
well cultivated, and there are several 
nicely-kept gardens with pomegranate 
trees, palms, tobacco, and a variety of 
shrubs and vegetables. 

A little higher up the river, on the 
E. bank, behind the island that lies 
half-way between Feshun and el Fent, 
is el Haybee, or Medeenet eg Gahil, 
where some remains mark the site of a 
small town of considerable antiquity, 
whose name as found in the hiero- 
glyphics was Isembheb. They consist 
of crude-brick walls and remains of 
houses. On the N. side is a large mass 
of building of some height, founded on 
the rock. It is the strongest part of 
the defences . of this fortified place, 
and one end runs out upon the rocks 
to the N.W., following the irregular 
direction of the river. It is built of 
smaller brick, and between every 4th 



course are layers of reeds, serving as 
bindeis. Inland, a very short distance 
out of the town, is an isolated square 
enclosure surrounded by a crude-brick 
wall; and in the centre of the open 
space it encloses is a grotto or cavern 
cut in the rock, probably sepulchral, a 
tomb biing also found between this 
and the wall of the town. The tombs 
are probably of a later time than the 
buildings themselves. Near the water's 
edge are the remains of a stone quay ; 
and some fragments of unsculptured 
blocks are met with in different places. 
This place affords an interesting illus- 
tration of the old Egyptian mode of 
fortification; though from the irre- 
gularity of the ground it does not 
possess all the usual peculiarities of 
their system of defence. Another 
remarkable feature in the ruins at el 
Haybee is the style of the bricks in its 
outer walls, which have 2 hieroglyphic 
legends stamped upon them, sometimes 
one containing the ovals of a king, 
sometimes another, with the name of 
"the high-priest of Amun, Pisham, 
deceased." Pisham . was one of the 
military pontiffs, recorded at Thebes, 
who held the sceptre immediately 
before the Sheshonks of the 21st dy- 
nasty; and who were probably from 
Tanis. Indeed this town seems to be 
mentioned in the same legend. Herr 
Brugsch has discovered among the 
inscriptions the name of Thothmes III. 

( W.) At Mala teeah are other mounds, 
and at the S.W. corner of Gebel Sheykh 
Embarak is an old ruined town, long 
since deserted, which affords one of 
many proofs that the Egyptians availed 
themselves of similar situations, with 
the double view of saving as much 
arable land as possible, when a town 
could be placed on an unproductive 
though equally convenient spot, and 
of establishing a commanding post at 
the passes between the mountains and 
the Nile. 

(E.) Gebel Sheykh Embarak is a 
lofty table mountain, approaching very 
close to the river, and detached from 
the main chain of the Gebel el Bazam, 
which stretches far inland to the S.E. 

( W.) MagMgha, (14 m. Ely. Stat.). 



Egypt- 



ROUTE 18. MAGHAGA BEHNESA. 



347 



2 hrs. by train from Benisooe'f, and 1\ 
from Minieh. This is one of the most 
important sugar-factory stations of the 
Khedive, and an immense extent of 
ground in the neighbourhood is devoted 
to the cultivation of the sugar-cane. 
A branch line for the purpose of bring- 
ing the cane to the mills extends inland 
to Abn-el-Wakf and Beni Mazar, but 
it is only used during the cane-harvest 
season. The sandbanks above Mag- 
hagha are a favourite resort of various 
kinds of water-birds. A little above 
Maghagha is the Hagar es Salam, or 
" Stone of Welfare," a rock in the 
stream near the shore, so called from 
the idea of the boatmen, " that a 
journey down the Nile cannot be 
accounted prosperous until after they 
have passed it." The mountains here 
recede from the Nile to the eastward ; 
and at Sharona are the mounds of 
an ancient town, perhaps Pseneros or 
Shenero. Pococke supposes it to be 
Musa or Muson. The sites of otlier 
towns may also be seen on the opposite 
side of the river, as at Aba, 3 or 4 m. 
inland, and at Aboo-Girgeh some dis- 
tance to the S. A few miles above 
Sharona, on the E. bank, is Kom 
Ahmar, " the Red Mound," with the 
remains of brick and masonry, perhaps 
of Muson, and a few rude grottoes. 
To the E. of this are several dog- 
mummy pits, and the vestiges of an 
ancient village, in the vicinity of 
Hamatha. 

(TT.) Aboo Girgeli (15£ m.), a large 
village with extensive mounds, situated 
in a rich plain about 2 m. from the 
Nile. 

About 7 m. further inland is Bdhnesa, 
the ancient Oxyrhinchus, in Coptic 
Pemge. The peculiar worship of the 
Oxyrhinchus fish gave rise to the 
Greek name of this city ; and, from the 
form of its "pointed nose,"' this fish 
was perhaps the Mizzeh or Mizdeh of 
the present day, which may be traced 
in the Coptic emge. The modem name 
of the place is Bahnasa or Behnasa, 
in which some have endeavoured to 
trace that of the Benni, one of the 
many fish of the Nile, conveniently 
transformed into the oxyrhinchus for 



an etymological purpose, and, it is 
needless to say, without the least 
shadow of reason. 

The position of Behnesa is far from 
being advantageous ; the Libyan desert 
having made greater encroachments 
there than in any part of ihe valley. 
Downs of sand overgrown with bushes 
extend along the edge of its cultivated 
land; to the W. of which is a sandy 
plain of great extent, with a gentle 
ascent, towards the hills of the Libyan 
chain ; and behind these is a dreary 
desert. On the S. side are some mounds 
covered with sand, on which stand 
several sheykhs' tombs; and others, 
consisting of broken pottery and bricks, 
sufficiently mark the site of a large 
town, whose importance is proved by 
the many granite columns, fragments 
of cornices, mouldings, and altars that 
lie scattered about. Little, however, 
remains of its early monuments ; and 
if the size of its mounds proclaims its 
former extent, the appearance of its 
modern houses and the limited number 
of three mosks show its fallen con- 
dition. 

Like other towns, Behnesa boasts a 
patron saint. He is called et Tak- 
rcory, and is known in Arab songs and 
legendary tales. He is even believed 
to appear occasionally to the elect, 
outside his tomb, accompanied by a 
numerous retinue of horsemen, but 
without any ostensible object. 

There are said to be some caverns 
on the N.W. side of the town filled 
with water, and round one of them a 
row of columns. 

Behnesa in the time of the Mem- 
looks enjoyed considerable importance, 
being one of the principal towns of 
modern Egypt. The Bahr Yoosef 
once passed through the centre ; but 
the eastern portion of the city of 
Oxyrhinchus is no lunger part of 
B.-hnesa, and, being now call.d San- 
dofeh, may be considered a distinct 
village. At the period of the Arab 
conquest Be'hnesa was a place of great 
importance, and of such strength that, 
of the 16,000 men who besieged it, 
5000 are said to have perished in the 
assault. The account of this conquest 
and of the previous history of the city, 



348 



KOUTE 18. — CAIRO TO THEBES. 



Sect. III. 



given by the Arab historian Aboo 
Abdillahi ben Mohammed el Mukkari, j 
is more like fable than a real history. 

(W.) Above Aboo-Girgeh are el 
Kays, Aboo-Azees, and other places, 
whose mounds mark the positions of 
old towns. El Kays (or Gays), the 
Kais of the Copts, which is laid down 
in Coptic MSS. between Nikafar and 
Oxyrkinchus, is the ancient Cynopolis, 
the " City of the Dugs ;" and it is 
worthy of remark, that one of the 
principal repositories of dog-mummies 
is found on the opposite bank, in the 
vicinity of Sheykh Fodl. It was not 
unusual for a city to bnry its dead, 
as well as its sacred animals, on Ihe 
opposite side of the Nile; provided 
the mountains were near the river, or 
a more convenient spot offered itself 
for the construction of catacombs than 
in ifs own vicinity ; and such appears 
to have been the case in this instance. 
There is reason to believe that one 
branch of the Nile has been stopped 
in this spot, which once flowed to the 
W. of el Kays; and this would accord 
with the position of Cynopolis, in an 
island, according to Ptolemy, and ac- 
count for the statement of el Mukkari 
that el Kays was on the E. bank. Co, 
which Ptolemy places opposite Cyno- 
polis, should be some miles inland to 
the W. Beni-Mohammed-el-Kofodr has 
succeeded to the old Nikafar mentioned 
in the Coptic MSS. It was above Kais ; 
but another town, called Tamma, is 
placed by them between Cynopolis and 
Oxyrhinchus. 

(R) At Sheykh Fodl, on the E. 
bank, nearly opposite el Kays, are the 
sites of two small temples. In the low 
hills to the S.E., and about 2 m. from 
the river, are several tombs contain- 
ing dog-mummies ; from which it is 
evident that more than one breed was 
common in Egypt, as the sculptures 
also show. Most of the large tombs 
belonged to individuals : one of them 
with 8 square pillars is called el 
Keneeseh, " the Church." Some of 
the many mummy-caves are only small 
square holes, or coffins in the rock. 
On the way to them from the village 
you pass over an open space, purposely 
levelled for a considerable distance ; 



and here and there are oblong coffins 
cut in the surface of this rocky plain. 
Th-re are also some large tombs, to 
one of which you descend by 8 steps ; 
and as the Nile water percolates, and 
rises in it during the inundation to the 
height of at least H ft., it has obtained 
the name of Beer Mareea (or Ber Sitti 
Mariam), " Mary's Well." It consists 
of a large central chamber, 7 paces by 
4J, with 4 recesses on each side and 
2 at the end, each containing a coffin 
cut like the rest of it in the rock. It 
is much respected by the Christians, 
who still bury their dead in a mound 
in the vicinity. 

(E.) In the hills behind Sheykh 
Hassan, on the E. bank, are extensive 
limestone-quarries. Near them are 
some crude-brick remains, with broken 
pottery ; and in a chapel or niche in 
the rock is a Christian inscription. A 
singular isolated ro^k stands in the 
plain behind Nazlet es Sheykh Has- 
san; and similar solitary masses of rock, 
left by the stone-cutters, are met with 
to the S., with other quarries, and a 
few small tombs. About 2 \ m. to the 
S. of Nezlet es Sheykh Hassan are the 
vestiges of an ancient village; and in 
the plain within the mouth of the 
Wady es Serareeyah are an old station, 
or fort, built of crude brick, and another 
village. The river makes a consider- 
able bend to the W., just before reaching 

(W.) Goldsaneh (12f m.,Ely. Stat.), 
a large village, standing on mounds 
high above the Nile. The river has 
eaten into the bank here very c 
siderably, and stones have been pi 
to check its encroachments. 

(E.) At the edge of the low rocky 
hills, just beyond the village of el 
Serareeyah, are the remains of two 
ancient towns or villages ; and a little 
farther to the S. these hills recede to 
the S.E., and form the northern side 
of the Wady ed Dayr. On the N.W. of 
its mouth are some large limestone 
quarries, in which were two painted 
grotto temples dedicated to Athor, and 
bearing the name of Menephtah, the 
son of Barneses II. 

The custom of placing quarries and 
other localities under the ptculiar 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 18. GEBEL ET TAYR. 



349 



protection of some god was observed • 
by the Egyptians from the earliest to 
the latest periods ; the quarries of 
Toora-Masarah, and the hills of the 
pyramids, were under their tutelary 
deity; and the Latin inscription of 
Garacalla at Assooan speaks of " Jupi- 
ter- Ammon, Cenubis, and Juno, under 
whose guardianship the hill was 
placed," where new quarries had been 
opened. 

Bound the corner of the rock, out- 
side these grottos, king Rameses III., is 
represented with the crocodile-headed j 
god Savak and Athor, receiving the 
honourable distinction of " president 
of the assemblies ;" and at the side are 
two large ovals of the same Pharaoh. 
In the low rocks just below to the west- 
ward is a tomb, consisting of 3 small 
chambers, without sculptures. 

At the extreme end of the hills, on 
the S. side of Wady ed Dayr, are ves- 
tiges of a small town, and near it some 
tombs and quarried rocks. 

A ruined wall of crude brick as- 
cends the low northern extremity of 
the Gebel et Tayr ; and some distance 
further up to the E., near the spot 
where the mountain road descends 
into the Wady ed Dayr, about E.S.E. 
from the convent, is a bed of trap 
rock, rarely met with in the valley of 
the Nile. The wall appears again at 
the ravine called Wady el Agoos, 4 
or 5 m. further S. 

(W.) Semalooi lies a short distance 
inland, about 5 miles S. of Goldsaneh. 
It is rather a large village, remark- 
able at a distance for a tall and grace- 
ful minaret rising from amidst a thick 
grove of palm-trees. 

(E.) We now appioach the lofty 
and precipitous cliffs of Gebel et Tayr, 
which rise abruptly from "the river to 
a height of several hundred feet. On 
its fiat summit stands the convent 
of Sitteh (Sittina) Mariam el Adra, 
" Our Lady Mary the Virgin," hence 
called Dayr el Adra, and by some 
Dayr el Bukkar, '* of the Pulley." 
It is inhabited by Copts, who fre- 
quently descend the face of the rocks 
to the river, and, swimming off to a 
passing boat, beg for charity from 



the traveller, not without being some- 
times roughly handled by the Arab 
boatmen. The importunity of land 
beggars every one has experienced : 
but these water mendicants will be 
found not inferior to any of the fra- 
ternity ; and long before an European's 
boat comes abreast of the convent, the 
cry of "ana Christian ya Hawagha," 
u I am a Christian, Hawagha," from 
the water announces their approach. 

The easiest way of reaching the con- 
vent is to land at the bank close to the 
N. end of the cliffs, and walk up; it is 
only a short distance, and is worth 
doing, if time is not valuable, for the 
sake of the view from the platform out- 
side the convent, which is one of the 
most striking to be obtained on the 
Nile. The convent itself offers no 
great objects of interest. Like all the 
Coptic ''Da)rs" in Egypt, it is a 
walled village with a church, a few 
monks, and a few lay inhabitants, men, 
women, and children. The church, 
which is under ground, is curious. 
There is an interesting account given 
of a visit to this convent in ' Monas- 
teries of the Levant.' 

Gebel et Tayr, " the Mountain of 
the Bird," has a strange legendary taie 
attached to it. All the birds of the 
country are reported to assemble an- 
nually at this mountain ; and, after 
having selected one of their number 
to remain there till the following year, 
they fly away into Africa, and only 
return to release their comrade, and 
substitute another in his place. The 
story is probably another version of 
that mentioned by iElian, who speaks 
of two hawks being deputed by ti.e 
rest of the winged community to go to 
, certain desert islands near Libya, for 
no very definite purpose. 

(E.) Between 3 and 4 m. S. of the 
convent is the Gisr (or Hayt) el Agoos, 
" the Dyke (wall) of the Old Man," or 
rather '' Old Woman," already noticed. 
It is built across the ravine, which is 
called after it Wady el Agoos, and 
is evidently intended to prevent any 
approach from the desert into the val- 
ley of the Nile. It is reported to have 
I been built by an ancient Egyptian 



350 



ROUTE 18. CAIEO TO THEBES. 



Sect. nr. 



queen, whose name was Delooka, and 
to have extended from the sea to As- 
sooan, at the edge of the cultivated 
land on either bank, and many vestiges 
of it may be seen in various places. 
That this wall was raised to check the 
incursions of those robbers par excel- 
lence, the Arabs (for the deserts were 
formerly, as now, inhabited by similar 
wandering tribes), is highly probable; 
and the object of it was evidently to 
prevent an ingress from that quarter, 
since it extends along the opening of 
the ravines, and is not carried over those 
cliffs whose faces being precipitous 
and impassable obviated the necessity 
of its continuation. Diodorus says 
that Sesostris " erected a wall along 
the eastern side of Egypt, to guard 
against the incursions of the Syrians 
and Arabs, which extended from Pe- 
lusium, by the desert, to Heliopolis, 
being in length 1500 stadia " (about 
173J English m.) ; and it is not im- 
probable that the Gisr el Agoos may 
be a continuation of the one he men- 
tions. But the observation of Vol- 
taire, "a'il construisit ce mur pour 
n'etre point vole, c'est une grande 
presomption qu'il n'alla pas lui-meme 
voler les autres nations," is by no 
means just, unless the fortified sta- 
tions built by the Eomans in the de- 
sert for the same purpose are proofs 
of the weakness of that people. The 
Arabs might plunder the peasant 
without its being in the power of any 
one to foreses or prevent their ap- 
proach ; and every one acquainted 
with the habits of those wanderers is 
aware of the inutility of pursuing 
them in an arid desert with an armed 
force. Besides, a precaution of this 
kind obliged them to resort to the 
towns to purchase corn ; and thus the 
construction of a wall had the double 
advantage of preventing the plunder 
of the peasant, and of rendering the 
Arabs dependent upon Egypt for the 
supplies necessity forced them to pur- 
chase ; nor did the Government incur 
the expense of paying their chiefs, as 
at the present day, to deter them from 
hostility. 

(E.) At the Gisr el Agoos are the 
remains of an ancient village, and a 



| few grottoes ; and above the town of 
Gebel et Tayr are other grottoes. 

(E.) Two m. beyond this is the site 
of an ancient town, now called Te'hneh. 
or Te'hneh oo Mehneh. Its lofty and 
extensive mounds lie at the mouth of 
Wady Te'hneh, § m. from the river, 
under an isolated rocky eminence of 
the eastern chain of hills, whose pre- 
cipitous limestone cliffs overhang the 
arable land that separates them from 
the Nile. 

Above a rough grotto in the lower 
part of the rock, about J m. to the 
S. of the ancient town, is a Greek 
inscription of the time of Ptolemy 
Epiphanes ; which, from the word 
Acoris in the third line, appears to 
indicate the 1 position of the city of 
that name. This, however, is not 
certain. Acoris, the individual who 
put up the dedication, may have had 
the same name without its proving 
anything respecting the site of the 
city ; and the position of Tehneh does 
not sufficiently agree with that of 
Acoris. 

The inscription is 

YnEPBA2IAE122nTOAEMAIOY 
©EOYEni$ANOY2MErAAOYhYX APIS- 
TOY 

AKOPI2EPrEn2I2IAIMOXIAAI20TEI- 
PAI 

*' For the welfare of King Ptolemy, the God 
Epiphanes, the Great Eucharistes, Ae6ris the 
Son of Ergeus, to lsis Mochias, Soteira (the 
Saviour Goddess)." 

On one side, below the inscription, 
is the figure of a goddess ; on the 
other that of a god, probably Osiris ; 
and it was perhaps intended that the 
king should be introduced in the 
centre, offering to the two seated 
deities. 

Above this is a flight of steps cut in 
the rock, leading to a grotto, which 
has a niche, but no sculptures. Fol- 
lowing the path to the S., along the 
western face of the cliffs, you come to 
a tablet of Eameses III. receiving the 
falchion from the hand of the croco- 
dile-headed god Savak, or Savak-Be, 
in the presence of Amun ; and beyond 
this is a large oval, the noinen of the 
same Pharaoh. 



Egypt 



ROUTE 18. TEHNEH. 



351 



Eeturning thence to the S. side of 
the isolated rock that stands above 
the town, you perceive at the upper 
part of it two figures in high relief, 
each holding a horse. They represent 
two Eoman emperors (rather than 
Castor and Pollux, as some have ima- 
gined), and between them appears to 
have been another figure, perhaps of a 
god. 

The base of this hill is perforated 
with tombs, some of which have Greek 
inscriptions, with the names of their 
owners. At the door of one is a 
Eoman figure standing before an altar, 
who holds in one hand some twigs, 
and apparently presents incense w T ith 
the other. Within is the same person 
and his son before four gods, but 
without hieroglyphics ; and the archi- 
tecture of the grotto is more Eoman 
than Egyptian. It was closed as usual 
with folding-doors, secured by a bolt. 
There is also a figure of the god 
Nilus bringing offerings and a bull 
for sacrifice. 

In one of these tombs is an encho- 
rial inscription much defaced ; and 
some have mouldings and ornamental 
devices of Eoman time. 

Near the above-mentioned grotto, 
and below the isolated rock overhang- 
ing the town, is a niche of Eoman 
time, with the remains of a mutilated 
figure in relief within it ; and on 
either side of it is this Greek inscrip- 
tion, — 

TPAMMMATA AXPHMATI2T02 E22H, 

— which shows that people made mis- 
takes in orthography in those times 
as at the present day. About 760 ft. 
to the S. of this isolated rock are 
other grottoes ; then a small quarry 
at the point of the hill ; turning round 
which to the rt., you enter a ravine, 
and on reaching the mountain summit 
to the S.W. you come to some curious 
trenches and workings in stone. Dur- 
ing the ascent you pass some crevices 
in the rock, incrusted with a thin de- 
posit of crystallised carbonate of lime, 
here and there assuming a stalactitic 
form; numerous fossils may also be 
observed. 

The trenches at the top of the hill 



are curious, from their showing a pe- 
culiar mode of opening a quarry, and 
of hewing square blocks of stone ; an- 
other instance of which is met with 
near the N.W. angle of the second 
pyramid of Geezeh. They began by 
levelling the surface of the rock to 
the extent admitted by the nature 
of the ground, or the intended size of 
the quarry, and this space they sur- 
rounded by a deep trench, forming a 
parallelogram ; with one of its sides 
open, to facilitate the removal of the 
stones. They then cut other parallel 
trenches along its entire length, about 
7 or 8 ft. apart, and others at right 
angles to them, until the whole was 
divided into squares. The blocks 
were then cut off according to their 
required thickness. One of the quar- 
ries of Tehneh has been divided in 
this manner, and the outer trenches 
of two others have been traced, even 
to the depth of 21 ft. in parts, though 
their direction is less regular than in 
the former. In this the trenches are 
about 1J and 2 ft. broad, and the 
squares measure from 65 to 7 ft. 1 in. 
each way ; the whole length of the 
quarry being 126 ft. by 32 ft. in 
breadth ; and so conveniently is it 
placed, that the stones, when sepa- 
rated from the rock, were rolled down 
to the valley beneath, without the 
trouble of carriage. The division into 
squares enabled them to take off a 
succession of blocks of the same di- 
mensions ; and layer after layer was 
removed, according to the depth of 
the quarry, which continued to be 
worked downwards as long as the 
rock remained good. Where circular 
blocks w T ere required for the drums, 
bases, or capitals, of columns, they 
had only to round off the corners ; 
and this was evidently done in some 
instances at the quarry of Tehneh. 

On the summit of the hills, about 
500 ft. to the S. of these trenches, the 
stone has been quarried to a great 
extent ; and about 100 ft. from the 
edge of the cliffs overhanging the 
cultivated land are some chambers 
sunk in the rock, two of which are 
coate l with red stucco. One of these 
is round, and measures 17 ft. in dia- 



352 



ROUTE 18. CAIRO TO THEBES. 



Sect. III. 



meter. It has a doorway leading into 
it, from a staircase communicating 
with some small roi >ms ; and on one 
side is a ledge or hollow, as if in- 
tended for a water-wheel. The other 
is square : it has a flight of 7 steps 
leading down into it from the top, 
and appears to have been a reservoir 
to hold water for the use of the work- 
men. It was doubtless filled by- 
buckets lowered from the brow of 
the cliff to the water below, which 
accounts for it being made in this 
spot, close to the precipitous face of the 
hills, which rise abruptly to the height 
of 400 or 500 feet above the plain. 
Indeed it is evident that the Nile 
formerly ran immediately below them, 
and even now, during the inundation, 
it rises to the height of 5 ft. 4 in. at 
their base, covering the narrow strip 
of alluvial soil it has deposited be- 
tween them and its retiring channel. 

On the S. of the reservoir is an- 
other square chamber, like all the 
others, cut in the rock. In the centre 
of it is a four-sided isolated mass, 
having an arched door or opening on 
each face, which probably once sup- 
ported the centre of the roof; for they 
were doubtless all covered over ; and 
on the S. side of this chamber are 
two niches, and another on the E. 
Adjoining its S.W. corner is a square 
pit. 

The story of the 300 ravens that 
assemble over this spot every year, in 
the month of Eebeeah-el-owel, and, 
after soaring above it with repeated 
cries, fly away to the desert, is evi- 
dently another version of the tale of 
Gebel et Tayr, already mentioned. 

(W.) Inland, on the opposite bank, 
is Taha, or Taha el Amoodayn, in 
Coptic Touho, once said to have been 
a large place, equal in size to Minieh. 
Its mounds still mark it as the suc- 
cessor of an ancient town, as well as 
the epithet u el amoodayn" "of the 
two columns. '"It is supposed to oc- 
cupy the site of Theodosiou, and ap- 
pears from some Coptic and Arabic 
MSS. to have been distinguished from 
a village of the same name beyond 
Oshmoonayn, by the additional title 
of Mede&neh, signifying " city." 



There is nothing worth noticing 
between Tehneh and Minieh ; but in 
the desert behind Dowadeeyah on the 
E. bank is an alabaster-quarry. 

(W.) Minieh (22J m ., Ri y , Stat..), 
a large and important town, capital of 
the province of the same name, and 
residence of the Mude'er, prettily situ- 
ated on the 1. bank of the river. It is 
about 160 m. from Cairo by water, 
and 150 by rail. There is a post and 
telegraph office in the town. A market 
is held every Sunday. The first sugar- 
factory established in Egypt was built 
at Minieh, and it still exists, greatly 
enlarged and improved. During the 
cane-harvest, and when the mills are 
in full activity, the town presents a 
busy and animated appearance. On 
the river-bank to the N. of the factory 
is a palace of the Khedive. 

Minieh is generally styled Miniet 
ebn Khaseeb, which is the name given 
it by Ebn Said. It was also called 
Monieh, and, according to some, Miniet 
ebn Fusseel ; and they pretend that 
tradition mentions a Greek king of 
the place, with the (Arabic) name of 
Kasim. In Coptic it is called Moone', 
or TmOne, and in the Memphitic dialect 
Thmone, signifying " the Abode." It 
is from the Mone, " Mansion," as 
Champollion observes, that the Arabic 
Minieh or Miniet (by abbreviation 
Mit), so frequently applied to Egyptian 

: villages, has been derived. 

I Leo Africanus says, "Minieh, on 
the W. bank of the Nile, is a very neat 
town, built in the time of the Mos- 
lems, by Khaseeb, who was appointed 
governor under the caliphate of Bag- 
dad. It abounds in every kind of 
fruit, which, though sent to Cairo, 
cannot, on account of the distance, 
arrive fresh in that city, being 170 m. 
off. It boasts many handsome build- 
ings, and the remains of ancient Egyp- 
tian monuments. The inhabitants are 
wealthy, and commercial speculation 
induces them to travel even as far as 
the kingdom of Soodan." 

Over the doorway of a mosque, near 
the river, are a few fragments of Ko- 
man-Greek architecture. Within are 
several granite and marble columns, 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 18. — MINIEH ZOWYET EL MY1TEEN. 



353 



some with Corinthian capitals ; and 
the devout believe that water flows 
spontaneously every Friday from one of 
their shafts, for the benefit of the faith- 
ful. A sheykh's tomb, overshadowed 
by a sycamore-tree, on the N. side of 
the town, near the spot where boats 
generally moor, has a picturesque effect, 
and the numerous figures on the bank, 
am I boats on the river, make up a pretty 
and very typical picture at' Nile river- 
bank scenery. Numerous wild-fowl 
aud other aquatic birds frequent the 
sandbanks near Minich. 

(E.~) At the projecting corner of the 
mountain behind EI Bowarte, on the 
E. bank, are the remains of an old 
town, which stands on either side of a 
ravine. Above it are tombs, which, 
like the houses, are built, of crude 
brick. Judging from their appearance, j 
and the Coptic characters now and 
then met with on the stones, they are 
of Christian time. But the town, | 
though inhabited at a later period by i 
Christians., succeeded, like most of 
those in Egypt, to one of earlier date ; 
and the discovery i f a stone, bearing 
part of the name and figure of an 
ancient king, would have removed all 
doubts on this head, if any had really 
existed. Mr. Harris also found the 
name of Amunoph III. on a stone in 
these ruins. 

The Egyptians invariably built a 
small town, or fort, on the ascent of 
the mountains on the E. bank, wher- 
ever the accessible slope of the hdls j 
approa.htd the cultivated plain, and 1 
left a narrow passage between it and 
the Nile ; as may be seen at Sheyfch 
Embarak. Gebel et Tayr, Te'hneh, 
Kom-Ahmar, Isbayda, and several 
other places ; having the twofold ob- 
ject of guarding these passes from the 
Arabs of the desert, and of subatitu- I 
ting the barren rock, as a foundation | 
to their houses, for the more useful ! 
soil of the arable land. 

(E.) Near Sooadee are several ex- 
tensive sugar-plantations. The village 
has probably succeeded to the site of 
an ancient town. It has mounds, and ! 
a few stones of old buildings ; and | 



above, at the corner of the mountain, 
are some grottoes, or tombs, in the 
rock. 

(/?.) Between Sooadee and Zowyet 
el Myitee'n. is the small village of 
Neslet ez Zowyeh, and to the S. of it 
are vestiges of an ancient village, with 
a small fortress of rectangular shape on 
the N. side of the ancient village. To 
the N. and N.E. of Neslet ez Zowyeh 
are extensive quarries, extending also 
between two hills, on on each side of 
the ravine that sep. nates them. In 
one are remains of mouldings painted 
over a niche of Christian time, the 
pilasters having rude capitals. The 
rock is nummulite. 

(E.) Ti e modern cemetery of Mi- 
nieh is at Zowyet el Myitee'n, on the 
eastern bank, between Sooadee and 
Kom-Ahmar. Thrice every year they 
pay a visit of ceremony to the tombs, 
in the months of bhowal ('Eed es Sog- 
heiyer), of Zulhag ('Eed el Kebee'r), and 
Begeb. The visit lasts 7 days; the 
15th of the month, or the full moon, 
being the principal day. The mode 
of ferrying over the bodies of the dead, 
accompanied by the ululations of wo- 
men, and the choice of a cemetery on 
the opposite side of the river, cannot 
fail to call to mind the customs of the 
ancient Egyptians ; and it is remark- 
able that they have not selected a spot 
immediately in front of the town, but 
have preferred one near the tombs of 
their pagan predecessors. It was the 
old Egyptian custom of ferrying over 
the dead that gave rise to the fable of 
Charon and the Styx, which Diodoius 
very consistently traces from the fune- 
ral ceremonks of Egypt. 

(E.) About 2 m. beyond Sooadee 
are some old limestone-quarries; and 
at Kom-Ahmar are tue mounds of an 
ancient town. Its name signifies the 
" Bed Mound," which it has received 
from the quantity of pottery that lies 
scattered over it, and the burnt walls 
of its crude-brick houses. It is uncer- 
tain of what place it occupies the site. 
Some have supposed it to be Muson; 
but it is possible that Alabastron may 
have stood here. 

(E.) A short distance beyond Kom 



354 



EOUTE 18. CAIRO TO THEBES. 



Sect. III. 



All mar is Metdhara ; and in the hills 
near it are some curious sepulchral 
grottoes with names of old kings, and 
a singular instance of columns sur- 
mounted by capitals in the form of the 
full-blown lotus. Anil here it may be 
well to observe that the usual bell- 
formed capitals, frequently said to 
represent the lotus, are taken from the 
papyrus. 

(E.) The caves to the E. of Nesleh 
Metal iara are very old; and from the 
form of their round lintels anpear to be 
of the IVth or Vlth dynasty. They 
have be en occupied by the early Chris- 
tians, who have painted the Egyptian 
Tau, or sign of life, in lieu of the cross, 
accompanied by the words EIc ©EOc, 
Others have vestiges of Coptic inscrip- 
tions. 

(IT'.) At Sharara, on the W. Bank, 
are the mounds of an ancient town. 
About 1 m. beyond Welad Noayr. on 
the E. bank, are some grottoes, with- 
out sculpture ; and 2 m. further, the 
celebrated grottoes of Beni Hassan. 

(E.) Beni Hassan (14J m.).— The 
grottoes or, as they are indiscriminately 
called, tombs, catacombs, or caves) of 
Beni Hassan are excavated in the rock, 
at the side of the hills that overhang 
the valley of the Nile. The bank below, 
a detritus of sand and gravel, has been 
cut through by the river, which for- 
merly encroached on this side, but 
which has again retired to the west- 
ward, to the great inconvenience of 
travellers, who. when the water is low, 
are obliged to walk nearly two miles 
from the nearest point their dahabetah 
can approach. 

The Speos Artemidos, call, d by the 
Arabs Stabl Antar, is about 3 m. to 
the S. of the grottoes, near the village 
of Beni Hassan, and the best way in 
coming down ihe river is to stop at the 
village, visit the Speos first, a' id then 
walk to the grottoes, the boat being- 
sent on to the nearest point to the 
last-named. This will be an excursion 
of 8 or 7 hours. The Speos may, how- 
ever, without any great loss be omitted 
from the programme, and a long and 
wearisome walk saved. It niav be well 



to repeat here the advice already given 
to those travellers who are intending 
to do the voyage up and down the Nile 
within a certain time, that they should 
not stop on the way up to see anything, 
unless an unfavourable wind prevents 
the boat making any progress, and 
then of course the delay, if it occurs 
near anything worth seeing, may be 
utilised, and so much time will be 
saved on the way down. As a rule, 
the north wind blows merrily in the 
neighbourhood of Beni Hassan, and 
the traveller, sitting on the deck of his 
boat as it breasts the stream on its 
way south, will content himself with a 
view through his glass of the terrace 
of tombs in the wall-like limestone 
range. 

The ancient approach to the grot- 
toes of Beni Hassan was evidently 
from t lie westward ; roads of consider- 
able breadth lead to them, up the slope 
of the hill fiom the bank, which are 
readily distinguished by the stones 
ranging on either side, as in the roads 
made by the ancients across the desert, 
and before some of the tombs of 
Thebes. These stones consist in a 
great measure of the large rounded 
boulders which abound here ; and 
which are not met with, in such num- 
bers at least, in any other part of the 
valley. They are calcareous, and full 
of shells, containing much silex, very 
htavy and hard, and externally of a 
dark-brown colour. 

The grottoes are cut in one of the 
strata, which was found to be best 
suited for such excavations ; and. from 
the subjects and hieroglyphics on the 
walls, they were evidently intended 
for sepulchral purposes. The variety 
of the scenes represented in them is 
particularly interesting; and if the 
style and proportions of the figures are 
not equal to those in the catacombs 
of Thebes, they are not less curious 
from the light they throw on the 
manners and customs of the Egyptians. 
They have also the merit of being of 
an earlier date than those of Thebes ; 
and in the elegant chaste style of 
j their architecture these tombs may vie 
j with any in the valley of the Nile. • 
I The northern differ considerably 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 18. — : 



BENI HASSAN. 



355 



from the southern grottoes, though so 
close together and of nearly the same 
date, and may, perhaps, be thought to 
excell them in the beauty of their 
plan, as in the simplicity of their co- 
lumns, which seem to be the proto- 
type of the Doric shaft. They are 
polygons, of sixteen sides, each slightly 
fluted, except the inner face, which 
was left flat for the purpose of intro- 
ducing a line of hieroglyphics. Each 
flute is 8 in. broad. It has no fillet ; 
and the deepest part of the groove is 
barely half an inch. The shaft is 16 ft. 

in. in height, and of 5 ft. diameter, 
with a very trifling decrease of thick- 
ness at the upper end, which is crowned 
by an abacus scarcely exceeding in 
diameter the summit of the column. 
The ceiling between each architrave, 
cut in imitation of a vault, has the 
form of a segment of a circle ; and lias 
once been ornamented with various 
devices ; the four pillars being so ar- 
ranged as to divide the chamber into 
a central nave and two lateral aisles. 

In these, as in all the excavated 
temples and grottoes of Egypt, we 
have decided proofs of their having 
been imitations of buildings ; which 
is contrary to the opinion of some 
persons, who conclude that the earliest 
were excavations in the rock, and that 
constructed monuments were of later 
date in Egypt. But independent of 
our finding stone buildings existing 
in the country, as about the pyramids, 
of the same early date as the oldest 
excavated monuments, we have a proof 
of these last having imitated in their 
style the details of constructive archi- 
tecture. Thus, an architrave runs 
from column to column ; the abacus 
(originally a separate member) is 
placed between the shaft and the 
architrave, neither of which would be 
necessary, or have been thought of, in 
mere excavations ; and so obviously 
unnecessary were they, that in later 
times the Egyptians frequently omit- 
ted both the abacus and the archi- 
trave in their excavated monuments, 
as in the tombs of the kings, and 
several grottoes, at Thebes. But this 
was an after-thought, and the oldest 
excavated monuments have the imi- 



tated features of constructive archi- 
tecture. And following out the same 
train of reasoning, is it not allowable 
to suppose that the vaulted form of 
the ceilings of these grottoes of Beni 
Hassan were an imitation of the arch? 
It was used, if not in temples, at least 
in the houses and tombs of the Egyp- 
tians; for, whatever may be the date 
of stone arches, crude- brick ones have 
been found of a very early period. 

The columns in the southern grottoes 
of Beni Hassan are also of the earliest 
Egyptian style, though very different 
from those already mentioned. They 
represent the stalks of four water- 
plants bound together, and surmounted 
by a capital in form of a lotus or a 
papyrus-bud, which is divided, as the 
shaft itself, into four projecting lobes. 
The transverse section of these grottoes 
is very elegant, and the architrave 
resembles a depressed pediment ex- 
tending over the columns, and resting 
at either end on a narrow pilaster. 

All the caves of Beni Hassan are 
ornamented with coloured figures, or 
other ornamental devices: and the 
columns, with the lower part of the 
walls in the northern grottoes, are 
stained of a red colour to resemble 
granite, in order to give them an ap- 
pearance of greater solidity and splen- 
dour of material. Tin se imitations of 
hard stone and rare wood were very 
commonly practised by the Egyptians, 
though it is a singular fact that gra- 
nite, and other stone used in their 
monuments, are very often coloured, 
and could not then be distinguished. 
But when the real surface of the gra- 
nite was seen, and it was not painted, 
the hieroglyphics were of one uniform 
green, or bine, colour. The walls in 
the grottoes at Beni Hassan have been 
prepared as usual for receiving the 
subjects represented upon them by 
overlaying them with a thin coating 
of lime, the parts where the rock was 
defective having been filled up with 
mortar. The principal part of the 
figures and the hieroglyphics were 
merely painted ; and some of the 
latter, in a long series of perpendicular 
lines round the lower pait of the walls 



356 



ROUTE 18. CAIRO TO THEBES. 



Sect. III". 



of the second tomb, are merely of one 
uniform green colour, as on granite. 

The date of these grotto-tombs is the 
beginning of the Xllth dynasty, the 
names of Osirtasen I. and II. being 
found in them ; and the personages 
buried in them were state function- 
aries, belonging to the town whose 
necropolis was situated in the^e moun- 
tains. The principle of their con- 
struction and decoration is th<- same as 
those at the Pyramids and Sakkarah, 
— 1. an exterior chamber, which, 
built inside a mastabah there, is here 
hollowed out of the rock ; 2. a well, 
opening from the centre or corner of 
the chamber ; and 3. the subterranean 
tomb at the bottom of the well, con- 
taining the sarcophagus and mummy. 
The paintings represent scenes in the 
life of the deceased; they are in fact 
a sort of pictorial biography, and the 
mystic signs and divinities common to 
a later epoch are absent here as at the 
Pyramids and Sakkarah. (See further 
on this subject, Sect. II., Descbipt. of 
Caiko, Excur. vii., h.) 

The most interesting tombs are the 
two northernmost with the polygonal 
fluted columns. The first to the north 
is that of Ame'ui-Ameuemha, who, ac- 
cording to the inscription on the two 
sides of the entrance door, was an in- 
fantry commander in the reign of 
Osirtasen L, with whose son he made 
a campaign against the Apoo, and 
another against Ethiopia : he was after- 
wards made governor of Sah, and by 
his skilful administration of the pro- 
vince merited and obtained the appro- 
bation and favour of his sovereign. 

It would be impossible to give a 
detailed description of the scenes de- 
picted in this and the other tombs ; 'and 
indeed the visitor would h ive some 
trouble, without lights and a ladder, in 
making out <my of those above the line 
of sight. It will be suffici nt to in- 
dicate some of the principal incidents. 

In the tomb of Ame'ni-Amt nemha 
are represented various trades : water- 
ing the flax, and its employment for 
the manufacture of linen cloth; agri- 



cultural and hunting scenes ; wrest- 
ling : attacking a fort under cover of 
thetestudo: dancing; and the presen- 
tation of offerings to the deceased, 
whose life and occupations are also 
alluded to. In one place scribes register 
their accounts ; in another the basti- 
nado is inflicted unsparingly on de- 
linquent servants ; nor is it confined 
to men and boys, but extended to the 
other sex, the difference being in the 
mode of administering the stripes. 
The former were thrown prostrate 
on the ground, and held while pun- 
ished; the latter sat, and were beaten 
on the shoulders. Here cliasseurs 
transfix, with stone-tipped arrows, the 
wild animals of the desert, and the 
mountains are represented by the 
waved line that forms the base of the 
picture. Seme are engaged in drag- 
ging a net full of fish to the shore, 
others in catching geese and wild-fowl 
in large clapnets ; in another part 
women play the harp ; and some are 
employed in kneading paste and in 
making bread. 

The next tomb is that of Noom-hotep, 
governor, like Ameni-Amenemha, of 
the province of Sah in the reign of 
Amenemha II. of the Xllth dynasty. 
In the inscription which runs round 
the bottom of the tomb Noom-hotep 
recounts the history of his life, and 
tells us that his father, mother, and 
ancestors lived in the town of Menat- 
Khoofoo (perhaps Minieh). The style 
of the paintings in the tomb is very 
superior and more highly-finished than 
in the other, but they have suffered 
sadly from the hand of time and the 
idiotic barbarity of travellers, who 
seem to think that the more valuable 
the monument the better adapted it 
is for writing their names on. It is 
worthy of notice that the feeding of 
the oryx on the north corner, and par- 
ticularly the figure, in perspective, 
holding one of the animals by the 
horns, are divested of the formality of 
an Egyptian drawing ; and the fish on 
the wall opposite the entrance are 
admirably executed. It is remarkable 
that the phagrus, or eel, is there intro- 
duced, and apparently the two other 



ROUTE 18. BEN I HASSAN. 



357 



sacred fish, the oxyrhinchus and lepi- 
dotus. 

On the upper part of the N. wall is 
a very curious scene, unfortunately 
fast disappearing. Noorn-hotep is 
depicted standing with his favourite 
dogs beside him, and towards him 
is advancing a procession which was 
at one time supposed to represent 
the arrival of Joseph's brtthren in 
Egypt ; but the date at which the 
tombs were excavated, several cen- 
turies before the age of Joseph, and 
the name and number written over the 
people, show the incorrectness of this 
idea. 

The first figure is an Egyptian 
scribe, who presents an account of the 
arrival of the strangers to his master 
Noom-hotep. The next, also an Egyp- 
tian, ushers them into his presence ; 
and two advance, bringing presents, 
consi&t'ng of an ibex or wild-goat, and 
a gazelle, — the productions of their 
country, or caught on the way. Eour 
men, carrying bows and clubs, follow, 
leading an ass, on which two children 
are placed in panniers, accompanied 
by a boy and four women ; and last of 
all, another ass laden, and two men, 
one holding a bow and club, the other 
a lyre, which he plays with the plec- 
trum. All the men have aquiline 
noses, and pointed black beards. The 
wearing a beard was contrary to the 
custom of the Egyptians, but very 
general in the East at that period, 
and noticed as a peculiarity of foreign 
uncivilised nations throughout their 
sculptures. The men have sandals, 
the women a sort of boot reaching to 
t;.e ankle, both which were worn by 
n.any Asiatic people, as well as by the 
Greeks and the people of Etruria. 

The number of these strangers is 
37, and their name Amoo. The inter- 
est of this picture lies in the fact that 
it represents the most ancient known j 
immigration of Asiatic tribes into j 
Egypt. According to M. Mariette, j 
Amoo signifies " shepherd," or " cow- j 
herd," and was the generic name of ' 
the Syro-Aramaic races, who subse- ! 
quently peopled the eastern part of 
the Delta, and perhaps were, with the ! 



Israelites, the Shepherds, cr Hyksoe 
of Manetho. 

Two of the southern grottoes are 
particularly worthy of mention. The 
first of tht m contains the usual hunt- 
ing scene ; but here the name of each 
animal is written above it in hiero- 
glyphics ; and below are the birds of 
the country, distinguished in like 
manner by their Egyptian name. In 
one part women are performing feats 
of agility : and various modes of play- 
ing at ball, throwing up and catching 
3 in succession, and other diversifica- 
tions of the game, are represented 
amongst their favourite amusements. 
In another part is a subject repre- 
senting a barber shaving a customer ; 
Their numerous occupations are here 
pointed out by the introduction of 
the most common trades; among 
which the most remarkable are 
glassblowers, goldsmiths, statuaries, 
painters, workers in flax, and pofters; 
and the circumstance of the cattle 
being tended by decrepit herdsmen 
serves to show in what low estimation 
this class of people was held by the 
Egyptians. On the eastern wall are 
wrestlers in various attitudes ; and to 
distinguish more readily the action of 
each combatant, the artist has availed 
himself of a dark and a light colour; 
one being painted red, the other 
black: and indeed, in the figures 
throughout these tombs, the direction 
of the arms when crossing the body 
is in like manner denoted by a differ- 
ent colour, or by a lighter outline. 
On the southern wall some peasants 
are sentenced to the bastinado, and a 
woman is subjected to the same mode 
of correction. In the&e the figures 
are smaller than in the northern 
grottoes, and their style and propor- 
tions are very inferior. 

The next tomb but one is a oopy 
of that just mentioned ; but the figures 
are very badly executed. In addition 
to the other subjects common to them 
both, we find men playing chess (or 
rather draughts), some curious bird- 
traps, and on the S. wall a square of 
magazines with circular roofs, which 
appear to point out the existence of 



358 



ROUTE 18. CAIEO TO THEBES. 



Sect. III. 



the crude-brick vault in the time of 
these early Pharaohs. It is in these 
tombs that we find the greatest va- 
riety of games, trades, and illustra- 
tions of the manners and customs of 
the Egyptians, which have been so 
useful in the insight they have afforded 
into the habits of that ancient people, 
and which have been copied and 
described in Sir G. Wilkinson's book, 
' The Ancient Egyptians.' In look- 
ing at these pictures, we are struck 
with the singular custom of writing 
over each subject or object the name of 
whatever the artist intended to repre- 
sent, even the animals and most 
ordinary figures : which may have 
been the remnant of an old custom 
when they began drawing, these highly 
conservative people continuing to the 
latest times to adopt the early usages 
of their ancestors. And this calls to 
mind a remark of iElian, that, " when 
painting was in its infancy, they drew 
so rudely, that artists wrote over the 
pictures, ' this is an ox,' ' that a horse,' 
' this a tree.' " 

The tombs beyond to the S. present 
defaced paintings not worthy of notice. 
Among other singular customs with 
which the grottoes of Beni Hassan 
have made us acquainted, is that of 
admitting dwarfs and deformed per- 
sons into the suite of the grandees ; 
and these, as well as buffoons, were 
introduced at a later time into differ- 
ent countries of Europe, in imitation 
of an usage common from the earliest 
ages in the East. Dwarfs were em- 
ployed at Kome even before the time 
of the empire. Marc Antony had 
them ; and subsequently Tiberius and 
Domitian. The latter kept a band of 
dwarf gladiators. Alexander Severus 
banished this custom. It was revived 
in the middle ages. 

On the wall of one of the tombs is 
a Greek alphabet, with the letters 
transposed in various ways, evidently 
by a person teaching Greek, who ap- 
pears to have found these cool recesses 
a comfortable resort for himself and 
his pupils. 

In observing the number of animals, 
and the various customs, represented 



, in the tombs of Beni Hassan, and in 
j those about the pyramids, every one 
j must be surprised at the omission of 
■ the horse : and it has been supposed 
j that the use of the horse and the cha- 
riot was introduced into Egypt by the 
Shepherds, or by Thothmes III. on 
his return from Asia. The first notice 
of it is on the monuments of the 
XVIIIth dynasty. 

The villages of Beni Hassan were 
destroyed many years ago by Ibra- 
him Pasha, the inhabitants being in- 
corrigible thieves; and even now it is 
as well to keep a good watch at night, 
while anchored near this spot. In- 
deed the inhabitants of all the vil- 
lages from Beni Hassan to the vicinity 
of Manfaloot are addicted to thieving, 
and additional precautions are neces- 
sary throughout the whole of that 
district. The present village of Beni 
Hassan stands 2 m. to the S. of the 
grottoes, and nearly 1 m. to the S.E. 
of it is the Speos Artemidos, to which 
the common name of Stabl Antar has 
been applied by the modern Egyp- 
tians. It is situated in a small rocky 
valley, or ravine, about J m. from its 
mouth. 

To the rt., on entering the ravine, 
are several pits and tombs cut in the 
rock. Some of these last have had 
well-shaped doorways with the usual 
Egyptian cornice, and round one are 
still some traces of coloured hiero- 
glyphics. Three are larger than the 
rest. In the first of these (going 
from the valley of the Nile) the 
paintings have been blackened with 
smoke, and few of them can be dis- 
tinctly traced. Near its S.E. corner 
are some water - plants, and here 
and there some Greek inscriptions 
scratched on the stucco. Beyond this, 
to the E., is another with a cornice 
over the door, bearing the names of 
Alexander, the son of Alexander the 
Great, Ptolemy Lagus being at that 
time governor of Egypt in his name. 
In the centre are the globe and asps ; 
and on the architrave below the king 
is kneeling to present the figure of 
Truth to the lioness-headed goddess 
of the place, Pasht or Bubastis. Be- 



Egypt 



ROUTE 18. SPE08 ARTEMIDOS. 



359 



hind liim stands Athor, the Egyptian 
Venus. On one side of the two centre 
compartments the king is standing in 
the presence of Ainun and Horus, on 
the other of Thoth and Moui (Gem, 
Gom, Sent, or Hercules). 

The next large grotto to the E. is 
the Speos Arttmidos (" the Gave of 
Diana ") itself. Like the others, it is 
wholly excavated in the rock. It was 
begun by Thothmes III., and other 
sculptures were added by Sethi, or 
Osirei, the father of Kemeses the 
Great; but it was never completed. 
It consists of a portico with two rows 
of square pillars, four in each, of which 
the outer one alone remains ; and 
though rough on one side and un- 
finished, they each bear the name of 
those two kings, and of the goddess 
Pasht, the Egyptian Diana, whose 
legend is followed by a lioness (not a 
cat)', as throughout the sculptures of 
this grotto. A door, or passage, leads 
thence into the naos, which measures 
8 1 by 9 paces, and at the end wall is a 
niche about 6 ft. deep, and raised 8 ft. 
from the floor, intended no doubt for 
the statue of the goddess, or of the 
sacred animal dedicated to her. It is 
also unfinished; but on one of the 
jambs is a figure of Pasht. In the 
doorway or passage leading to the naos 
are two recesses, cut in the side wall, 
which, if not of later date, may have 
been intended as burying-places for 
the sacred animals. There are others 
in the portico. 

Animal worship was probably of 
African origin; and the lion, cyno- 
cephalus, and others were not natives 
of Egypt. 

The only finished sculptures are on 
the inner wall of the portico. They 
are of the early time already men- 
tioned, and therefore of a good period 
of Egyptian art; but they vary in 
style, some being in relief, others in 
intaglio. On one side Thothmes III. 
is making offerings to Pasht and 
Thoth ; on the other Sethi, or Osirei, 
is kneeling before Amun, attended by 
Pasht ; and, in a line of hieroglyphics 
behind him, mention is made of the 
sculptures added by liim in honour of 



' ; his mother Pasht, the beautiful lady 
of the Speos." In the portico, one of 
those singular changes appears, so 
common in ancient Egyptian monu- 
ments. The name Amun has been 
introduced instead of other hierogly- 
phics ; and that this has here been 
done in the time of king Sethi is evi- 
dent from the fact of its being in 
intaglio like his name, which has been 
substituted for that of Thothmes. 
Changes have also been made in the 
legends over some of the twelve deities 
seated on the 1. of the picture, which 
have been altered by Sethi in intaglio. 

Pasht occurs again twice over the 
door, and once in the doorway of the 
naos. She has always the head of a 
lioness, and the title, Lady of the 
Excavation" or Speos."- 

On the face of the rock, over the 
facade of the portico, are some lines 
of hieroglyphics. There are several 
pits and smaller grottoes on this and 
on the opposite side of the valley, 
where lions and cats, the animals 
particularly sacred to Pasht, were pro- 
bably buried. In some of them the 
bones of cats, and even dogs, are said 
to have been discovered. 

(E.) At Sheykh Timay are some 
catacombs and limestone-quarries, and 
traces of the crude-brick wall of Gisr 
el Agoos are seen on the low hills near 
the river. The story of it here is, that 
a queen built it to protect her son 
from the crocodiles — a fair • specimen 
of Arab tradition. 

There are no sculptures in the ex- 
cavated tombs of Sheykh Timay, but 
the curious mummulitic rocks, and 
large rounded boulders full of fossils, 
are worth the trouble of a walk to the 
hills if there is time to spare. 

(E.) The river here has, except at 
high Nile, almost deserted its ancient 
course beneath the mountains, and 
takes a considerable bend to the W. 
Near the S. end of the old channel is 
the site of Antinoe, or Antinoopolis, 
the few ruins of which still existing 
lie among the magnificent palm- 
groves of the modern village of Sheykh 
Abadeh. It was built by Adrian, and 



360 



ROUTE 18. CAIRO TO THEBES. 



Sect. III. 



called after his favourite, Antinoiis ; 
who, having accompanied him to 
Egypt, drowned himself in the Nile, 
with the idea of securing the happiness 
of the Emperor (which an oracle had 
declared conld only be obtained by the 
sacrifice of what was most dear to 
him) ; in commemoration of which 
Adrian founded this city near the spot, 
and instituted games and sacrifices in 
his honour. 

The modern name of Antinoe was 
given it, according to Wansleb, from 
a M oslem who was converted to Chris- 
tianity, and afterwards, under the name 
of Ammonius el abed (" the Devout '), 
suffered martyrdom there. It is also 
called Ansina or Insina, and Medeenet 
Ontholae, in Coptic Antnuou ; and the 
old town of Arsinoe itself succeeded to 
one of earlier time, which some sup- 
pose to have been the ancient Be&a, 
famed for its oracle. Ammianus Mar- 
cellinus places Be-a in the vicinity of 
Abydus, though the combined name 
of Besantinoopoiis, given to the former, 
seems conclusive e.idence of its real 
position ; and some suppose that a 
village called Abydus stood here. 

Aboolfeyda describes Antinoe under 
the name of Ansina, as having " ex- i 
tensive remains of ancient monuments, j 
and much aral >le land : " and he adds, 
" t! at the Nubian geographer, Edrisi, 
speaks of it as an ancient city remark- 
able for the fertility of its land, and 
said by common report to be the city j 
of the magicians, who were sent for i 
thence by Pharaoh." 

Enough could be seen of its remains | 
at the beginning of the present cen- 
tury to show that it was a large and 
important city, filled with public build- 
ings worthy of the magnificence and 
taste of its founder. The usefulness 
of the limestone, of which they were 
constructed, for modern building pur- 
poses has been the cause of these com- 
paratively modern ruins having di*- 
appe.ired, while others of far more an- j 
cient date, whose material was granite 
or other hard stone, are still in ex- 
istence. 

Antinoe was the capital of a nome, 
called after it the Antinoi'te, to which 
Ptolemy says the two Oases were at- 



tached. This was one of the new pro- 
vinces or departments of Egypt, added 
at a late period, when Egypt was under 
the rule of the Romans, and Heptano- 
mis was then condemned to signify, 
or at least to contain, 8 nomes. 

(TF.) At Bhoda (11 miles), opposite 
the remains of Antinoe, is one of the 
largest sugar-factories on the Nile, 
well worthy a visit. Close to them is 
a new palace of the Khedive. 

The river again makes a great bend, 
and reaches on the same bank Bya- 
deeyah, a village inhabited by Copts. 

(JE.) A short distance to the south- 
ward of Antinoe are some crude-brick 
ruins called Medeeneh, " the City ; " 
probably from the village having suc- 
ceeded to, or being peopled from, An- 
tinoe. The modern peasants believe 
them to be ancient. They appear to be 
wholly of Christian time ; and though 
now deserted, the houses in many 
parts are nearly entire. Beyond these 
again is a modern Christian village 
called Ed Dayr, or Dayr Aboo Honnes, 
" the Convent of Father John ; " and 
near the summit of the hill behind it, 
and to the N. of the ravine, is a very 
ancient church or chapel, in one of 
the extensive quarries with which it 
is honeycombed. It was first noticed 
by Mr. Harris a few ye.irs ago. On 
the walls are painted several subjects 
from the New Testament, as Eierod 
(HF&-THC) ordering the slaughter of 
the Innocents, the Flight into Egypt. 
Elizabeth (" Elissa ") and Zacharias, 
and on the side wall numerous saints, 
with their names written over them. 
In an adjoining chapel in the same 
quarry are the marriage in Cana (in 
which the Saviour uses a wand while 
turning the water into wine) ; the 
raising of Lazarus treated in the same 
way as on a tomb of one of the exarchs 
at Bavenna) ; the meeting of Mary 
and Elizabeth; and other subjects. 
They are of a better hand than those 
of the other chapel, though of the 
same date. At the entrance is an in- 
scription in Coptic, which (like others 
lower down the hill) appears to have 
the date of one of the Indict ons. Some 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 18. COLOSSUS ON A SLEDGE. 



361 



of the saints here represented are ''like 
" St. Damianus") of the Gth century, 
but the chapels were probably made 
long before. From not having been 
altered by later occupants, they have 
an interest which the underground 
church at Aboo Honnes itself has 
ceased to have, though it has the 
reputation of dating from the time 
, of Helena. These, like other rock- 
chapels, had no stone altar. The Copts 
indeed have always had a table. 

On the same hill are the remains of 
a tablet, apparently of the XVIIIth 
dynasty, and report speaks of another 
with the name of Amunoph III. Little 
more than a mile farther is another 
convent, or Christian village, called 
Ed Dayr en Nakhl, " of the Palm-tree," 
close to which is the burial-ground, 
with a church called Ed Dayr. 

(EV) In one of the grottoes on the 
hills immediately behind the last- 
mentioned village is one of the most 
interesting subjects found in any of 
the Egyptian tombs. It represents a 
colossus on a sledge, which a number 
of men are dragging with ropes ; and 
is one of the few paintings that throw 
any light on the method employed by 
the Egyptians for moving weights. 

Though it is the statue of the person 
of the tomb, it does not follow that it 
was hewn in this hill ; and it merely 
commemorates an event that happened 
during his lifetime, like the fowling 
scenes and other subjects connected 
with his amusements. But the con- 
sequence of this individual, Thoth-otp, 
is fully shown, not only by the fact 
of his having the honour of a colossal 
statue, but by the employment of so 
many foreign captives in moving it ; 
and an important proof is obtained by 
the last-mentioned circumstance of the 
conquests of the Egyptians over an 
Asiatic people at the early period of 
Amenemha II. and Osirtasen II., in 
i whose reigns he lived. He was a 
person of distinction in the military 
caste : he is styled in the hieroglyphics 
"the king's friend;" and one of his 
children was named Osirtasen, after 
the king. One hundred and seventy- 
two men, in 4 rows of 43 each, pull 

[Egypf] 



the ropes attached to a ring in front 
of the sledge ; and a liquid, perhaps 
grease, or water, is poured from a vase 
by a person standing on the pedestal 
of the statue, in order to facilitate its 
progress as it slides on the ground, 
! which was probably covered with a 
' bed of planks, though they are not 
indicated m the picture. 

Some of the persons engaged in this 
laborious duty appear to be Egyptians * 
others are loreign slaves, who are clad 
in the costume of their country ; and 
behind the statue are 4 rows of men, 
in all 12 in number, representing 
either the architects and masons, or 
those who had an employment about 
the place where the statue was to be 
conveyed. l3elow are others, carrying 
vases, apparently of water, and some 
machinery connected with the trans- 
port of the statue, followed by task- 
masters with their wands of office. On 
the knee of the figure stands a man 
who claps his hands to the measured 
cadence of a song, to mark the time and 
ensure their simultaneous draught ; 
for it is evident that, in order that the 
whole power might be applied at the 
same instant, a sign of this kind was 
necessary ; and the custom of singing 
at their work was common to every 
occupation in Egypt, as it now is in 
that country, in India, and many other 
places. 

The height of the statue appears to 
have been about 24 ft., including the 
pedestal ; and it is stated, in the line 
of hieroglyphics behind the picture, to 
be "13 cubits," or 22-370 ft. It was 
bound to the sledge by double ropes, 
tightened by means of long pegs in- 
serted between them and twisted round 
until they were completely braced ; 
and, to prevent injury from the friction 
of the ropes, a compress of leather, 
lead, or other substance was intro- 
duced between them and the stone. 
Before the figure a priestly scribe is 
presenting incense in honour of the 
person it represents; and at the top 
of the picture are seven companies of 
men marching in an opposite direc- 
tion. They are probably the reliefs 
for dragging the statue. Beyond are 
men slaying an ox and bringing the 
B 



362 



ROUTE 18.— CAIRO TO THEBES. 



Sect. III. 



joints of meat before the door of the 
building to which the statue was to 
be conveyed ; and below this the per- 
son of the tomb is seated under a 
canopy. Boats, and other subjects, 
are figured under the compartment of 
the colossus ; and on the opposite wall 
are an agricultural scene, potters, a 
garden with a vineyard, and women 
working in thread. The last subject 
is remarkable for a new kind of loom, 
and the mode of reeling off thread 
from balls turning in a case. On the 
end wall, to the left of the niche, are 
some f^h well drawn, with the colours 
in a good state of preservation. 

Among other subjects in this tomb 
are the ceremony of pouring a liquid 
from a vase (probably ointment) over 
the deceased; sprinkling the ground 
before him as he walks ; the bearing of 
offerings ; fishing and fowling scenes ; 
and on the outside a chase, and other 
spirited sculptures. Unfortunately a 
great portion of the roof and walls has 
fallen in, and the paintings have been 
much injured, besides being defaced 
in many places by the mistaken piety 
of the Copts, who have drawn numerous 
dark-red crosses on the bodies of the 
figures, and over various parts of these 
interesting subjects. This grotto is at 
the left hand of the ravine, behind the 
convent and village of Dayr en Nakhl, 
near the top of the hill, and a little 
way to the right of a sort of road, 
which is seen from below running 
upon the upper part of the hill-side. 
The following are the bearings, by 
compass, of the principal objects from 
its entrance : — Antinoe ,S32^° ; Eera- 
moon 276° (or 6° N. of W.) ; Dayr en 
Nakl 288°, f of a mile; and El Ber- 
sheh 236°, 2 miles. 

Kemains of sculpture may be found 
in a neighbouring tomb, and in a 
quarry beyond (on the same side of 
the ravine or valley) is a tablet in the 
rock, bearing the date of the 33rd year 
of Thothmes III. 

There are also some tombs along 
the face of the hill on the other side 
of the ravine, though they are of little 
consequence. But they are very old ; 
and in one is the name of Papi. 



(E.) In the ravine, about ^ a mile 
from the mouth, on the right-hand 
side, are some large limestone-quar- 
ries, with a few royal ovals and in- 
scriptions in enchorial written with 
red ochre, like those in the quarries 
of Toora-Masarah. 

(IT.) Nearly opposite Ed Dayr en 
Nakhl is Raramoon, some distance 
inland from which is Oshmoonayn, 
which occupies the site of Hermopolis 
Magna. The modern name_is derived 
from the Coptic Shmoun B, or the 
" two eights," and the prefix O or E is 
added for euphony, from the hostility 
of Arabic against all words beginning 
with an S or Sh, followed by a con- 
sonant. The Arabs pretend that it 
was called after Oshmoon, the son of 
Misr, or Misraim. 

Hermopolis was a city of great an- 
tiquity, and it was the capital of one 
of the early nomes of Egypt. Its ori- 
ginal Egyptian name was evidently 
Shmoun, Hermopolis being a Greek 
appellation derived from the worship 
of Thoth, the god who presided there, 
and who was supposed to answer to 
Hermes, or Mercury. He was the pa- 
tron of letters, the scribe of Heaven, 
and the same as the Moon : his office 
was not less important in imparting in- 
tellectual gifts from the Deity to man, 
than in superintending the final judg- 
ment of the soul, and in recording the 
virtuous actions of the dead when ad- 
mitted to the regions of eternal hap- 
piness. The modern town stands on 
the southern extremity of the mounds, 
which are of great extent ; and objects 
of antiquity are occasionally found by 
the peasants while removing the nitre. 

( W.) The tombs of the ancient city 
lie at the base of the Libyan hills 
to the westward, where numerous ibis- 
mummies have been buried, many of 
which are found deposited in small 
cases, and perfectly preserved. The 
cynocephalus ape is also met with, 
embalmed and buried in the same con- 
secrated spot. It is here that Ibeum, 
or the Nhip (of the Copts), probably 
stood ; for it is evident that the posi- 
tion given it in the Itinerary of Anto- 



Egypt 



ROUTE 18 . HEEMOPOLIS MELLAWEE. 



363 



ninus is incorrect; and Ibeum, the 
burying-place of the sacred birds of 
Hermopolis, could not have been 24 
m. distant to the N". of that city. Not 
far from these tombs is a curious sculp- 
tured stela, on the nummulite rock of 
Gebel Toona, representing the king 
Amunoph IV. or Khoo-en-Aten, with 
his queen, worshipping the Sun, which 
darts forth rays terminating in human 
hands ; a subject similar to those in the 
grottoes of Tel el Amarna. They are 
accompanied by two of their daughters, 
holding s/'stra. Below the figures are 
between 20 and 80 lines of hiero- 
glyphics much defaced; and near it 
are 2 headless statues supporting a 
sort of tablet, with 3 daughters of the 
king on the side in intaglio. Beyond 
are 2 other statues, and at the side of 
this, as of the other group, are 2 small 
mutilated figures. 

Several years ago a peasant disco- 
vered a large sum of money buried in 
the ground near this spot, which had 
been concealed there by one of the 
Memlooks, in their retreat, after being 
defeated by Mohammed Ali, the year 
before the massacre in the citadel. 
Linant-Bey had been told of it some 
years before, by a person who was pre- 
sent on the occasion, who even de- 
scribed the spot, and the stone that 
covered it, the accidental removal of 
which led to the discovery. Treating 
it, however, as one of the many idle 
tales told in Egypt, he thought no 
more about the matter, until the good 
fortune of the peasant recalled it to 
his recollection. This discovery be- 
came the talk of the whole neigh- 
bourhood, and confirmed the popular 
belief in the existence of the kens, or 
"treasures," supposed to be buried 
near ancient ruins. But the good for- 
tune of the finder was soon converted 
into a misfortune. The Turkish go- 
vernor of the district arrested him, 
took from him all he had found, and 
bastinadoed him (their usual custom), 
to make him confess if any portion had 
been concealed. Such is the Turkish 
mode of claiming the rights of a lord 
of the manor. 

(Tf.) From Byadeeyah to this part of 



the mountain is a ride of about 3| hrs. 
on donkeys, at a quick walk ; and Osh- 
moonayn is a little more than half-way 
from Byadeeyah to the Bahr Yoosef, 
which in March has very little water, 
the deepest part then reaching very 
little above the knee. There is a town 
not far off, called Toona, or Toona eg 
Gebel (" of the Mountain ") : in Coptic, 
Thoni. Another, called Daruot-Osh- 
moon, is the Terdt Shmoun of the 
Copts. 

(IF.) Aboosir. the Pousiri of the 
Coptic MSS., was on the W. of the 
Bahr Yoosef, near the Libyan hills. 

(W.) Dardot-Oshmdon, or, as it is 
sometimes called, Daroot en Nakhl 
(" of the Palms ") has the usual 
mounds of old towns, but no remains 
in stone. It stands on the E. bank of 
the Bahr Yoosef, and from its name 
and position probably occupies the 
site of the Hermopolitana Phylace 
($v\a.Kr)), as Daroot esh Shereef does 
that of the Theban castle. 

(IT.) Mellawee (6 m.) claims the 
rank of a town (bender), and has a 
market, held every Sunday. Tts 
mounds probably mark the site of an 
ancient town. 

(E.) A little higher up the river, 
at the projecting corner of the eastern 
mountains, is a place called Isbdyda, 
or Sebayda, behind and to the north- 
ward of which are several grottoes 
and modern quarries. Some have the 
usual agricultural and other scenes, 
and the various subjects common to 
tombs. In 2 of them is the name 
of Papi in a square ; and another 
has 2 ovals together, one of Shoofoo 
(.Suphis, or Cheops), the other of As- 
ses-kef. In others are specimens of 
the false doors and architectural or- 
naments found at the tombs near the 
pyramids, and some figures in relief. 
Osiris is here frequently styled " Lord 
of the land of Tat," or " Tot," which 
is expressed by the emblem of sta- 
bility. 

Before several of the grottoes are 
crude-brick walls, built when inhabited 
by the Christians, who converted one 
of them into a church, cutting a circu- 
it 2 



364 



EOUTE 13. CAIRO TO THEBES. 



Sect. III. 



lar niche into the rock opposite the 
entrance. At Isbayda there is another 
portion of the Gisr el Agoos, and a 
ruined town, which commanded the 
mountain-pass up the ravine behind 
Gebel esh Sheykh Said. This road 
passed by a stone quarry at the top of 
the hills, and then descended into a 
valley coming from the eastward, and 
opening upon the level plain. Here 
it joined an old road of considerable 
breadth, which ran in a southerly 
direction behind the town, whose ex- 
tensive mounds lie to the S. of the 
modern village of Tel el Amarna. 

On the summit of the same hills is 
a large limestone-quarry, in which is a 
bed of oriental alabaster, from 3 to 6 
ft. thick, which, like the quarry, was 
long worked by the ancients. A road 
10 paces broad, cut in the rock, leads 
into the quarry, and on the rt. side 
are small niches, once apparently 
holding tablets or inscriptions. The 
best way to this quarry is up the 
valley, or ravine, just to the N. of Is- 
bayda. It is on the hill at the end of 
it, about 1£ m. from its mouth. 

(E.) Hadji Kandeel (7 m.). This is 
the best place to disembark at for pay- 
ing a visit to the grottoes of Tel el 
Amdrna, about 4£ m. distant from the 
river. These grottoes belong to a very 
obscure period of the XVIIIth dynasty, 
when, as M. Mariette conjectures, the 
Egyptian religion under the influence 
of a piously mad king went through a 
curious stage of schism. They are the 
burial-places of functionaries of the 
court of Amunoph IV. and his im- 
mediate successors. This Amunoph 
IV., according to M. Mariette, sub- 
stituted for Ammon, or Amun, the 
god of Thebes, a Semitic deity called 
Aten (the radiating disk), and changed 
his own name to Khoo-en-Aten, as 
found here in these grottoes. He also 
built the town, whose extensive ruins are 
still seen on the plain, and made it the 
capital of his kingdom. These changes 
may perhaps be attributed to the in- 
fluence of his mother, who was not an 
Egyptian, and who«e name appears 
constantly on the walls of these grot- 
toes. It is noticeable too that the 



features of the people represented in 
these sculptures are not Egyptian. 

The subjects are various and highly 
interesting. In one place the king 
and queen, frequently attended by 
their children, are praying to Aten, 
represented under the form of the Sun 
with rays terminating in human hands. 
In another the monarch is borne on a 
rich throne towards a temple ; in an- 
other he is mounted in his car, the 
queen following in " the second chariot 
that he had." In some are military 
processions, the troops marching with 
the banners belonging to their respec- 
tive corps, and divided into light and 
heavy armed infantry, as was cus- 
tomary with the Egyptian army. Each 
soldier bows down before the monarch, 
whose tyranny seems to be hinted at 
by their more than usual submissive- 
ness. The chariot corps and others 
also attend ; and the officers of infantry 
are distinguished by their post at the 
head of their men. and by the wand 
they carry in their hand. In others 
are the plans of houses, gardens, courts 
of temples, cattle, and various subjects, 
among which may be mentioned some 
large boats, fastened to the bank of 
the Nile by ropes and pegs, as at the 
present day. 

Some of the sculptures have been 
left unfinished. The royal names, as 
at Gebel Toonah, have been invariably 
defaced. There are usually 5 ovals — 
2 containing the prenomen and nomen 
of the king; another the name of the 
queen-mother ; and 2 others, which are 
of larger size, the titles of the god. 

Several Greek inscriptions show 
that the catacombs of Tel el Amarna 
were sufficiently admired by ancient 
travellers to be considered worthy of 
a visit, like those at Thebes ; and one 
of the writers expresses his surprise 
at the " skill of the sacred masons," 
T*X vr l v Oav/na^cov tcov Upcav KaoTO/xuv. 

To the S. of the central tombs is a 
natural grotto or fissure in the rock, 
and several workings in a softer vein, 
apparently in search of a yellow stone 
which crosses it here and there ; but it 
is difficult to say for what use it was 
required. Several small houses, or 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 18. — CATACOMBS OF TEL EL AMARNA. 



365 



huts of rough stone are built here, as 
well a3 before the catacombs them- 
selves, probably the abodes of work- 
men. In one of the tombs is a large 
niche cut by the Christians, and in 
another the figures of saints painted 
on the walls ; showing that these, like 
other secluded spots, were once occu- 
pied by anchorites and other devout 
cynics, or served as places of refuge 
from the persecutions exercised at 
different times against the monks of 
Egypt. 

(2?.) The extensive ruins of the old 
city are seen in the plain near the river. 
The temples were of sandstone, each 
surrounded by a crude-brick enclosure, 
like many of those at Thebes and 
other places; but fragments of ma- 
sonry are all that now remain, the 
etime edifices having been purposely 
destroyed, and so completely as to 
leave no vestige of their original plans. 
Several of the crude-brick houses are 
better preserved, and from their sub- 
structions the form and distribution of 
many of the rooms may be easily traced. 
Indeed they are calculated to give a 
more correct idea of the ground-plans 
of Egyptian houses than any in the 
valley of the Nile ; and the extent of 
the city is unequalled by any whose 
ruins remain, except Thebes, being 
about 2 m. in length, though of a com- 
paratively inconsiderable breadth. 

(E.) Some distance to the south- 
ward, and nearly in a line with the 
village of Howarte, is a ravine in the 
hills, where a large stela bearing a 
long hieroglyphic inscription was found 
by Mr. Harris ; and to the S. of this, 
near the road leading over the moun- 
tains in rear of Gebel Aboofayda, are 
other catacombs, containing similar 
sculptures, and some ancient roads 
communicating with the town. 

(W.) Nearly opposite El Howarte, 
inland on the W. bank, is Tanodf, 
whose lofty mounds mark the site of 
Tanis-Superior, in Coptic Thoni. It 
has no ruins. A short distance to the 
W. of it runs the Bahr Yoosef, or Menlii, 
which conveys the water of the Nile 



to the interior of the western plain, 
passing by Behnesa, and thence by a 
lateral branch into the Fyodm. 

(W.) About 2 m. to the S. of Tanodf 
is Daroot esh Shereef, in Coptic Terot, 
which probably occupies the site of 
the Theba'ica Phylace (cpvXaxv), or 
Theban castle ; a fortified place at the 
frontier of the Thebai'd, where duties 
were levied on goods exported from 
that part of the country to Lower 
Egypt. Strabo tells us the canal to 
Tanis passed by that castle ; and we 
may trace in the name Daroot the 
word our it, a " garrison " or " guard." 

(IF.) At Daroot are a few mounds 
and some fragments of stone, but no 
ruins. A few miles higher up the 
Nile is the mouth of the Bahr Yoosef. 

(E.) On the eastern bank are the 
first Dom-trees, called also Theban 
palms, from being confined to the 
Theba'id. They are not found in 
Lower Egypt, except in gardens, as 
at Minieh and a few other places. 
Their dry fibrous fruit, when ripe, 
exactly resembles our ginger-bread 
in flavour, and is eaten by the 
peasants. It contains an extremely 
hard nut, which has been used by 
the carpenters of ancient and modern 
Egypt for the socket of their drills ; 
but which, before the fruit ripens, is a 
horn-like substance, and is eaten by 
the people of Ethiopia. The growth 
of the tree has this peculiarity, that 
the lower part of the stem is single, 
and invariably divides at a certain 
height into two branches, each of 
these again being bifurcated, always 
in two sets. The head is covered 
with large fan-shaped leaves, at the 
base of which the fruit grows. 

(E.~) In the rocks above are some 
quarries and small grottoes, and jus. 
beyond is Ed Dayr el Kossayr, in- 
habited by Christians. This, perhaps, 
marks the site of Pescla, or Pesla, of 
the Itinerary, which was 24 Koman m. 
to the S. of Antinoe. 

(W.) Opposite El Kossayr is the 
village of Jephsehan. The river now 
makes a considerable bend, and ap- 



366 



ROUTE 18. CAIRO TO THEBES. 



Sect. Ill: 



proaches a fine precipitous range of 
cliffs, which, rise up sheer from the 
water's edge. 

(E.) Gebel Aboofayda (17 m.) is 
the name of these bluffs which bound 
the east bank of the river for some 
10 or 12 miles. Sudden gusts of 
wind from the mountain often render 
great precaution necessary in sailing 
beneath them, and many accidents 
have happened in this part of the river. 
The recesses in the rocks are the resort 
of numerous cormorants and wild 
ducks : but, being generally very timid, 
they are not easily approached, and a 
single shot disturbs them for a great 
distance. 

The small mud-banks, and the cav- 
erns just at the water's edge are a 
favourite resort of the few crocodiles 
which may still be met with so far 
north. Few travellers are fortunate 
enough to see them here ; but in 1871 
a very large one, more than 14 ft. long, 
was killed, after several hours' patient 
watching in a cleft of the cliff a few feet 
above the water, by the Earl of Ducie, 
and his body recovered and skinned. 

(E.) About a mile above El Kossayr 
on the E. bank is a small ancient town 
in the mountain-pass ; half-way be- 
tween which and El Hare'ib (Haryib) 
is Ebras, a retired recess in the moun- 
tain, with a piece of cultivated laud, 
having palms and dom-trees. 

(E.) A short distance beyond are 
some grottoes, and about 2 m. further 
the ancient town called El Hare'ib 
(" the Ruins '), with grottoes and tombs 
containing dog and cat mummies. 
The town stood at the mouth of a 
ravine, which after heavy rain pours 
a stream of water through its centre. 
Many of the walls are still standing, 
and some of the arches within the 
houses are well preserved. It is, how- 
ever, probable that they are not of 
very ancient date, and many may be 
of a late Roman or Christian time. 
But the bricks are mostly ancient, and 
the Christians may have succeeded to 
the old town, vestiges of which still 
remain amidst the later buildings. 
On the S. side of the ravine is a large 



crude-brick enclosure, perhaps a fort ; 
and near the river are remains of ma- 
sonry, apparently part of an old quay. 
In some of the walls the bricks, instead 
of being in horizontal courses, are in 
curved lines, like the enclosure of :i 
temple at Thebes, called Dayr el Me- 
deeneh. Many of them are of con- 
siderable height, and in some places 
the arched windows remain, even of 
the upper stories. In several of the 
grottoes up the ravine to the N.E. are 
found human bones, and the mummied 
bodies of dogs, jackals, cats, and appa- 
rently of the wild cat. or fells chaus. 
One of them has the Egyptian cornice, 
and in another are some enchorial in- 
scriptions. The ancient name of El 
Hare'ib is uncertain. The Itinerary 
mentions no place between Pesla and 
Hieracon. 

(W.) About 1J m. inland on the 
western side of the Nile is Kossayah, 
the ancient Cusse, Chusae, or Chusis ; 
in Coptic KOs-koo. According to the 
Greeks, Venus Urania was the deity 
of the place ; and iElian reports that 
a sacred cow was there worshipped, 
which is perfectly consistent with the 
character of the Egyptian Venus, of 
whom that animal was an emblem. 
His words are, "it is a small but 
elegant town in the Hermopolite 
nome, where they worship Venus, 
called Urania (the heavenly), and also 
a cow." 

The difference between the low and 
high Nile in this part of Egypt is 
21 ft. 3 in., judging from the highest 
mark made by the water on the cliffs 
of Gebel Aboofayda, which rise ab- 
ruptly from the river. 

(E.) About 3 m. above El Hare'ib, 
and beyond where the river turns away 
from beneath the cliffs, is an old con- 
vent called Dayr el Bukhara. The 
name is common to many of t;:ese mon- 
astic retreats, being derived from the 
custom of barricading the doors and 
raising everything they required by a 
'• pulley ," as at Dayr Antonios and 
Dayr Bolos in the eastern desert. 
Near the convent are the ruins of 
another old town, and some sepulchral 



Egypt. route 18. — manfaloot — crocodile-mummy pits. 367 



grottoes. A portion of the Gisr el j 
Ao'ocis appears near this old town, 
which may possibly lay claim to the 
site of Hieracon, though the distances 
in the Itinerary do not quite agree 
with its position. 

The Nile formerly ran beneath the 
cliffs for some distance further S., but 
it has now left them and bunds away 
considerably to the W. 

( W.) Between Daroot esh Shereef 
and Manfaloot, on the W. bank, is the 
site of an old town, called in Coptic 
Manlau, whose Arabic name, accord- 
ing to the MSS., is Mowda-el Ashea: 
and between this last and Mankabat 
mention is made of Mantout, the suc- 
cessor of a town of the same name, in 
Coptic Maiithoot. This last may sig- 
nify the " place of Thoth." 

(W.) Manfaloot (11$ m.), in Coptic 
Manbalot, is a bender or market-town, 
and the residence of a local governor. 
It is of considerable size, with the 
usual bazaar, and a market-day every 
Sunday, at which meat and other 
things can be more easily obtained 
than at other times. It has a gover- 
nor's palace, and outside the walls are 
several gardens. 

There is reason to believe that an 
old Egyptian town stood here in former 
times, and Leo Africanus speaks of its 
sculptured remains, and the ruins of a 
building, apparently a temple, near 
the river. 

It is singular that no notice is taken 
of it by Greek and Latin writers, and 
we might suppose that the Arab geo- 
grapher was incorrect in his statement, 
did not its mounds, and the mention 
of its name in the list of places cited 
in the Coptic MSS., prove it to have 
been one of the cities of ancient Egypt. 
Its modern name is evidently taken 
from the Coptic, which M. Champollion 
supposes to signify the "place of wild 
asses ; " but the modern Egyptians, 
with their usual disposition to connect 
everything with persons mentioned in 
the Koran, have decided it to be the 
" place of exile of Lot." Aboolfeda 
describes Manfaloot "on the bank of 
the Nile," but in Pococke's time it I 
stood a mile from the river, which then I 



i ran nearer the hills of Gebel Aboo- 
fayda. Since that period the Nile has 
gradually encroached on the western 
shore, and every year threatens to wash 
the town away. It had also then a 
"bishop and about 200 Christians, 
whose church was at Narach, some 
distance off, in a spot where the com- 
mon people pretended that the Holy 
Family lived until the death of Herod." 

(E.) On the summit of the rocks of 
Gebel Aboofayda, near their southern 
end, are the caverns of Maabdeh, com- 
monly called the crocodile - mummy 
pits. The entrance to them is through 
a natural fissure in the rock at the top. 
Besides the thousands of crocodile 
mummies which fill the interior, there 
are several human mummies, some 
gilded from head to foot, and others 
less richly decorated. These caverns 
have never been thoroughly explored, 
and much, no doubt, yet remains to be 
found in them. Here Mr. Harris 
met with his interesting fragments of 
Homer on papyrus. Candles, matches, 
rope, and water should be taken, if it 
is intended to penetrate into the ca- 
verns. There is no danger attending 
the attempt ; but it is fatiguing, and 
the confined space, and close, stifling 
atmosphere may produce unpleasant 
effects. The best place to go from, 
coming down the river, is a village 
called Shalagheel. 

( W.) Beni Adee or Beni Ali, at the 
edge of the Libyan desert, is well 
known as having been the head- 
quarters of the Nizam, or disciplined 
troops of Mohammed Ali, previous to 
their march for the Morea ; and as the 
usual point of departure for the Oasis 
of Dakhleh. 

(E.) In Wadee Booa, at the southern 
corner of Gebel Aboofayda, on the E. 
bank, are some old grottoes, Here the 
road from Tel el Amarna over Gebel 
Aboofayda rejoins the valley of the 
Nile, and those travelling by land avoid 
a great detour by following this moun- 
tain-pass. The grottoes in the corner 
of the hill behind Beni-Mohammed-el- 
I Kofoor have some interesting paintings 
I of agricultural and other scenes of the 



368 



ROUTE 18. CAIRO TO THEBES. 



Sect. in. 



early time of Papi and Nofer-Kere of 
the Vlth dynasty. Among the many 
subjects, in one of them are some 
curious boats ; in the others also are 
trades and various subjects ; and the 
occupants of these tombs appear all to 
have lived about the time of Nofer- 
Kere (Nephercheres), and to have 
been governors of the nome. At the 
convent in the plain below, Mr. Harris 
found a Greek inscription. The con- 
vent is called Dayr eg Gibrawee, or 
Maria Boktee. The inscription is 
curious, being of the time of Dio- 
cletian andMaximian, and mentioning 
the dedication of the camp of the 1st 
Prastorian cohort of Lusitanians to 
Jupiter, Hercules, and Victory. On 
the desert plain between the convent 
and the hills (which are here called 
Gebel Marag) is an ancient square 
crude-brick fortress, which appears 
from the coins found there to have 
been used by the Romans, though pro- 
bably of earlier time ; and at the con- 
vent are some old mounds of a town 
called Medeenet Sinsfni. The paint- 
ings in the caves of Gebel Marag are 
better preserved than those about 
\ a mile to the N. of it. Some dis- 
tance to the S. is Tabbaneh. Near 
Beni-Mohammed-el-Kofoor may be the 
site of Passalon. 

(E.~) About 6 m. beyond, near the 
edge of the cultivated land, behind 
Bendob el Hamam, are vestiges of the 
Gisr-el Agocs. In the tract of land 
on the border of the desert, near the 
road going towards El Wasta, is a 
crude- brick ruin and the mounds of 
other small towns, but without any 
stone remains. Isium stood soniew T here 
in this direction, at one of the ruined 
towns just mentioned. 

( W.) The Nile makes several large 
bends between Manfaloot and Asyoot, 
which often cause considerable delay. 
At the end of one of them, and at a 
short distance from the bank, is Man- 
kabat, or Mungabat, the successor of 
an old town called in Coptic Manka- 
pot, "the place (manufactory?) of 
pots," probably from its manufactory 
of earthenware ; though, from the great 
quantity made in every part of Egypt, I 



it seems unreasonable to apply this 
name to any particular town. Like 
Keneh and Ballas at the present day, 
it may have been noted for a par* 
ticular kiud. 

(W.) Asyoot (26 m.). The capital of 
the province of the same name and 
residence of the governor of Upper 
Egypt, 247 1 m. from Cairo. It stands 
at some distance from the river, and a 
small village on the bank, called El 
Hamra, claims the honour of being 
its port. A large canal conducts the 
water from the river during the inun- 
dation, and a magnificent embankment 
studded with trees leads from the land- 
ing-place to the town, the entrance 
into which, through an old gateway 
and a large courtyard, which forms 
part of the governor's palace, is very 
picturesque. Asyoot is of considerable 
extent, with several bazaars, baths, and 
some handsome mosks, one of which 
is remarkable for its lofty minaret. It 
is certainly the largest and best built 
town of the Saeed; and its position, 
with several gardens in the vicinity, 
is greatly in its favour. It may con- 
tain about 25,000 inhabitants, of whom 
about 1000 are Christians. In the 
town are a few good houses belonging 
to the ebni-beled, or townspeople, but 
the generality are mere hovels. The 
streets are narrow and unpaved, as is 
the case in all the towns of Egypt. 

Some of the bazaars are little in- 
ferior to those of the metropolis, and 
are well supplied ; and the town is 
divided into quarters, each closed by a 
gate, as at Cairo. On Sunday a market 
is held, which is frequented by the 
people of the neighbouring villages; 
and in the bazaars a great supply of 
stuffs and various commodities are 
always kept for sale, brought from 
Cairo and other parts of Egypt, as well 
as from Arabia and the upper country. 
The best pipe-bowls are manufac tured 
here, which are highly .prized, and 
sent in great numbers to Cairo : some 
are also made at Keneh and As>ooan, 
but far inferior to those of Asyoot. 

Formerly the town was much fre- 
quented by carnvans from the interior 
of Africa, especially from Darfoor, but 



ROUTE 18 



. ASTOOT. 



360 



only a few arrive now in the course of I 
the year. The principal native in- 
dustries are the manufacture of articles 
in clay, indigo dying, opium and cotton 
picking. &c. In the town is a tele- 
graph office, an European medical man, 
and an English and American consular 
agent. The American mission schools 
have a branch establishment which has 
met with some success. 

Asyoot'has succeeded to the ancient 
Lycopolis, a the City of the Wolves," 
so-called from the worship of that 
animaL or of the deity to whom it was 
sacred. 

The Coptic name of the city, Sioout, 
is the same it bore in ancient times, 
as is shown by the hieroglyphics in 
the catacombs, where it is written 
Ssout, the initial 8 being doubled, as 
in Ssa the Egyptian name of Sai's. 
Aboolfeda says it should be called in j 
Arabic Osyoot : but this is from the 
repugnance of that language (in com- 
mon with Spanish, Erench. and many 
others) to an S followed by another 
consonant, unless preceded by a vowel. 
The jackal-headed god is said to be 
lord of the place, but instead of the 
name of Anubis (Anepo) he has the 
legend with horns, and is probably 
another character of the same deity, 
who included under his patronage and 
in his emblems the jackal, the wolf, 
and the dog. 

Little now remains of the old town 
except extensive mounds and a few 
stone substructions, which are found 
in digging for the foundations of 
houses, or in cutting trenches on its 
site. 

The Libyan chain advances con- 
siderably towards the E. in this part ; 
and iu the projecting corner of the 
mountain above Asyoot are several 
grottoes cut in the limestone-rock, the 
burial-places of the inhabitants of 
Lycopolis. Though not containing a 
great profusion of sculpture, they are 
of considerable interest from their an- 
tiquity, and some have the names of 
very old kings. The principal tomb 
i3 called by the common appellation 
of Stabl Antar. It is of great size, 
and has an entrance-chamber or porch, 



| open to the air, cut like the rest in 
the limestone-rock. On the right side 
of the entrance is a long hieroglyphic 
inscription, which has not yet been 
copied. The ceiling of this catacomb 
is vaulted, and ornamented with very 
elegant devices which might be taken 
I for Greek patterns, if one did not 
know that the ceiling was older than 
Greek art. In an inner room are 
sculptures representing men bringing 
an ibex and various offerings ; and at 
the end a large figure of a man, and 
others of women rather smaller, smel- 
ling the lotus-flower, as was usual at 
the festive meetings of the Egyptians. 
It has several chambers, which once 
served as dwelling-places for the pea- 
sants, who have not improved their 
appearance by blackening them with 
smoke. In the smaller caves and ex- 
| cavated recesses of the rock in various 
parts of this mountain the remains 
of wolf-mummies are frequently met 
with, which is perfectly consistent with 
the fact of the wolf having been the 
sacred animal of the place, and with 
the name given to the town by the 
Greeks. The coins of the Lycopolite 
nome have also the wolf on their re- 
verse, with the word " Lyeo." 

The tombs are arranged in succes- 
sive tiers at different elevations. They 
may be visited according to their po- 
sition, and a road about 4 paces broad 
leads up the hill. They are very nu- 
merous, but many are without sculp- 
ture, and some containing burnt bones 
appear to have been occupied by the 
Konians at a late period. Near the 
middle of the ascent is some crude- 
brick building ; and a square pit lined 
with burnt brick, very unusual, except 
in Koman times, with a tablet or stela 
above on the rock, much defaced. 
Some of the small pits are very nar- 
row, scarcely broad enough fur a man, 
and they slope gradually, as if to 
allow the coffins to slide down into 
them. Sometimes a tomb consists of 
a large chamber with small niches or 
repositories for the dead, and in the 
floor are the usual mummy-pits. 

In a tomb about half-way up the 
hill is the name of a very old king, 
and some soldiers carrying shields of 
r 3 



370 



ItOUTE 18. CAIliO TO THEBES. 



Sect. in. 



enormous size, differing both in this 
respect and a little in their shape 
from the common shield, but remark- 
able as being similar to those men- 
tioned by Xenophon in speaking of 
the Egyptian troops in the army of 
Crcesus. He says they amounted to 
120,000 men, "carrying bucklers, 
which covered them from head to 
foot, very long spears, and swords 
called Koindes " (shopsh), and each 
phalanx was " formed of 10,000 men, 
100 each way." It was from the pro- 
tection given them by these large 
shields, supported as they were by a 
thong over the shoulder, and from 
their compact order of battle, that the 
Persians were unable to break them 
when they had routed the rest of the 
Lydian army. They therefore ob- 
tained honourable terms from Cyrus, 
and an abode in the cities of Larissa 
and Cyllene, in the neighbourhood of 
Cuma, near the sea ; which were still 
called the Egyptian cities, and in- 
habited by their descendants, in the 
time of Xenophon. 

The tombs on this mountain, like 
most others in Egypt, were once the 
abode of the Christians, who retired 
thither, either from persecution, or for 
the sake of that solitude which suited 
their austere habits ; and it was per- 
haps from one of them that John of 
Lycopolis gave his oracular answer to 
the embassy of Theodosius. The story 
is thus related by Gibbon : " Before 
lie performed any decisive resolution, 
the pious emperor was anxious to dis- 
cover the will of Heaven ; and as the 
progress of Christianity bad silenced 
the oracles of Delphi and Dodona, he 
consulted an Egyptian monk who pos- 
sessed, in the opinion of the age, the 
gift of miracles and the knowledge 
of futurity. Eutropius, one of the fa- 
vourite eunuchs of the palace of Con- 
stantinople, embarked for Alexandria, 
from whence he sailed up the Nile 
as far as the city of Lycopolis, or of 
Wolve3, in the remote province of The- 
bais. In the neighbourhood of the 
city, and on the summit (side?) of a 
lofty mountain, the holy John had con- 
structed with his own hand a humble 



cell, in which he had dwelt above 
50 years, without opening his door, 
without seeing the face of a woman, 
and without tasting any food that had 
been prepared by fire or any human 
art. Five days of the week he spent 
in prayer and meditation, but on 
Saturdays and Sundays he regularly 
opened a small window, and gave au- 
dience to the crowd of suppliants who 
successively flowed from every part 
of the Christian world. The eunuch 
of Theodosius approached the window 
with respectful steps, proposed his 
questions concerning the event of the 
civil war, and soon returned with a 
favourable oracle, which animated the 
courage of the emperor by the assur- 
ance of a bloody but infallible vic- 
tory." 

On the N. side of the projecting 
corner of the mountain are some lime- 
stone-quarries, and a few uninteresting 
grottoes. 

The view from these hills over the 
town of Asyoot and the green plain in 
the early part of the year is very 
pretty, the prettiest perhaps to be 
seen in Egypt. The brightness of the 
green is perfectly dazzling, and of a 
tint such as probably can be seen no- 
where else in the world : it stretches 
away too for miles on either side, 
" unbroken," as Dean Stanley so gra- 
phically says, " save by the mud vil- 
lages which here and there lie in the 
midst of the verdure, like the marks 
of a soiled foot on a rich carpet." 

Immediately below the hills on the 
S. side is the modern cemetery. The 
tombs are arranged with considerable 
taste, and have a neat and pleasing 
appearance. On going to them from 
the town you pass along a raised 
dyke, with a bridge over a canal that 
skirts the cultivated land. The latter 
answers the same purpose as the Bahr 
Yoosef in central Egypt in carrying 
the water of the inundation to the 
portion of the plain most distant from 
the river; paid in one of the ponds 
between the river and the town, fed 
by a lateral canal, the " very conve- 
nient " spring mentioned by Michaelis 
is to be looked for, the credit of 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 18. ABOOTEEG. 



371 



which newly-married brides may often 
be greatly interested in maintaining. 

On the southern corner of the moun- 
tain, immediately above the village of 
Dronka, is a large bed of alabaster 
lying upon the limestone-rock, but not 
sufficiently compact to admit of its 
being quarried for use. 

There are also some grottoes behind 
the village of Eeefa, about a mile to 
the S. of Dronka. 

Pliny seems to think that these hills 
formed the northern boundary of the 
Theba'id, since he says, " in Libyco 
Lycon, ubi montes finiunt Theba'idem." 
But this could not be so, as it extended 
much farther N. to the Thebaica 
Phylace. 

(TT.) At Shodb are the mounds and 
crude-brick remains of Hypsele, in 
Coptic Shotp, which gave its name to 
one of the nomes of Egypt. Near to 
Lycopolis was a fort called in Coptic 
Tgeli, and the village of Paphor, in 
the district of Shotp, the sites of which 
are now unknown. 

(E.) El Wasta, on the E. bank, is 
probably the successor of Contra Lyco- 
polis, but it has no remains. At the 
bend of the river between Esh Shug- 
gub and El Gutteea, on the E. bank 
is a sheykh's tomb, and some distance 
from it, under the hills, is a ruin 
apparently of Christian time. Gutte'ea 
(Kutiah), on the W. bank, abounds 
in Sont or acacia-trees; and it is a 
good place for purchasing charcoal, 
with which it supplies Asyoot. At 
El Mudmur (or Motmar) are the 
mounds of an old town, by some sup- 
posed to be Mouthis, a small place to 
the N. of Antseopolis. But the dis- 
tance of Mudmur from Gow is too 
much, and the position of Mouthis 
given in the Itinerary requires it to 
have been near Baaineh. Much Sont 
or Aca'-ia Nilotica, grows near Mud- 
mur, which, like that on the road to 
Abydus, may be the remnant of one 
of the old groves of Acanthus. At 
the N. of the projecting corner of the 
mountain, behind Mudmur, is a road 
called Derb Imow, which crosses this 
part of the eastern chain of hills, and 
rejoins the valley of the Nile by a J 



ravine near the grottoes of Gow ; and 
another, called Nukb el Hos? ayn, leads 
from a little above Dayr Tassa, and 
descends at the corner of the same 
mountain a short way to the W. of the 
same grottoes. To the E. of Mudmur 
are quarries of the same Oriental ala- 
baster that abounds in these hills, from 
which columns have been cut. 

(E.) A little beyond Mudmur is 
Sherg Selin. It has no ruins, but, 
from its name, it seems to lay claim to 
the site of Selinon, though the Itine- 
rary places Selinon half-way between. 
Antseopolis and Panopolis. Perhaps 
in this place we should read Passalon 
for Selinon. At El Khowabid are some 
mounds, but no ruins ; and in the 
hills to the N.E. are some limestone- 
quarries. About a mile further to the 
S.E. are some grottoes, at the pro- 
jecting corner of the hills, and others 
behind the Dayr Tassa. 

(W.) Abooteeg (15 miles) stands on 
the site of an ancient town on the W. 
bank ; and Wansleb mentions Sidfeh 
(or Sitfeh) as the successor of another, 
about 5 m. to the S. of it. Abooteeg 
is the Abutis of Latin writers, the 
Apothyke or Tapothyke of the Copts : 
which, as M. Champollion suggests, is 
very probably a Greek word signifying 
"granary," adopted by the Copts. 
Aboolfeela says that in his time the 
poppy was much cultivated in the 
vicinity, and it still continues to be 
grown there. From Abooteeg the 
course of the river northwards for- 
merly lay more inland to the W. 
This is consistent with the position 
of Selinon, on the opposite bank, to 
which a canal is said to have led 
from the Nile. 

(W.) Koos-kam, or Kos-kam (in 
Coptic Kos-kam), stands on the W. 
bank, between Abooteeg and Gow el 
Gharbeeyah. It was called Apollinis 
Minor Civitas, to distinguish it from 
Apollinopolis Magna and Parva, now 
Edfoo and Koos. 

( /<:.) Behind El Bedareh, on the E. 
bank, are some unsculptured caves of 
early time with round lintels ; and be- 
hind Kom-Altmar, a little farther N., 
I are others with slight remains of rude 



372 



EOUTE 18. CAIRO TO TEEBES. 



Sect, III. 



painting ; and one to the N. of these 
has a few hieroglyphics over the en- 
trance. The rest are without sculp- 
ture, including those behind the Dayr 
Tassa already mentioned. 

(E.) Eaaineh, a pretty-looking vil- 
lage with groves of palm-trees, and 
many pigeon-towers. In the hill be- 
hind, and close to Nesleh Raaineh, 
are some very old tombs hewn in the 
rock, of the same age as those about 
the pyramids : they have the same 
kind of subjects, and the same round 
lintels ; the boats have the old double 
mast; and the capitals, in the form 
of a full-blown lotus, are represented 
in the house as in the tomb of trades 
behind the Great Pyramid. In the 
largest tomb, which is about 40 ft. 
in length, are several statues in high 
relief, and the roof is cut to represent 
palm-tree beams. Farther to the S., 
between these and the projecting 
corner of the mountain below Gow, 
is a large quarry, and at its mouth 
are the mounds of an old town, the 
bricks of which bear the name of 
Amunoph III. Here or at Raaineh 
was the site of Muthis. Bound the 
mountain-point, which then curves in- 
wards to the E., are some old, and 
some later, grottoes, the former of the 
same date as those of Asyoot, the 
others of the age of the Romans, and 
perhaps painted by them, being orna- 
mented with arabesques and devices 
of that time. The subjects, however, 
are Egyptian, and funereal. Near 
them are some crude-brick remains. 
In another large quarry, some dis- 
tance beyond these to the eastward, 
are two singular representations of 
the giant-god Antseus, accompanied 
by Nephthys, holding in his left hand 
a spear and an oryx. In one of these 
he lias rays round his head like 
the Sun, and before him is a priest 
making offerings to him. Over the 
other altar is an enchorial inscription. 
These paintings are of the same late 
time as the Roman-Egyptian tombs 
just mentioned. 

f E.) Gow, or Kmc, el Kehe€r (14| m.), 
in Coptic Tkoou, the ancient Antxopolis, 



stands on the E. b^nk. The remains 
of the temple of Antaaus are now con- 
fined to a confused mass of stones near 
the water's edge, one of which bears 
the hieroglyphic names of Ptolemy 
Philopator and his queen Arsinoe. 
The last remaining column of the 
temple, mentioned by Dr. Richardson, 
was carried away by the river in 1821, 
which Mr. Legh, says, as early as 
1813, threatened " to wash the whole 
away." At the time he visited it the 
portico was still standing, and much 
in the same state as when seen by 
Norden and Pococke in 1737. Mr. 
Hamilton found the Greek inscription 
on the frieze of the portico in a very- 
imperfect state, the stones having 
been broken into six separate pieces ; 
but sufficient remained to show that 
" King Ptolemy, the son of Ptolemy 
and Cleopatra, gods Epiphanes, Eu- 
charistes, and queen Cleopatra, the 
sister of the king, gods Philometores, 
erected the (Pro)na<>s to Antaeus and 
the contemplar gods ; " and that " the 
emperors, the Caesars, Aurellii, Anto- 
ninus (and Varus) repaired the roof." 

The columns had palm-tree capitals, 
like the building that contained the 
tomb of Amasis, in the sacied encdo- 
sure of SaVs, mentioned by Herodotus. 
These seem to have been more com- 
mon in temples of the Delta than in 
those of Upper Egypt. Nothing re- 
mains at Gow in its original position, 
excepting some small btones ; and of 
the columns, little can be traced but 
broken fragments, with mutilated 
hieroglyphics. 

Inland from Gow el Kebee'r is a 
large lake, where capital goose and 
duck shooting may he had in the early 
part of the year ; but the birds are very 
difficult of approach, and if the tra- 
veller has a small English boat with 
him, he should have it carried to the 
lake. 

( W.) Gow el Gharbeeyah, on the op- 
posite bank, has no ruins. It was the 
centre of an insurrection in March, 
1865, which however was promptly 
quelled, the rebels being shot and 
hanged, and several villages de- 
stroyed. 

(E.) Near Antoeopolis the fabulous 



Egypt 



ROUTE 18. GEBEL 



SHEYKH HEREEDEE. 



373 



battle between Horus and Typlion was 
reputed to have taken place, which 
ended in the deft at of the latter, who 
had assumed the form of a crocodile ; 
and here Antaeus is said to have been 
killed by Hercules in the time of 
Osiris. Of these two fables we may in 
vain endeavour to discover the origin 
or the meaning; but it is probable 
that the story of Antseus is a Greek 
perversion of some legend, as his name 
is corrupted from that of one of the 
ancient gods of the Egyptian Pan- 
theon. He was probably a foreign 
deity; as were the bearded god of 
battles of early times, and Anta 
(Anaitis ?) the goddess of battles whose 
name so nearly resembles that of 
Antaeus. Antseopolis was in later times 
a bishop's see. 

(W.) At Mishte, Shabeka, and 
Sheykh Shenedeen, on the W. bank, 
are the mounds of old towns ; and in- 
land, opposite Gebel Sheykh Heree'dee. 
is Tahtah, distinguished from afar by 
its extensive mounds, which probably 
mark the site of the ancient Hesopis. 

(TT.) Tahtah (12* miles) is a large 
town of 3000 inhabitants, with several 
mosks, and its landing-place, or Sahel, 
is at the bend of the river, opposite 
Sheykh Hereedee. The land here- 
abouts produces abundant crops of 
corn, owing to the lowness of the 
level, and the consequent length of 
time that the water of the inundation 
remains upon its surface : and an im- 
portant cattle-market is held outside 
the town. 

(E.) Gebel Sheykh Heree'dee is a pro- 
jecting part of the eastern chain of 
hills, well known for the superstitious 
belief attached to a serpent, reputed 
to have lived there for ages, and to 
have the power of removing every 
kind of complaint ; and many mira- 
culous cures, that might have offended 
Jupiter, are attributed to this worthy 
successor of the emblem of iE^cula- 
pius. It is, perhaps, to the asp, the 
symbol of Kneph, or of the good ge- 
nius, that this serpent has succeeded. 

Here, as in all parts of the Nile where 
the mountains come close to the river, 



it is necessary to be very careful in 
sailing up-stream if the wind is at 
all strong, as very violent gusts come 
down from the hills; and what with 
the huge lateen sail, little or no bal- 
last, and no great readiness in answer- 
ing the helm, a dahabeenh is very apt 
to be most unpleasantly unsteady. 

(E.) Towards the southern end of 
the mountain, and on its western face, 
are some caves, one of which has a 
tablet of a late king offering to Khem, 
Horus, and Isis (?), and in the face 
of the rock to the S. of this are re- 
mains of an old tomb of the Pyramid 
period. Farther to the S. are other 
quarries; and beyond them, towards 
the S. end of this face of it, is another 
quarry, before which are some brick 
ruins of Christian time. In this quarry 
are some tablets ; one of which has 
the name of a Ptolemy (probably Au- 
letes), and beneath it a long enchorial 
inscription. On the road which runs 
at the base of the mountain is a 
mutilated statue of a man clad in the 
Roman toga. 

(E.) Passalon or Passalus is sup- 
posed to have stood here. It is placed 
by Ptolemy in the nome of Antseopolis ; 
and the boundary of the provinces of 
Gow and Ekhmeem, which is still at 
Raaineh, may mark that of the old 
Antseopolite and Panopolite norne*. 
This Raaineh is remarkable for its 
lofty pigeon-houses, which have the 
appearance, as well as the name, of 
"towers" (boon/), a style of building 
commonly met with in Upper Egypt. 

(E.) During the inundation the Nile 
rises to the narrow path at the base 
of the mountain, so as to render it 
scarcely passable for camels near the 
southern extremity. Pound this pro- 
jecting point to the eastward are a few 
grottoes without sculpture. 

(W) At Benowee't, on the opposite 
bank, to the W. of Maragha, are re- 
mains of a temple, with the name of 
Ptolemy Alexander; and at Basona, 
about 1| m. S. of Maragha, are some 
limestone blocks, one with the name 
of a Ptolemy or of a Csesar ; another 
of larger dimensions with the figure of 



374 



ROUTE 18. — CAIRO TO THEBES. 



Sect. IIL 



a king (apparently a Ptolemy) offer- j 
ing to Khem, Isis, and other deities, j 
The chief deity here and at Benowee't 
was probably Khem. 

(E.) At Fow, in Coptic Phboou- 
Tgeli, are the mouods of an ancient 
town. It was distinguished from 
another Fow, beyond Chenoboscion, 
which the Greeks called Bopos, by 
the adjunct Tgeli, signifying a " fort." 
It was by its position in the level 
plain between the mountains and the 
Nile that it commanded the road from 
Antseopolis to Chemmis. 

(E.) In the mountains behind Ket- 
katee are one large, and numerous 
small grottoes (without sculpture), 
and the bodies appear to be preserved 
without bitumen. There are others 
again behind Fow ; and at the corner 
of the mountain, to the N. of Ekk- 
ineem are some of Koman time. 

(IT.) Itfoo lies inland, on the W. 
bank. It was the ancient Aphrodito- 
polis, in Coptic AtbS or Thbo. About 
f m. to the S.W. of Itfoo is the Red 
Monastery; and 2J m. to the S.S.E. is 
the White Monastery, so called from 
the stone, as the other is from the 
brick, of which it is built. These 
names are, however, of late date, as 
both build ; ngs were originally covered 
with stucco. The White Monastery is 
better known by the name of Amba 
Shenobdeh, or St. Senode, and the 
other by that of Amba Bishoi. The 
founder of the latter, according to 
Wansleb, was a penitent robber, whose 
club was kept by the monks as a me- 
morial of his wicked course of life, 
and of his subsequent reformation. 
The best road to them is from Soohag, 
which stands near the end of the reach 
of the river below Ekhmeem. 

(W.) Soohdg (26 miles), the capital 
of the province of Girgeh, is a well- 
built and important town, with some 
good houses and mosks, and a well- 
supplied bazaar. Its mounds show it 
to have succeeded to an old town, but 
there are no stone remains. 

Soohag has given its name to a 
large canal called " Toora." "Kha- 
lee'g," or " Moie-t-Soohag," that takes 1 



j the water of the Nile into the interior 
j during the inundation, and is similar 
in size and purport to the Bahr Yoo- 
sef. It is this canal which irrigates 
the plain about Asyoot, and the lands 
to the S. of Daroot esh Shereef, as- 
sisted here and there by lateral canals 
from the river. Its entrance is well 
constructed, being lined with hewn 
stone. A gisr, or raised dyke, forms 
the usual communication, during the 
high Nile, with the villages in the in- 
terior ; and here and there, on the 
way to Itfoo and the two monasteries, 
you pass other smaller canals, all which, 
as well as the Moie-t-Soohag, are with- 
out water in summer. Several small 
ponds, also dry at this season, are 
passed on the way ; and at the edge 
of the cultivated land the peasants 
sink wells for artificial irrigation ; the 
water of the Nile filtering through 
the soil to any distance from the 
banks, and affording a constant sup- 
ply at the then level of the river. In 
the winter, when the water still re- 
mains in the ponds, very good duck- 
shooting may be had on the way to 
the monasteries. 

(W.) The White Monastery or White 
Convent (Dayr el dbiad) stands on the 
edge of the desert, and its inmates 
cultivate a small portion of land about 
it, in the capacity of fellaheen. The 
monastery is in fact only a Christian 
village, being inhabited by women as 
well as men, with their families. In 
former times the monks probably 
lodged in rooms over the colonnade, 
as the holes for rafters in the walls 
appear to show ; but these people now 
live in the lower part, which once 
formed the aisles of the church. They 
have adopted the same precaution as 
their brethren at Bibbeh, in order to 
secure the building in turbulent times 
against the assaults of the Moslems ; 
and their Christian patron, like St. 
George of Bibbeh, is converted into a 
Moslem sheykh, who commands the re- 
spect of the credulous under the mys- 
terious name of Sheykh Aboo Shenoo- 
deh. The monastery is built of hewn 
1 stones, measuring about 3 ft. 3 in. by 
1 1 ft. 3 in., many of which belonged to 



Egypt. 



KOUTE 18. SOOHAG THE WHITE MONASTEKY. 



375 



ancient buildings of the neighbouring I 
town of Athribis. The summit of the 
walls is crowned throughout by a 
stone cornice, like that of Egyptian 
temples, though without the torus, 
which in Egyptian architecture sepa- 
rates the cornice from the architrave, 
or from the face of the wall. On 
the exterior of the S. side are square 
niches, once stuccoed, as was all the 
building; and on the N. are small 
windows, built up within the old 
square niches, which are placed at in- 
tervals along all the walls, except on 
that side nearest the mountain, which 
has been added at a later time. 

Six doors formerly led into the inte- 
rior, five of which have been closed with 
masonry, leaving that alone on the S. 
side, which is now the only entrance. 
Over all the doors a projecting wall 
of brickwork has been built in order 
to strengthen them; doubtless at a 
time when they were threatened by an 
attack from the Arabs or the Mem- 
looks, on which occasion even the soli- 
tary door now open was closed, and 
protected in the same manner. Near 
the S. door are the fragments of red 
granite columns and statues. From 
the walls project blocks not unlike the 
gurgoyles or water-spouts of Egyptian 
temples, as at Dendera and other 
places, though there is no reason to 
suppose this was ever a temple, even of 
late time. It may, however, have de- 
rived the form of its exterior from those 
edifices, which the builders had been 
accustomed to see in the country, while 
the architectural details are Byzantine ; 
and judging from the number of 
columns and the style of the interior, 
it seems to have been erected at a time 
when Christianity was under the 
special protection of the imperial go- 
vernment. Pococke supposes it to be 
of the time of the Empress Helena; 
and the tradition among the monks 
dates its foundation about 150 years 
after her death. Over the door on the 
desert side is a cornice ornamented 
with Corinthian foliage, above which 
is a stone with square dentils, both of ' 
red granite ; and over the door, at the 
end of the entrance passage, is another 
block of red granite with Doric tri- 



I glyphs and guttse. The area within, 
like our churches and the old basilicas, 
consists of a nave and side-aisles, sepa- 
rated from each other by a row of about 

14 columns, mostly of red granite, with 
various capitals of a late time. One 
of the Corinthian, and another of the 
Ionic order, appear to be of a better 
age. The total beeadth of the build- 
ing inside is 78 ft. 

At the E. end is the choir, consist- 
ing of 3 semicircular apses, and before 
the central one is a screen with some 
miserable representations of St. George. 
Here are several Coptic inscriptions, 
in one of which may be read the words 
" Athanasius the Patriarch," the rest 
being much defaced. 

The half-domes of the apses are 
painted with frescoes ; the centre one 
representing a large figure of the Sa- 
viour seated on his throne, with the 
emblems of the 4 Evangelists at the 
side of a sort of vesica that surrounds 
him. The date of these subjects is 
uncertain ; but they are evidently later 
than the building, its ornaments being 
covered by the stucco on which they 
are painted. There are several Coptic 
inscriptions in the church, and one 
in uncial Greek characters upon a 
column to the 1. as you face the central 
apse. 

On three sides of this building, and 
at a short distance from it, are the 
remains of brickwork, of which the 
outer wall was built ; and perhaps 
the present building was only the 
church of a monastery formerly at- 
tached to it. 

Tradition reports that this convent 
stands on the site of an Egyptian city 
called Medeenet Atreeb, and the ruins 
in its vicinity may be the remains of 
an old town ; but the remains of the 
old Athribis, or Crocodilopolis stand 
about half an hour's ride to the south- 
ward, where a ruined temple and 
extensive mounds still mark its site. 

In the midst of mounds of pottery 
lie large blocks of limestone, 14 to 

15 ft. long, by 3, and 5 ft. thick, the 
remains of a temple 200 ft. by 175, 
facing the S., and dedicated to the 
lion-headed goddess Thriphis. Over 
the door is a king offering to Thriphis, 



376 



ROUTE 18. — CAIRO TO THEBES. 



StCt. III. 



Khem, and other deities, over whom, 
is the name of Ptolemy the Elder, son 
of Auletes; and it is probable that the 
foundation of the building is even of 
a still earlier date. On a stone, at the 
southern extremity of the ruins, which 
covered the centre doorway or entrance 
of the portico, are names arranged on 
either side of a head of Athor, sur- 
mounted by a globe containing the 
mysterious eye, with two asps, wear- 
ing the crowns of Upper and Lower 
Egypt, the whole group being com- 
pleted by two sitting deities. Such 
are the ornamental devices of cornices 
and architraves on temples of the 
time of the empire, as at Dendera and 
other places. On the soffit of the 
fame were the ovals of Tiberius Clau- 
dius Kaisaros (Csesar) Germanicus (?) ; 
and on the other side a Greek in- 
scription accompanied by the ovals of 
Claudius Csesar Germanicus. 

These ruins have also the name of 
Medeenet Ashaysh. 

On the face of the mountain about 
half a mile W.S.W. \ S. of the White 
Convent are some rock-tombs, having 
passages sloping in at an angle of 
35° for lowering coffins. They have 
scarcely any remains of hieroglyphics, 
but are of very early date. The rock 
here bears curious marks of running 
water, and stalagmitic deposits. About 
half a mile beyond the ruins of Athri- 
bis are the quarries from which the 
stone of the temple was taken ; and 
below are several small grottoes that 
have serve d for tombs, and were once 
furnished with doors, secured, as usual, 
by a bolt or lock. On the lintel of 
one of them is a Greek inscription, 
saying that it was " the sepulchre of 
Ermius, the son of Archibius." It 
has the Egyptian cornice and torus. 
In the interior are cells, and it con- 
tains the scattered residue of burnt 
bones. Through one of its side walls 
an entrance has been forced into the 
adjoining tomb. The mountain ap- 
pears to have had the name in Coptic" 
of Pfoow-n-atrepe, from the neighbour- 
ing city. 

The Red Convent (Dayr el Almar), 
which lies to the N.N.W. is rather 



older than the White Convent ; but 
they are probably both of a later date 
than the Empress Helena. The Dayr 
el Ahmar is built in the same style as 
the other convent ; its long flat walls 
surmounted by the Egyptian cornice, 
which is also of stone. Its small brick 
windows are pointed and slightly 
stilted, and are in their construction 
very like those in the convent of Old 
Cairo, added by the early Christians, 
and in the mosk of Amer. The north- 
ern entrance (long since closed) is orna- 
mented with devices and capitals of 
Byzantine time, elaborately sculptured. 
What is now the church was perhaps 
originally only the E. end of it, the 
outer part then forming the nave and 
aisles of this basilica-shaped building. 
The church consists of a transverse 
corridor, and a central and two side 
apses; and on each half-dome is 
painted a fresco, as at the White 
Convent. Like other early Christian 
churches, it does not stand E. and 
W., but 67° E. of N., and that of the 
White Convent 59° E. of N., by com- 
pass. 

In the face of the hill, 1J m. S.W. 
5 W. from the Eed Convent, is a rock- 
tomb, with a few vestiges of sculp- 
tures. It is called Magharat Kafes. 
An ancient road leads towards it from 
near the convent. 

(E.) Elchmeem stands at a short 
distance from the river-bank, 2 or 3 m. 
above Soohag. It is a large town, 
with a bazaar, and a market-day every 
Wednesday. Here are made the check 
cotton shawls with silk fringes, so often 
worn by the Nile boatmen. Ekhmeem 
occupies the site of Chemmis or Pano- 
polis, in Coptic Chmimor Shmim, for- 
merly one of the most considerable 
cities of the Theba'id. 

On the side of the town farthest 
from the river, beyond the present 
walls, are the remains of some of its 
ancient buildings. 

A long inscription, bearing the date 
of the 12th year of the Emperor Tra- 
janus Germanicus Dacicus, points out 
the site of the Temple of Pan ; who, 
as we learn from the dedication, shares 
with Thriphis the honours of the 



Egypt. 



KOUTE 18. — EKHMEEM. 



377 



sanctuary. We also ascertain another 
very important fact from this inscrip- 
tion, that the deity, who h;is been 
called Priapus and Mendes. is in reality 
the Pan of Egypt, his figure being 
represented on the same face of the 
stone with the dedication : which ac- 
cords very well with the description of 
the deity of Panopolis, given by Ste- 
phanus of Byzantium. On the soffit 
is a circle divided into 12 compart- 
ments, probably astronomical ; but 
these, as well as the figures on the 
neighbouring block, are nearly all 
defaced. 

These are, doubtless, the remains of 
the fine temple mentioned by Abool- 
feda, which he reckons among the 
most remarkable iu Egypt, as well for 
the size of the stones used in its con- 
struction, as for the profusion of sub- 
jects sculptured upon them. 

Vestiges of other ruins are met with 
some distauce beyond, which may pro- 
bably have belonged to the temple of 
Perseus; but a few imperfect sculp- 
tures are all that now remain, and it 
is with difficulty we can trace on its 
scattered fragments the name of Pto- 
lemy, the son of Auletes, and that 
of the Emperor Domitian. There are 
also the names of Thothmes III. and 
of a queen, probably of one of the late 
Pharaohs. 

According to Strabo, Panopolis was 
a very ancient city, and the inhabitants 
were famous as linen manufacturers 
and workers in stone ; nor were they, 
if we may believe Herodotus, so much 
prejudiced against the manners of the 
Greeks as the rest of the Egyptians. 
The people of Chemmis, says the his- 
torian of Halicarnassus, are the only 
Egyptians who are not remarkable 
"fur their abhorrence of Greek cus- 
toms. Chemmis is a large city of the 
Theba'id, near Neapoli-', where there 
is a temple of Perseus, the son of Da- 
nae. This temple is of a square form, 
and surrounded by palm-trees. It has 
stone propyla of considerable size, 
upon which are two largo statues ; and 
within the sacred circuit stands the 
sanctuary, having in it an image of 
Perseus. For the Chemmites say that 
Perseus has often appeared in their 



country, and even within the temple, 
and his sandal was once found there, 
2 cubits in length. They also state 
that his appearance was always looked 
upon as a great blessing, being fol- 
lowed by the prosperous condition of 
the whole of Egypt. They celebrate 
gymnastic games in his honour, in the 
manner of the Greeks, at which they 
contend for prizes, consisting of cattle, 
cloaks, and skins. 

" On inquiring why Perseus was in 
the habit of appearing to them alone, 
and why they differed from the rest 
of the Egyptians in having gymnastic 
games, they replied that Perseus was 
a native of their city, and that Danaus 
and Lynceus being Chemmites, emi- 
grated into Greece. They then showed 
me the genealogy of those two persons, 
bringing it down to Perseus; and 
stated that the latter, having come to 
Egypt for the same reason given by 
the Greeks, to carry off the head of 
the Gorgon from Libya, visited their 
country aud recognised all his rela- 
tions. They added that when he 
came to Egypt he knew the name of 
Chemmis from his mother ; and the 
games were celebrated in compliance 
with his wishes." 

This tale doubtless originated in 
the credulity of the Greeks, and in 
their endeavour to trace resemblances 
in other religions with the deities or 
personages of their own mythology : 
or, if a similar story were really told 
to the historian by the Egyptians 
themselves, it could only have been 
fabricated by that crafty people, to 
flatter the vanity of Greek strangers, 
whose inquiries alone would suffice to 
show the readiest mode of practising 
such a deception. Perseus was no 
more an Egyptian deity than Macedo ; 
and it is still a matter of doubt to 
what deities in the Egyptian Pantheon 
these two names are to be referred. 

The notion of the great antiquity of 
Panopolis seems to have been tradi- 
tionally maintained even to the time of 
the Moslems ; and Leo Africanus con- 
siders it " the oldest city of all Egypt," 
having, as he supposes, " been founded 
by Ekhineem, the son of Misraim, the 
offspring of Cush, the son of Ham." 



378 



EOUTE 18. — -CAIRO TO THEBES. 



Sect. III. 



It seems to have suffered much at the 
period of the Arab conquest; and to 
Buch an extent was the fury of the in- 
vaders carried against this devoted 
city, that " nothing was left of its 
buildings but their foundations and 
ruined walls;" and all the columns 
and stones of any size were carried to 
the other side of the river, and used in 
the embellishment of Mensheeyah. 

In Pococke's time Ekhmeem was the 
residence of a powerful chief, who took 
from it the title of emeer or prince of 
Ekhmeem. His family, which was ori- 
ginally from Barbary, established itself 
here three or four generations before, 
and obtained fiom the Sultan the go- 
vernment of this part of the country, 
upon condition of paying an annual 
tribute. But their name and in- 
fluence have now ceased, and, like 
the Hawara Arabs, once so well known 
in these districts, the princes of Ekh- 
mim are only known from the accounts 
of old travellers, and the traditions of 
the people. They show their tombs, 
with those of their slaves ; and in the 
cemetery, near the ruins, is the tomb 
of the patron of the town, Sheykh 
Abooel Kasim. Boats, ostrich-eggs, 
and inscriptions are hung up within it 
as ex-votos to the saint; and a tree 
within the holy precincts is studded 
with nails, driven into it by persons 
suffering from illness, in the hopes of 
a cure. Near this is the tomb of Bir 
el Abbad, above mentioned. It was 
at Ekhmeem that Nestorius, after 16 
years' exile, ended his days and was 
buried, in the middle of the 5th centy. 

(E.) Pococke speaks of some con- 
vents near Ekhmeem, one called " of 
the Martyrs," mentioned by the Arab 
historian Macrizi, and another about 
two miles further in a wild valley, 
which is composed of grottoes in the 
rock, and a brick chapel covered with 
Coptic inscriptions. Near this is a 
rude beaten path, leading to what 
appears to have been the abode of a 
hermit. This valley is doubtless the 
Wady el Ain (" Valley of the Spring "), 
between 3 and 4 m. to the N.E. of 
Ekhmeem. in which are a spring of 
water and grottoes, and on the S. j 



of its mouth an old road leading over I 
the mountains. Close to this is a It 
modern pass called Nukb el Kdlee, »| 
which crosses the mountains, and de- j 
scends again into the valley, in the I : 
district of Sherg "Weled Yahia, nearly 
opposite Bardees. 

(E.) Behind the village of Howa- 
weesh are other grottoes, of very an- 
cient date; in which Mr. Harris found 
the hieroglyphic name of the nome of 
Panopolis ; and 3 m. above Ekhmeem 
are the vestiges of an ancient town, 
probably Thomu. The remains there 
consist of mounds and crude brick. 

Thomu should he the place called in 
Coptic Thmoui m Paneheou ; but M. 
Champollion endeavours to show from 
a Copt MS. that it was an island on 
the western side of the Nile, opposite 
Ekhmeem ; and its name, " the Is i and 
of the place of Cattle," argues that it 
was not on the mainland, if even it j 
could be to the E. of Panopolis. 
Thomu, however, is placed by the 
Itinerary on the E. bank, 4 m. above 1 
Panopolis, and therefore agrees with 
the position of these mounds. 

Some other places are mentioned in 
the Coptic MSS. as having existed in 
the vicinity of Ekhmeem; but of iheir 
exact position nothing is satisfactorily 
known. These are Pleuit, Shenalolet, 
and Tsmine, the first of which appears 
to have been an ancient town of some 
consequence; the second, from its 
name, a village with many vineyards 
in its neighbourhood ; and in the last 
was a monastery founded by St. Pacho- 
mius. 

(IF.) Menslieeyah (11 m.) has exten- 
sive mounds, but the only vestiges of 
masonry consist in a stone quay on the 
E. side of the town. It stands on a 
small branch of the Nile, which was 
probably once the main stream. By 
the Copts it is called Psoi, and some- 
times in Arabic MSS. El Monshat, as 
well as Mensheeyah. It is supposed 
to occupy the site of Ptolema'is Hermii ; 
which, according to Strabo, was the 
largest town in the Thebai'd, and not 
inferior to Memphis. But neither its 
original extent, nor that of any city in 
Upper Egypt, except Thebes itself, 



Eyypt. 



ROUTE 18. EXCURSION TO ABYDUS. 



379 



can justify this assertion of the geo- 
grapher. He even gives it a political 
system, on the Greek model ; which, 
if true, may refer to some change in 
its government, after it had been 
rebuilt and had received the name of 
Ptolemais ; for it doubtless succeeded 
to a more ancient city, and Ptolemy 
calls it the capital of the Thinite 
nome. Leo Africanus says it was 
" badly built, with narrow streets, 
and so dusty in summer that no one 
could walk out on a windy day. The 
neighbourhood, however, was famous 
for abundance of corn and cattle. It 
was once possessed by a certain African 
prince from the Barbary coast, called 
Howara, whose predecessors obtained 
the principality of that name, of which 
they were deprived by Soliman, the 
9th sultan of the Turks." 

From Mensheeyah to Girgeh the 
eastern chain of hills comes down close 
to the river, and is known by the 
name of Gebel Tookh. At its northern 
extremity are the ruins of an old 
town, about a mile above Lahaiwa. 

(IF.) Ayserat on the W. bauk is still 
noted, like Girgeh and Kasr es Syad, 
for its numerous turkeys. 

(2?.) Geergeh, or Girgeh (13 m.), for- 
merly the capital of the province of 
the same name, but now much sunk in 
importance. It has not succeeded to 
any ancient town of note, and from its 
name it is easy to perceive that it is 
of Christian origin. When visited by 
Pococke and Norden, it was a quarter 
of a mile from the river ; but it is now 
on the bank, and part of it has already 
been washed away by the stream. 
This is one of many proofs of the great 
changes that have taken place in the 
course of the Nile within a few years, 
and fully accounts for certain towns, 
now on the river, being laid down by 
anient geographers in an inland 
position. 

At Girgeh there is a Latin convent 
or monastery, the superior of which is 
an European. It is the oldest Eoman 
Catholic establishment now in Egypt, 
those of Ekhmeem, Farshoot, and 
Tahta, being the next in order of 
antiquity. Some consider that of Ne- 



<*adeh the most ancient. It was not 
*rom a Latin but from a Copt convent 
that Girgeh received its name, and 
Girgis, or George, as is well known, 
is the patron saint of the Egyptian 
Christians. Leo Africanus tells us 
that " Girgeh was formerly the largest 
and most opulent monastery of 
Christians, called after St. George, 
and inhabited by upwards of 200 
monks, who possessed much land in 
the neighbourhood. They supplied 
food to all travellers ; and so great 
was the amount of their revenues, that 
they annually sent a large sum to the 
patriarch of Cairo, to be distributed 
among the poor of their own persuasion. 
About 100 years ago a dreadful plague 
afflicted Egypt, and carried off all 
the monks of this convent, wherefore 
the prince of Mensheeyah surrounded 
the building with a strong wall and 
erected houses within, for the abode of 
various workmen and shopkeepers. In 
process of time, however, the patriarch 
of the Jacobites (or Copts) having 
made a representation to the sultan, 
he gave orders that another monastery 
should be built on the spot, where an 
ancient city formerly stood, and as- 
signed to it only a sufficient revenue 
to enable it to maintain 30 monks." 

Abydus may be visited from Girgeh, 
but it is a long weary ride of 12 miles, 
and it is far better to go from Bel- 
lianeh. The only place of importance 
between Girgeh and Abydus is 

Bardees, well known in the time of 
the Memlooks, who gave the title El 
Bardeesee to one of the principal beys, 
hence called Osman-Bey-el-Bardeesee. 
Frther to the S.W. is a town with 
old mounds, called El BeerbeJi — a 
name taken from the Coptic Perve, 
" the temple," and commonly applied 
to ancient buildings. 

Excursion to Abydus. 

(IF.) Bellianeli (8 m.) has succeeded 
to an old town whose mounds mark its 
site. Its Coptic name is Tpourane. 
Donkeys can be procured here for 
going to Abydus, distant 6 m. 

The way lies across a very rich plain 
till the edge of the desert is reached, 



Egypt- 



ROUTE 18- ABYDUS : TABLET. 



381 



on which stands the modern village of 
Arabat, surnamed by the Arabs el 
Matfodn (''the buried"), from the 
ancient edifices that until lately lay 
covered with the desert sand all 
around. 

Abydus, or Thinis, in Coptic Ebot, 
88 in the hieroglyphics, was one of the 
largest and most important cities in 
Upper Egypt. Strabo indeed says 
that, though in his time reduced to 
the state of a small village, it had 
formerly held the first rank next to 
Thebes — a position which was pro- 
bably assigned to it as having been 
the birth-place of Menes, and the 
burial-place of Osiris "There are 
many places," says Plutarch, " where 
his corpse is said to have been de- 
posited; but Abydus and Memphis 
are mentioned in particular, as having 
the true body ; and for this reason the 
rich and powerful of the Egyptians are 
desirous of being buried in the former 
of these cities, in order to lie, as it 
were, in the same grave as Osiris 
himself." 

Its ruins are on a grand scale, and 
of considerable antiquity ; and, thanks 
to Ihe recent excavations of M. 
Mariette, have been to a great extent 
cleared from their sandy shroud. Be- 
ginning at the S. end of the ruins, the 
first large edifice reac hed is the Tem- 
ple of SetM I., father of Barneses II. 
This is the building called by Strabo 
the "Memnonium," and deservedly 
praised by him for the magnificence 
of its decoration. The plan of this 
temple is somewhat irregular, and 
it is difficult to determine the mean- 
ing and object of its various parts. 
There are 2 large halls, the eastern 
with two, and the western with three, 
rows of columns. From the latter, 
seven short passages lead westward 
into as many vaulted chambers. The 
method of constructing the roofs 
of these chambers is very singular. 
They are formed of large blocks of 
stone, extending from one architrave 
to the other ; not, as usual in Egyptian 
buildings, on their faces, but on their 
sides; so that, considerable thickness 
having been given to the roof, a vault 



was afterwards cut into it, without 
endangering its solidity. The whole 
was covered with hieroglyphics and 
sculptures beautifully coloured; and 
on the ceiling the ovals of the king 
remain, with stars, and transverse bands 
containing hieroglyphics. A short 
passige on the "W. side of the third 
vaulted chamber from the N. leads into 
a small hall supported by ten columns. 
On the rt. of this hall as you enter 
are some other small chambers covered 
with very highly finished sculptures. 

From the S. end of the 2nd large 
hall leads a narrow slightly ascend- 
ing chamber, the ceiling and sides of 
which are covered with sculptures. 
Amid the stars and king's ovals with 
which the ceiling is decorated is an 
inscription commemorating the dedi- 
cation of the temple. On the left or 
E. wall are four scenes. The first, 
second, and fourth represent offerings 
made to Ammon, Horus, and Osiris. 
In the third Sethi and his son Rameses 
are represented standing in front of a 
tablet, on which are engraved the 
names of 130 divinities, which the 
text calls "the great and the small 
cycle of the divinities of the sacred 
places of the north and the south." 
The rt. or W. wall is divided into four 
scenes like the other, and in the one 
immediately opposite the tablet of 
divinities just mentioned Sethi and 
Eameses are offering homage to 76 
kings their predecessors, Sethi himself 
being included. 

This is the new Tablet of Abydus, 
which, from the beauty of the engrav- 
ing, the perfect state of preservation in 
which it was found, and its historical 
importance, is one of the most interest- 
ing monuments in Egypt. The list of 
these 76 kings begins with Menes and 
ends with Sethi I. It is arranged in 
three lines, but the last line consists en- 
tirely of the two names of Sethi. The 
tablet was discovered in 3865, and is 
conjectured by M. Mariette to be the 
original of the fragmentary one found 
in the temple of Eameses II. at Aby- 
dus, and now in the British Museum. 
Rameses copied the list made by his 
father. M. Mariette further supposes 
that the kings whose names are given 



3S2 



ROUTE 18. — CAIRO TO THEBES. 



Sect. III. 



on these two tablets, are those who had 
more particularly been connected with 
Abydus, either through having been 
born there, or having added to and 
embellished the city ; just as the list 
of kings engraved by Thothmes III., 
in what is called the " Hall of An- 
cestors " taken from Karnak, and now 
at Paris, contains the names of those 
who had more particularly benefited 
Thebes. 

There are various other smaller 
columnar halls and chambers to the 
S., many of them covered with highly- 
finished painted sculptures. The 
motif of these pictures is the same 
here as in all the temples of the 
Pharaonic period, viz., the king adoring 
the divinity of the place. In the 
vaulted chambers of this temple the 
paintings represent in successive order 
the different ceremonial observances. 
The king on entering the chamber, 
round which were placed in their 
shrines the statues of different divi- 
nities, turned to the right, and open- 
ing each shrine in succession, offered 
incense to the divinity, removed the 
covering which enveloped it, placed his 
hands on it, sprinkled perfume on it, 
and then re-covering it, passed on to 
the next shrine, and so round the 
chamber. 

A little to the N. of this temple is 
another in a very ruined state. It 
was founded by Barneses II., and 
dedicated, like that of his father Sethi, 
to Osiris. The materials of which it 
was composed were of unusual rich- 
ness, the walls being lined throughout 
with oriental alabaster, and covered, 
so far as can be gathered from the few 
fragments that remain, with very fine 
sculptures richly painted. Only a 
part of the walls are here and there 
left standing to a height of about 5 ft., 
and it is hardly possible to trace the 
plan of the building. It was from a 
wall of this temple that the mutilated 
tablet of Abydus referred to above 
was taken. It was first discovered by 
Mr. Banks in 1818 ; and having been 
carried away by M. Mimaut, the 
French Consul-general, and sold in 
Paris, is now deposited in the British 
Museum. 



Continuing still in a N . direction, 
we reach a large crude-brick enclosure. 
This probably marks the site of Thinis, 
the cradle of the Egyptian monarchy, 
and the place where was situated the 
tomb of Osiris, a sanctuary as vene- 
rated by the ancient Egyptians as the 
Holy Sepulchre by Christians. Inside 
this enclosure is a mound called the 
the Kdm es Sultan. It is not a natural 
tumulus, but is formed by the heaping 
up of tombs in successive ages one 
upon another ; and M. Mariette thinks 
with great probability that these may 
be the tombs of the rich Egyptians of 
whom Plutarch speaks, as coming from 
all parts of the country to Abydus to 
be buried near Osiris. He looks for- 
ward, moreover, with some hope, to 
the possibility of finding in the rock 
at the base of this mound the famous 
tomb of Osiris itself. 

The necropolis of Abydus has fur- 
nished a large proportion of the stelse 
and other objects of interest in the 
museum at Cairo. The tombs are 
principally of the Vlth, XHth, and 
XIHth dynasty periods. Those of the 
XIHth dynasty are often small pyra- 
mids of crude brick with the centre 
hollowed out. Many of the tombs of 
the Vlth dynasty are vaulted, and pre- 
sent instances of the true arch. 

The reservoir mentioned by Strabo, 
which was cased with large stones, 
may perhaps be traced on the E. of the 
ancient town ; and it was to this that a 
canal brought the water from the Nile, 
passing, as does the present canal, 
through the grove of Acanthus, which 
was sacred to Apollo. 

From Abydus, also (as in Strabo's 
time), a road leads to the Great Oasis, 
ascending the Libyan chain of moun- 
tains nearly due W. of the town. 
Another road runs to the same Oasis 
from El Kalaat, a village further to the 
S. of Samhood, which is the one taken 
by those who go from and to Farshoot, 
and other places in this part of the 
valley; the ascent and descent being 
so much more easy than by the 
mountain road, or path, to the W. of 
Abydus. 

(E.) On the opposite bank stood 
Lepidotum, so called from the worship 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 18. — -SAMHOOD . — FARSHOOT, 



383. 



of the fish. Lepidotus; but its exact 
position is unknown, though a place 
of some size and importance, and 
mentioned by Ptolemy as one of the 
large cities of Egypt. 

(W.) Samhood, inland on the W. 
bank, occupies the site of an ancient 
town, called in Coptic Semhoout, or 
Psenhoout ; for though placed mure to 
the N. in the Coptic MSS., it is evi- 
dent this name can only apply to the 
modern town of Samhood, whose 
mounds sufficiently indicate its anti- 
quity. 

(K) About the district of Sherg-el- 
Khayam the Nile makes a considerable 
bend, but resumes its general course, 
about N. and S., near El Hamra. 

Farslioot (18 J m.) derives its name 
from the Coptic Bershoout. It is a 
good sized village with a large sugar- 
factory belonging to the Khedive. 

In Pococke's time Earshoot was the 
residence of the great sheykh, who 
governed nearly the whole country on 
the W. bank; but he had already lost 
much of his authority, and had great 
difficulty in collecting his revenues. 

''The present inhabitants of this 
district," says Mr. Hamilton, " are 
descendants of the Howara tribe of 
Arabs. This warlike race had for 
several years been in the undisturbed 
possession of the soil, and enjoyed, 
under the government of their own 
sheykhs, the independent tributaries of 
the pasha of Cairo, as much happi- 
ness and security as has for m^ny 
centuries fallen to the lot of any of 
the provinces of the Turkish empire. 
They lost their independence under 
their last sheykh, Hammam, who with 
an army, said to have consisted of 
36,000 horsemen, was entirely defeated, 
by Mohammed Bey." The family 
still remain, but they are now like the 
other peasants. 

The Howara were always famed for 
their skill in breeding and manag- 
ing horses ; the name Howaree, like 
Fares, signifies a "horseman," and 
is still applied to the native riding- 
masters and horse breakers of Egypt. 
The Howara breed of dogs was not 
less noted in Upper Egypt than that 1 



of the horses ; some of which are still 
found about Erment, Bairat, and 
other places, mostly used for guarding 
sheep ; and their rough, black, wire- 
haired coats, their fierce eye, their 
size, and their courage, in which they 
differ so widely from the cowardly 
fox-dog of Egypt, sufficiently distin- 
guish them from all other breeds of 
the country. Nor have the people the 
same prejudice against dogs as in 
Lower Egypt ; and indeed the in- 
habitants of the Saeed have generally 
much fewer scruples on this point 
than other Moslems, being mostly of 
the sect of Malekee, who view the dog 
with more indulgent feelings. 

Some of the fancies of the Moslems 
respecting what is clean and unclean 
are amusingly ridiculous, and not the 
least those respecting dogs. Three 
of the sects consider its contact de- 
files; the other, the Malekee, fears 
only to touch its nose, or its hair if 
wet; and tales about the testimony 
of dogs and cats against man in a 
future state are related with a gravity 
proportionate to their absurdity. It 
is, however, not surprising that the 
dogs of Egypt, living as they do in 
the dirty streets, and feeding upon any 
offal they find, should be considered 
unclean ; and even the rigid Hanefee 
overlooks his scruples in favour of a 
Ktlb Roomee, a " Greek " or " Euro- 
pean dog," when assured that it differs 
in its habits from those of his own 
country. 

The W. bank of the Nile in the 
whole of this district, which is called 
Hamram, is remarkably rich and fer- 
tile ; and the beauty of the landscape 
is much increased by the large groves 
of palm-trees and acacia which line 
the bank. 

(W.) The next town or village of 
any size, after Farshoot, is BajooTci. 
It lies a short distance inland, but it 
has a port called $a7w7-Bajo6ra, on the 
river. Beyond, at the southern ex- 
tremity of the bend of the river, are 
How and Kasr es Syad on opposite 
sides of the river. Here the river 
takes a very long curve ; and as it runs 
from Keneh to How, its course is, 
1 S.W., so that ti e former stands about 



384 



ROUTE 18.— CAIEO TO THEBES. 



Sect. III. 



9' of latitude more to the N. than 
How, though higher up the stream. 
A similar deviation from its course 
does not occur again, except in the 
vicinity of Derr in Nubia, and at 
the great bend of the river above 
Dongola, which was formerly called 
the ayKwves or elbows of the Nile. 

(W.) How (8 m.) in Coptic Ho, Hou, 
or Ano, occupies the site of Diospolis 
Parva. Little remains of the city but 
the usual mounds and heaps of broken 
bricks. About a mile to the S., at the 
edge of the desert, are other mounds 
and the remains of buildings. 

(E.) At Kasr es Sydd, or " the 
Sportsman's Mansion," on the opposite 
bank, are the mounds of the ancient 
Chenohoscion, in Coptic Seneset. The 
only remaining masonry worthy of 
notice is a dilapidated quay, amidst 
whose ruins is a stone bearing a Greek 
inscription, apparently of the time of 
Antoninus Pius ; from which we learn 
that the individual by whose order 
it was sculptured had executed some i 
work " at his own expense ; " perhaps j 
the quay itself, to which there is every 
appearance of its having once belonged. 
Another block has on it part of the 
head-dress and hieroglyphics of the 
goddess Isis. 

Chenoboscion was famous for its 
geese, which were fed there in great 
numbers ; and it was from this circum- 
stance that it borrowed a name which 
was probably a translation of the ori- 
ginal Egyptian. Turkeys seem now 
to have taken their place ; and after 
Akhayseh, Ayserat, and Girgeh, they 
are most abundant at Kasr es Syad. 
The fine bold bluff which here rises 
abruptly from the river is called Gebel 
Tookh. 

(E.) About a mile beyond the east- 
ern mouth of the canal of Kasr es 
Syad, not very far from the high road, 
are some tombs of the Vlth-dynasty 
period. Within them the agricultural 
and other scenes common to the tombs 
of Egypt may still be traced on the 
Walls, and some indeed in a very good 
s tate of preservation. Many are co- 
vered with Coptic ex-votos worth 
studying. 



The eastern chain of hills here ap- 
proaches close to the river for the last 
time before reaching Thebes, and 
the western or Libyan range, of far 
bolder and more striking outline, is 
soon seen advancing on the right. 

(W.) Dishneh, a good-sized village, 
with a well-supplied market on Sun- 
days. Sand-grouse may often be found 
in the neighbourhood among the hilfeh 
grass. 

The isle of Tabenna was somewhere 
on the W. bank, between Diospolis 
Parva (How) and Tentyris. In Coptic 
it was called Tabenheci or Tabenhese, 
the last part of which recalls the 
Greek word uvcros, "island." Cham- 
pollion supposes the name to signify 
" abounding in palm-trees," or " the 
place of flocks ; " and the termination 
esi to refer to the goddess Isis. In 
Arabic he says it is called Gezeeret el 
Gharb, " the Isle of the West." It 
was here that, about a.d. 356, St. Pa- 
chom (Pachomius) built a monastery, 
occupying " the vacant island of Ta- 
i benne," as Gibbon says, with " 1400 
1 of his brethren.'' 

(E.) Fow, inland, on the E. bank, 
marks the site of Bopos, in Coptic 
Phboou. 

About | m. from the river, on the W. 
bank, opposite Fow, are the ruins of 
Denderah, to the N. of the modern vil- 
lage of that name. The usual practice 
is to moor the boat to the E. bank at 
the nearest spot for reaching Keneh, 
a short distance further S. and inland, 
then cross the river in the sandal and 
ride on donkeys to Denderah ; but by 
those who can walk the ruins are more 
easily reached from a point N. of 
Keneh. 

(W.) Denderah— The name of Ten- 
tyris, or Tentyra, in Coptic Tentore, or 
Nikentore, seems to have originated in 
that of the goddess Athor, or Aphro- 
dite, who was particularly worshipped 
there ; and that the principal temple 
was dedicated to this goddess we learn 
from the hieroglyphics, as well as from 
a Greek inscription on the front, of 
the time of Tiberius, in whose reign its 
magnificent portico was added to the 
original building. Tentyra is probably 
taken from Te'i-n- Athor. the abode of 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 18. TEMPLE OF DENDERAH. 



385 



Athor, or Athyr. The name Athor is 
also a compound word, ' ' Tei (or Thy), 
Hor," signifying " the abode of Ho- 
rus ; which agrees with what Plu- 
tarch says, when he calls Athor "Ho- 
rus' mundane habitation." The hiero- 
glyphics, too, represent the name of 
the goddess by a hawk (the emblem 
of Horus) placed within a house. 

Egyptian sculpture had long been 
on the decline before the erection of 
the present temple of Denderah ; and 
the Egyptian antiquary looks with 
little satisfaction on the graceless style 
of the figures, and the crowded pro- 
fusion of ill-adjusted hieroglyphics, 
that cover the walls of this as of other 
Ptolemaic or Koman monuments. But 
architecture still retained the grandeur 
of an earlier period, and though the 
capitals of the columns were frequently 
overcharged with ornament, the gene- 
ral effect of the porticoes erected under 
the Ptolemies and Csesars is grand and 
imposing, and frequently not destitute 
of elegance and taste. 

These remarks apply very particu- 
larly to the temple of Denderah ; and 
from its superior state of preservation 
it deserves a distinguished rank among 
the most interesting monuments of 
Egypt. For though its columns, con- 
sidered singly, may be said to have a 
heavy, perhaps a barbarous, appear- 
ance, the portico is doubtless a noble 
specimen of architecture : nor is the 
succeeding hall devoid of beauty and 
symmetry of proportion. The pre- 
servation of its roof also adds greatly 
to the beauty, as well as to the interest, 
of the portico ; and many of those in 
the Egyptian temples lose their effect 
by being destitute of roofs. Generally 
speaking, Egyptian temples are more 
picturesque when in ruins than when 
entire ; being, if seen from without, 
merely a large dead wall, scarcely 
relieved by a slight increase in the 
height of the portico. But this cannot 
be said of the portico itself ; nor did a 
temple present the same monotonous 
appearance when the painted sculp- 
tures were in their original state ; and 
it was the necessity of relieving the 
large expanse of flat wall which led 
to this rich mode of decoration. 

[Egypt.] 



The building of the temple of Den- 
derah was begun in the reign of the 
11th Ptolemy, and completed in that 
of the Emperor Tiberius, but the 
sculptures and decorations were not 
finished till the time of Nero. Like 
all Egyptian temples, it stands in the 
centre of a large crude-brick enclosure, 
the height and thickness of whose 
walls prevented anything that took 
place inside being seen or heard. 
From an isolated stone pylon, bearing 
the names of Domitian and Trajan, 
a dromos leads up to the entrance. 

The portico or pronaos (a) is a mag- 
nificent hall supported by 24 columns. 
Between the first line of columns on 
either side of the entrance stretches a 
high stone screen. In each of the side- 
walls is a small doorway, which served 
for the passage of the priests and 
acolytes bearing offerings. The main 
entrance was reserved for the king. 
Immediately on the right after enter- 
ing the hall are four pictures, repre- 
senting the ceremonies observed by 
the king before penetrating into the 
interior of the temple. In the first 
the monarch presents himself at the 
entrance of the temple, sandals on foot 
and sceptre in hand, and preceded by 
five standards. The next scene shows 
him undergoing the ceremony of puri- 
fication at the hands of Thoth and 
Horns. He then, in the third, receives 
the two crowns of Upper and Lower 
Egypt from the goddesses Wat'i and 
Suvan. Thus recognized as sovereign 
of the whole country, he, in the fourth 
picture, is seen led by Maut of Thebes 
and Toom of Heliopolis into the pre- 
sence of the goddess Athor, to taste 
of the divine beauty and goodness. 
Similar scenes occupy the walls on 
the left of the entrance. 

On the ceiling is the zodiac, which 
led to so much learned controversy. 
Through the assistance of the Greek 
inscription, which was strangely over- 
looked, and the hieroglyphical names 
of the Caesars on the exterior and in- 
terior walls, which were then un- 
known, its date was satisfactorily as- 
certained ; and instead of being of 
early Pharaonic time, or of an ante- 
diluvian age, it is now confined to a 
s 



ROUTE 18. CAIRO TO THEBES. Sect. III. 

West. 




Temple of Dendeeah. 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 18. TEMPLE OF DENDERAH. 



387 



more modest and probable antiquity. 
The only three zodiacs known in 
Egypt, at Denderah, Esneh, and its 
neighbour Ed Dayr, are of Ptolemaic 
or of Eoman date. The astronomical 
subjects on the ceilings of the tombs of 
the kings, and other ancient Egyptian 
monuments, even if they may be con- 
sidered zodiacal, are represented in a 
totally different manner ; and we may 
be certain that the zodiac, as we know 
it, is not Egyptian. But it is remark- 
able that in those of Denderah and 
Esneh the sign Cancer is represented 
by a scarabseus, not a crab ; though 
other signs, as Sagittarius under the 
form of a Centaur, evidently of Greek 
invention, are admitted. 

The details of the cornice of the 
portico offer a very satisfactory speci- 
men of the use of a triglyphic orna- 
ment. It is common in many of the 
oldest Pharaonic temples, though ar- 
ranged in a somewhat different man- 
ner, and without so remarkable a me- 
tope as in the present instance. On 
the frieze, or rather architrave, is a 
procession to Athor; and among the 
figures that compose it are two playing 
the harp, and another the tambourine. 
The inscription which records the 
i building of the portico is on the pro- 
jecting fillet of the cornice, and com- 
mences with the name of the Emperor 
Tiberius. 

To the portico succeeds a hall of 6 
columns, with 3 rooms on either side ; 
the centre one on the tight, and the 
last on the left, having entrances from 
the outside. Then comes a chamber 
communicating on the left with two 
rooms, from the first of which a stair- 
case leads to the roof, and on the 
right with a passage leading to 3 
rooms and another staircase. Another 
chamber follows, with one room, on 
the left ; and then comes what has 
J been called the sanctuary, with a pas- 
j sage leading round it communicating 
! with several lateral chambers, that in 
-the centre at the end being the one 
in which the emblem of the divinity 
was preserved. 

According to M. Mariette, each of 
these halls and chambers had its pe- 
culiar destination. The hall (b) was 



where the processions first assembled. 
On its walls is a sort of calendar of 
the different fete-days, (c) and (d) 
were annexes of (b), containing altars 
at which prayers were said as the 
procession passed on. In (e) were 
kept the four sacred boats, which 
played the principal part in these pro- 
cessions. In the centre of each of 
these boats was a small temple, con- 
taining the emblem of the god to 
which it was sacred. This temple was 
covered with a thick white veil (comp. 
description of the Ark of the Cove- 
nant), (f) served as a laboratory in 
which were prepared the oils and es- 
sences used for perfuming the temple 
and statues, (g) was where the fruits 
of the soil intended for offerings were 
collected and consecrated, (h) and (i) 
were passages through which were 
brought in the offerings from Upper 
and Lower Egypt respectively, fj) 
was the treasure-chamber. All the 
scenes on its walls represent the king 
consecrating and offering different ob- 
jects in gold and silver. In (k) were 
deposited all the sacred vestments. 
The chambers (l), (m), in), to), (P 1 , 
and (q), and the small temple on the 
terrace, were especially devoted to the 
celebration of the festival of the New 
Year, marked by the appearance of the 
star Sirius. On the walls of the two 
staircases are pictured the details of 
the processions that took place on this 
occasion. At the head marches the 
king ; behind him are 13 priests bear- 
ing standards surmouuted with the 
emblems of various divinities. The 
procession first mounted the northern 
staircase, and stopped at the little 
hypaethral temple above mentioned, 
each of whose 12 columns was dedi- 
cated to one of the months of the year ; 
it then descended by the southern 
staircase (r). The rest of the temple 
was more particularly devoted to divine 
worship. The corridor (s) is covered 
with the usual scenes, representing 
the king making offerings to various 
divinities and receiving some gift in 
return ; each scene being accompanied 
by an explanatory text. The chamber 
(t) was dedicated to Isis ; (u) to Osiris 
restored to life : (v) to Osiris-Onophris 
s 2 



388 



ROUTE 18. CAIRO TO THEBE3. 



Sect. III. 



vanquishing his enemies under the 
form of crocodiles; (w) to the same 
god under the form of Hor-sam-to. In 
(x) and (y) Athor was especially wor- 
shipped as the divinity who received 
and gave fresh life to the sun each 
day. In (z) the same goddess was 
adored under her general titles, and 
in a niche in the wall, which the king 
alone might enter, was preserved her 
mysterious emblem, a great golden sis- 
trum. The remaining chambers {a), 
(b), (c), and (d) were dedicated to 
Pasht and other divinities. 

In the thickness of the walls and 
foundations are arranged long narrow 
passages without openings of any kind. 
Admittance to them could only be ob- 
tained l>y moving, by some mechanical 
contrivance, the stone which concealed 
the entrance. Here were probably con- 
cealed the statues in precious metals, 
and the other objects of value used in 
the service of the temple. 

Mention has already been made of 
the small temple on the roof. It is 
dedicated as a whole to the local 
Osiris of Denderah, and its six cham- 
bers are appropriated to the different 
forms of that divinity worshipped in 
each of the 42 nomes into which an- 
cient Egypt was divided : the three 
chambers on the N. to the northern 
nomes, and the three on the S. to the 
southern nomes. In the second cham- 
ber on the S. side was the planisphere 
or zodiac which is now in Paris. 

Numerous are the names of Csesars 
in this temple. In the portico may be 
distinguished those of Tiberius, Cali- 
gula. Claudius, and Nero. On the for- 
mer front of the temple, now the back 
of the pronaos, or portico, are those of 
Augustus and Caligula. This was, in 
fact, the original extent of the build- 
ing, and it was previous to the addi- 
tion of the portico that it was seen by 
Strabo. The oldest names are of Pto- 
lemy Caesarion, or Neo-Caesar, son of 
the celebrated Cleopatra by Julius 
Caesar, and of his mother; who are 
represented on the back wall of the 
exterior. Neither her features (which 
may still be traced) nor her figure 
correspond with her renowned beauty. 
But the portrait is interesting, from 



being the contemporary representation 
of so celebrated a person ; and, judg- 
ing from Greek gems, it seems to bear 
some general resemblance to the ori- 
ginal : allowance being made for the 
Egyptian mode of drawing and the 
want of skill of the artist, who pro- 
bably never saw the queen, and copied 
her portrait from some other imperfect 
picture. 

"Behind the temple of Venus," 
says Strabo, " is the chapel of Isis ; " 
and this observation agrees remark- 
ably well with the size and position 
of the small temple of that goddess ; 
consisting, as it does, merely of 1 cen- 
tral and 2 lateral adyta, and a trans- 
verse chamber or corridor in front ; 
and it stands immediately behind the 
S.W. angle of that of Athor. It is in 
this temple that the cow is figured, 
before which the Sepoys are said to 
have prostrated themselves when our 
Indian army landed in Egypt. Much 
has been thought of this ; but the 
accidental worship of the same animal 
in Egypt and India is not sufficient to 
prove any direct connection between 
the two religions. 

To the temple of Isis belonged the 
other pylon, which lies 170 paces to 
the eastward, and which, as we learn 
from a Greek inscription on either 
face of its cornice, was dedicated to 
that goddess in the thirty-first year of 
Caesar (Augustus); Publius Octavius 
being military governor, or praefect, 
and Marcus Claudius Postumus com- 
mander-in-chief. 

The same inscription is repeated on 
the E. side of the same gateway. 

Ninety paces to the N. of the great 
temple of Athor is another building, 
consisting of 2 outer passage-chambers, 
with 2 small rooms on either side of 
the outermost one, and a central and 
2 lateral adyta ; the whole surrounded, 
except the front, by a peristyle of 22 
columns. The capitals ornamented, or 
disfigured, by the representations of a 
Typhonian monster, have led to the 
supposition that it was dedicated to the 
Evil Genius : but as the whole of its 
sculptures refer to the birth of the 
young child of Athor, it is evident 



Egypt- 



EOUTE 18. DENDERAH. 



389 



that it appertains to the great temple 
of that goddess who is here styled his 
mother. The monster, moreover, has 
nothing to do with Typhon, but is the 
god called in the hieroglyphics Bes, 
patron of mirth and the dance, and, as 
snch, his image figures frequently on 
various articles of the toilette-table. 
These temples were styled by Cham- 
pollion the mammezsi, or "]ying-in 
places," set apart for the accouchement 
of the goddess, angl where the third 
member of the triad worshipped in the 
adjoining temple, was born. 

About 230 paces in front of the pylon 
of Athor is an isolated hypssthral build- 
ing, consisting of 14 columns, united 
by intercolumnar screens, with a door- 
way at either end; and a short dis- 

j tance to the S. are indications of an 

, ancient reservoir. A little to the N.E. 

[i of it are other remains of masonry ; 
but the rest of the extensive mounds 
of Tentyris present merely the ruins 

■ of crude-brick houses, many of which 

|t are of Arab date. 

i Five hundred paces E. of the pylon 
of Isis is another crude-brick enclosure, 
with an entrance of stone, similar to 
■I the other pylons, bearing the name of 
i Antoninus Pius. Over the face of the 
^gateway is a singular representation of 
■ithe Sun, with its sacred emblem the 
(] hawk, supported by Isis and Nephthys. 
f These two " sister goddesses" repre- 
I sented " the beginning and the end," 
, and were commonly introduced on 
J funereal monuments, Isis on one side, 
Nephthys on the other, of the de- 
i ceased ; which might lead us to sup- 
pose this enclosure to have been used 
: for sepulchral purposes. The area 
, within it measures about 155 paces by 
, 265 ; and at the S.E. corner is a well 
; of stagnant water. 

I The town stood between this and the 
, enclosure that surrounded the temples, 
S extending on either side, as well as 
■; within the circuit of the latter ; and on 
£ the N.W. side appear to be the remains 
s of tombs. They were, probably, of a 
i time when Tentyris ceased to be a 
a populous city, and when a deserted 
j part of it was set apart for the burial 
of the dead. 



In the limestone mountains S.S.E. of 
Denderah are some old quarries, and a 
few rude grottoes without sculpture ; 
and in the vicinity is a hill, about a 
mile to the N.W. of them, in which are 
sunk numerous tombs of the inhabit- 
ants of Tentyris. 

In the hagger, or plain of the desert, 
near Denderah are numerous primitive 
stones, evidently rounded by rolling, 
and which, from their number and the 
extent of the space they are scattered 
Over, could not have been brought by 
the hand of man; though many have 
been subsequently arranged in lines for 
some purpose. They are of granite, 
porphyry, and other primitive sub- 
stances, which are only found in the 
interior of the opposite eastern desert ; 
and if not brought by man, they must 
have been carried across the present 
bed of the river and up the slope of the 
western desert, by a rush of water 
coming from the valley which opens 
upon Keneh, and which, rising in the 
primitive ranges, has cut its way 
through the secondary hills that bor- 
der the valley of the Nile. They are 
therefore worthy the attention of the 
geologist, 

Between the town and the edge of 
the sandy plain to the S. is a low 
channel, which may once have been a 
canal ; and it is not improbable that it 
was to this that the Tentyrites owed 
their insular situation mentioned by 
Pliny. 

The Tentyrites were professed 
enemies of the crocodile; and Pliny 
relates some extraordinary stories of 
their command over that animal. The 
truth, indeed, of their courage, in 
attacking so formidable an enemy, 
appears to have been satisfactorily 
ascertained; and Strabo affirms that 
they amused and astonished the Eo- 
mans by their dexterity and boldness, 
in dragging the crocodile from an arti- 
ficial lake, made at Eome for this pur- 
pose, to the dry land, and back again 
into the water, with the same facility. 
Other writers mention the remarkable 
command they had over the crocodile ; 
and Seneca accounts for it by the con- 
tempt and consciousness of superiority 



390 



ROUTE 18. CAIEO TO THEBES. 



Sect. III. 



they felt, in attacking their enemy; 
those who were deficient in presence 
of mind being frequently killed. 

The crocodile is, in fact, a timid 
animal, flying on the approach of man, 
and, generally speaking, only ventur- 
ing to attack its prey on a sudden ; for 
which reason we seldom or never hear 
of persons having been devoured by it, 
unless incautiously standing on the 
sloping shore of the river, where its 
approach is concealed by the water, 
and where, by the immense power of 
its tail, it is enabled to throw down 
and overcome the strongest man ; who, 
being carried immediately to the bottom 
of the river, has neither the time nor 
the means to resist. Pliny, like other 
authors, has been led into a common 
error, that the sight of the crocodile is 
defective under water, which a mo- 
ment's consideration (without the ne- 
cessity of personal experience) should 
have corrected ; for it is at least rea- 
sonable to suppose that an animal 
living chiefly on fish should, in order 
to secure its prey, be gifted with an 
equal power of sight; and that of fish 
cannot be said to be defective. But 
Herodotus affirms that it is totally 
" blind under water." Its small eye 
is defended by the nictitating mem- 
brane, which passes over it when under 
water. It has no tongue, and moves 
the lower jaw like other animals ; 
though, from its frequently throwing 
up its head, at the same time that it 
opens its mouth, it has obtained the 
credit of moving the upper jaw. An- 
other error respecting it is its supposed 
inability to turn ; but it is better not 
to trust to this received notion, as it 
can strike its head with its tail. It is 
however a heavy and unwieldy animal ; 
it cannot run very fast, and is usually 
more inclined to run from, than at, 
anybody approaching it. No one, 
however, should go into the river from 
a sandbank where crocodiles abound ; 
but there is little or no danger in bath- 
ing in deep water. One or two of these 
animals may still sometimes be seen 
on the sandbank in the middle of the 
river, opposite the landing-place for 
Keneh. 

* The hatred of the Tentyrites for the 



crocodile was the cause of serious dis- 
putes with the inhabitants of Ombos, 
where it was particularly worshipped ; 
and the unpardonable affront of killing 
and eating the god-like animal was 
resented by the Ombites with all the 
rage of a sectarian feud. No religious 
war was ever, urged with more energetic 
zeal ; and the conflict of the Ombites 
and Tentyrites terminated in the dis- 
graceful ceremony of a cannibal feast, 
to which (if we car*believe the rather 
doubtful authority of Juvenal) the body 
of one who was killed in the affray was 
doomed by his triumphant adversaries. 

(E.) Keneh (29| m.). A large and 
important town situated on the banks 
of a canal about 2g m. from the Nile. 
It stands on the site of Csenopolis, or 
Neapolis, " the New City " (the New- 
town of those days), but boasts no re- 
mains of antiquity. Keneh has suc- 
ceeded Cpptos and Koos as the empo- 
rium of trade with the Arabian coast, 
which it supplies with corn, carried by 
way of Kosseir to Emba (Yambo) and 
Jeddah. It is noted for its manufacture 
of porous water-jars and bottles, the 
former called in Arabic zeer, the latter 
koolleh and ddrak, which are in great 
request throughout Egypt. The clay 
used for making them is found to the 
northward of the town, in the bed of 
a valley, whose torrents have for ages 
past contributed to the accumulation, 
or rather deposit, of this useful earth : 
which, with the sifted ashes of half eh 
grass in proper proportions, is the prin- 
cipal composition. Keneh has baths, 
and a good bazaar with several Greek 
shops. The market is held every Thurs- 
day. Excellent dates from the Hegaz 
are sold at Keneh. They are in drums, 
or small boxes, and are thus preserved 
in a soft state. They are put in whole 
like Smyrna figs ; not broken up info 
a mass like thr, Agweh of Cairo. To 
one of these processes Pliny alludes, 
when he says " Thebaidis fructus ex- 
templo in cados conditur." 

At Keneh is a large colony of 
ghaiodzee (sing, ghdzeeyah). These 
dancing-girls are often erroneously 
called almehs, the almeh being a fe- 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 18. KENEH KOBT. 



391 



male professional singer, while the 
ghdzeeyah is a dancer, and a much more 
disreputable character. They are to 
be met with in most of the large vil- 
lages and towns of Egypt. Many 
;ravellers have raved about the beauty 
)f these ghawdzee, and the gracefulness 
)f their dance ; but the real truth is 
that nine-tenths of them are ugly and 
repulsive, and their dance inelegant 
when kept within the bounds of out- 
ward decency, and disgusting when 
allowed full swing. 

The direct road to Kosseir, on the 
Ked Sea, goes from Keneh. (See Rte. 
19.) 

(W.) The ancient village of Pam- 
panis, the next mentioned by Ptolemy 
after Tentyris, stood inland, on the W. 
bank. Some suppose it to have been 
at Ed Dayr, opposite Benoot, whose 
name also shows it to be the successor 
of an ancient town. But Ed Dayr can- 
not occupy the site of Pampanis, if 
Ptolemy be correct, as he places it 5' 
more to the S. than Apoliinopolis 
Parva (Koos), and nearly at two- 
thirds of the distance from Tentyris to 
Thebes. The latitude he gives of that 
village, as well as his position of 
Apoliinopolis, require Pampanis to 
be much further S. ; and taking the 
proportion of the distances he gives, it 
should have stood at Mensheeyali or 
Negadeh. 

(W.) Ballds is well known for its 
manufacture of earthen jars, which 
from this town have received the name 
of Balldsee, and are universally used in 
Egypt for the purpose of carrying 
water. When full they are of great 
weight ; and one is surprised to find 
the women able to bear them on their 
heads, while admiring their graceful 
gait as they walk with them from the 
river. The same kind of jars are used, 
like some amphorae of the ancients, for 
preserving rice, butter, treacle, and 
oil, and for other domestic purposes : 
and large rafts made of balldsee jars, 
are frequently floated down the Nile, 
to be disposed of in the markets of the 
metropolis. 

Near Ballas should be the site of 
Contra Coptos, 



i (E.) Kobt, or Koft, the ancient Cop- 
tos, is a short distance from the river, 
on the E. bank. The proper ortho- 
graphy, according to Aboolfeda, is 
Kobt, though the natives now call it 
Koft. In Coptic it was styled Keft, 
and in the hieroglyphics Kobthor ; — a 
name recalling the Caphtor of Scrip- 
ture. 

It was from this town, which was 
the head-quarters of Christanity in 
Egypt under the Eoman emperors, that 
the Copts in all probability took their 
name. 

The remains of its old wall are still 
visible, and even the towers of the 
gateway, which stood on the E. side. 
The ruins are mostly of a late epoch : 
the names on the fallen fragments of 
masonry that lie scattered within il s 
precincts, or on those employed in 
building the Christian Church, being 
of different Caesars. A granite pillar, 
however, bearing the oval of Thothmes 
III., shows that some monument ex- 
isted at Coptos of a very remote date, 
to which the Roman emperors after- 
wards made additions ; and on a stone 
built into a bridge on the road to the 
river are the name and prenomen of 
an Enentef, of the Xlth dynasty. But 
owing to the depredations of the early 
Christians, little can be traced of its 
ancient buildings, their materials 
having been used to construct the 
church, part of which too only now 
remains. There are also the remnants 
of some hieroglyphic inscriptions, 
apparently of Ptolemaic time. 

The principal cause of the ruinous 
condition of this city may be attri- 
buted to the fury of Diocietian ; and 
Gibbon states that it was " utterly 
destroyed by the arms and severe 
order " of that emperor. It had played 
a conspicuous part in the rebellion 
against his authority, and the severity 
which he exercised at the same time 
upon the Alexandrians fell with still 
greater weight on the inhabitants of 
Coptos. At the village of el Kala, 
" the Citadel," is a small temple, of 
Roman date, bearing the royal ovals 
of Tiberius Claudius. 

Besides the ruins of temples and 
other buildings, the vestiges of its 



392 



EOUTE 18. CAIEO TO THEBES. 



Sect. III. 



canals still attest the opulence of this 
city ; which, continued to be the mart 
of Indian commerce from the founda- 
tion of Berenice till its destruction in 
the reign of Diocletian; and though, 
as in Strabo's time, the Myos-Hormos 
was found to be a more convenient 
port than Berenice, and was frequented 
by almost all the Indian and Arabian 
fleets, Coptos still continued to be the 
seat of commerce. Myos-Hormos was 
afterwards succeeded by Philoteras- 
portus, which had formerly played a 
part in the time of the Pharaohs under 
the name of iEnnum, and this again 
gave place, at a later period, to the 
modern town of Kosseir. Coptos, too, 
was supplanted by Koos, which con- 
tinued to be the depot of all merchan- 
dise from the Eed Sea, during the 
reign of the Egyptian sultans, until in 
its turn it gave place to Keneh. 

It was to Coptos that many of the 
stones quarried in the porphyry and 
other mountains of the eastern desert 
were transported; for which purpose 
large roads were coustructed, at con- 
siderable labour and expense, over 
sandy plains, and through the sinu- 
osities of valleys. But that of the 
emerald - mines took the direction of 
Contra-Apollinopolis ; nor does it ap- 
pear that any other communication 
was established with these mines from 
Coptos than by the Berenice road. 

iElian tells us that the Coptites 
worshipped Isis ; and Mr. Harris found 
an inscription there ot the 8th year of 
Trajan, containing a dedication to her 
(•' I2IAI TPIXHMAT02 "). ^Elian re- 
lates a story of the respect paid by 
scorpions to her temple ; and he also 
states that the female dorcas was 
sacred in this city. It was here that 
Isis was supposed, to have received the 
first account of her husband's death, — 
a circumstance which, according to 
Plutarch, gave rise to the name of 
Coptos, signifying, as he supposes, 
" mourning," or, as others say, depri- 
vation." But it is needless to make 
any remark on the absurdity of deriv- 
ing an Egyptian name from Greek, 
which he, like so many others, was in 
the habit of doing. The traveller will 
look in vain in the level alluvial plain 



for the " precipice," whence the ass 
was annually thrown down by the 
Coptites, in token of their hatred of 
Typhon. It may have been an art- 
ificial eminence made for that allego- 
rical ceremony. 

(E.) The town of Esh Shurafa, to 
the N. of Coptos, is so called from 
having been founded and inhabited 
by some Shereefs, or descendants of 
Mohammed; who are distinguished 
from other Moslems by the peculiar 
right of wearing a green turban ; a 
custom first introduced by one of the 
Baharite Memlook sultans of Egypt, 
El Ashraf IShaban, who reigned from 
a.d. 1363 to 1377. 

Aboolfeda states that the town of 
Kobt was a wakf, " entail," of the 
Shereefs, though it appears rather to 
have belonged to the Haramayn of 
Mecca and Medeeneh. How the 
inhabitants of Coptos came to be 

Shiites i^Sheeah) xxj^, as he says they 

were, he does not explain : and it 
would be curious to ascertain if this 
was really the case in former times. 

Contra-Coptos was probably at Do- 
waide. 

(E.) At Koos or (Goos), in Coptic 
Kos-Birbir, is the site of Apollinopolis 
Parva. In the time of Aboolfeda, 
about a.d. 1344, it was the next city in 
size and consequence to Fostat, the 
capital, and, the emporium of the 
Arabian trade ; but it is now reduced 
to the rank of a small town, and the 
residence of a ndzer. 

At a sibeel, or " fountain built for 
a charitable purpose," is a monolith, 
now converted into a tank, with a 
hieroglyphic inscription on the jambs, 
containing the name of Ptolemy Phi- 
ladelphus; and a short distance to 
the W. of the town, near a sheykh's 
tomb, are some fragments of sandstone, 
and a few small granite columns. 

Large sandbanks here obstruct the 
course of the river for some distance. 
In the early part of the year they are 
a favourite resort of all kinds of water- 
birds. Later on they are planted with 
melons. 



Egypt. 



BOUTE 1 8. NEGADEH MEDAMOT. 



393 



(W.) Negddeh (22 J m.), a short dis- 
tance S. of Koos, and on the opposite 
banks, is noted for its Coptic and Ca- 
tholic convents, and, in Aboolfeda's 
time, for its gardens and sugar-cane. 
Between it and Gamola, on the edge of 
the desert, are 3 very old convents, 
which as usual are ascribed to the time 
of Helena. The first, called Dayr Es 
Seleeb (of the Cross), is near Demfeek, 
with a very small ch. ; the next, of El 
Melak, is small, but more interesting ; 
but the oldest of them is that of Maree 
Boktee. The ch., as in the others, has 
a semicircular apse, and some remains 
of frescoes on its domes. It is about 
2 J m. beyond El Arraba. 

The bend of the river at Negadeh 
offers one of the most lovely and pictur- 
esque views on the Nile. The town 
itself is old, and presents a curious and 
pleasing appearance, owing to the lofty 
pigeon-towers which crown every house. 
This effect is of course seen in many 
villages on the Nile, but in none are 
the number of pigeon-towers greater, or 
their battlemented appearance more 
remarkable, than at Negadeh. The 
pigeons are kept for the sake of their 
dung, which is the only manure used 
in Egypt, but it is doubtful whether 
the profit thus obtained from them is 
not more than counterbalanced by the 
ravages they commit in the fields. 

Negadeh has no ruins ; but Shenhoor, 
on the E. bank, a few miles S. of Koos. 
presents the extensive mounds of an 
ancient town, where M. Prisse found a 
temple of Roman time, dedicated to 
Horns, with the name of the town in 
hieroglyphics, Sen-hor. 
_ Between Shenhoor and Thebes the 
river makes a considerable curve to 
the E. ; and a little above this bend, 
just below Thebes, on the W. bank, is 
Gamola (Katnola). It was noted in 
Aboolfeda's time for its numerous 
gardens and sugar-cane plantations, 
which are mentioned also by Nor den. 
At the time of the rebellion 'of Sheykh 
Ahmed, the soi-disant wizeer, in 1824, 
it was the residence of the well-known 
Ali Kashef Aboo-Tarbodsh, who de- 
fended the military post there against 
the insurgents with great gallantry. 



(E.) Medamot stands some distance 
inland on the E. It is supposed to 
mark the site of Maximianopolis, a 
Greek bishop's see under the Lower 
Empire ; but neither the extent of its 
mounds, nor the remains of its temple, 
justify the name that some have ap- 
plied to it of Karnak esh Sherkeeyah, 
or, " the eastern Karnak." It is gene- 
rally visited from Thebes. 

Some write the name Med'-amood, 
as though it were called from amood, 
" a column ; " and place Maximian- 
opolis on the other bank, at Negfideh ; 
while others fix it at Medeenet Haboo, 
in Thebes, where the Christians had a 
very large ch. until the period of the 
Arab invasion. Negadeh, however, is 
still a place of great consequence 
among the Copts of Egypt, whose 
convent and ch. are the resort of all 
the priests of the vicinity. 

The ruins of Medamot consist of 
crude-brick houses of a small town, 
about 464 paces square, in the centre 
of which is a sandstone temple ; but of 
this little remains, except part of the 
portico, apparently, from the style of 
its architecture, of Ptolemaic date. On 
the columns may be traced the ovals 
of Ptolemy Euergetes II., of Lathyrus, 
and of Auletes, as well as those of the 
Emperor Antoninus Pius ; but a block 
of granite with the name of Amu- 
noph II. proves the temple to be of 
much greater antiquity. The pylon 
before the portico bears the name of 
Tiberius, but the blocks used in its 
construction were taken from some 
older edifice, erected or repaired during 
the reign of Rameses II. 

This pylon formed one of several 
doorways of a crude-brick enclosure 
which surrounded the temple ; and a 
short distance before it is a raised 
platform, with a flight of steps on the 
inner side, similar to that before the 
temple at El Khargeh (in the Great 
Oasis), at Karnak, and many other 
places. To the southward of the 
portico appears to be the site of a re- 
servoir, beyond which a gateway leads 
through the side of the crude-brick 
wall to a small ruin, bearing the name 
of Ptolemy Euergetes I. Besides the 
s 3 



394 



ROUTE 18. — CAIRO TO THEBES. 



Sect. III. 



enclosure of the temple is a wall of 
similar materials that surrounded the 
whole town, which was of an irregular 
shape. 

Even before Kamola is reached the 
ruins of Karnak, the Colossi, and all 
the temples on the W. bank, come into 
sight : and in a short time the boat is 
moored to the E. bank, close under an 



ancient temple, around whose ruins 
cluster the mud huts of the modern 
village of 

(E.) Luxor (22 m.), the best head- 
quarters from which to visit the won- 
derful ruins that alone remain to tell 
of the glories of Thebes, the most 
famous of old Egyptian cities. 



( 395 ) 



SECTION IV. 
THEBES. 

Peeliminary Information. 

Arrival at Luxor and General Information, b. Mode of seeing Thebes. 
c. History and Topography of Thebes, d. Ruins and Remains : — Western 
Bank — 1. Temple of Koorneh. 2. Rameseum, or Memnonium. 3. The 
Colossi; Vocal Memnon. 4. Temples of Medeenet Hdboo, and other ruins 
near. 5. Dayr el Medeeneh. 6. Dayr el Bahree. 7. Tombs of the Kings. 
8. Tombs of Priests and Private Individuals — Drah Aboo I Negga — Assaseef 
— Sheykh Abd el Koorneh— Koornet Murraee, &c. 9. Tombs of the Queens. — 
Eastern Bank — 10. Luxor. 11. Karnah. 



roi;te page 
19. Thebes, or Keneh, to Kosseir 
on the "Ked Sea — The 
Ababdeh Desert . . . . 447 

a. Arrival at Luxor and General 
Information. 

Luxor is a small village of little 



ROUTE PAGE 

20. Thebes to Assoodn, First 
Cataract, Elephantine, and 
Philse ..451 

contract usually made, they are pro- 
vided by the dragoman. There are 
different sets of guides for each bank, 
who do not interfere with each other. 



importance in itself, but well known The usual mooring-place for daha- 



from its being the most important 
stage on the Nile voyage, and the 
generally chosen head-quarters from 
which to visit the wonderful remains 



beeahs is to the high bank under the 
village and temple of Luxor ; but those 
who prefer to be away from the noise 
and bustle caused by the presence of 



of old Thebes, the most important j several boats, can moor to the island 
and interesting ruins in Egypt. It j just above, and cross to the mainland, 
is 450 m. from Cairo, and 133 from i when occasion requires, in the sandal. 
Assooan. j This little boat should always be 

There are several consular agents. j alongside, properly cleaned, and with 
Mustapha Agha acts in that capacity oars, rudder, sail, and everything ready 
for England and the United States, ; for taking the visitor to the other side 
and is a most courteous and obliging ! of the river, or wherever he may wish 
representative, ready to render the j to go. Four or five sailors, properly 
traveller assistance in every way. dressed, should always be in readiness 
Those who wish to have letters and to go with it. In visiting the ruins, 
newspapers sent on to them from j unless any wish to the contrary is 
Alexandria or Cairo, should have them expressed, the dragoman should always 
directed to his care. Letters can also accompany the party himself; audit 
be forwarded through him. The post, should be distinctly understood, when 
however, is very irregular, and things a visit to the W. bank is intended, 
are often lost. that the guide has got the requisite 

Guides and donkeys for visiting the number of donkeys ready on the sand- 
ruins on both sides of the river are bank immediately opposite Luxor, 
procured at Luxor. The price is about In visiting the "W. bank it is usual 
20 piastres a day. According to the to spend the whole day away from the 



396 



THEBES. 



Sect. IY. 



boat. Provisions must then be taken. 
Numerous small boys and girls will be 
found waiting with the donkeys, all 
anxious to act as attendants on the 
traveller and carry a koolleh full of 
water for his benefit, and also any 
books, drawing materials, &c, he may 
have with him. In return for this 
service a small backsheesh will be ex- 
pected, or rather importunately de- 
manded, at the end of the day. It is 
better to select one attendant, and 
then make him or her keep the 
others oft'. 

Candles, and some magnesium wire 
should be taken, for seeing the interiors 
of the tombs properly. Torches should 
never be used for this purpose, as they 
blacken the sculptures and utterly 
spoil them. Many of the private tombs 
are so blackened by the fires of the 
peasants who inhabit them, as no 
longer to be worth visiting ; and if 
torches were used for lighting up the 
Tombs of the Kings, their smoke 
would soon blacken and disfigure them. 
Travellers are ready enough to reproach 
the ignorant natives for the injury 
they do to the monuments, though 
they themselves are often quite as 
deserving of reproach for their share 
in the destruction, for the encourage- 
ment they give to the peasants to break 
off some piece of sculpture, by buying 
it when brought, and often by em- 
ploying them to obtain it. 

Those who expect to find abundance 
of good antiques for sale at Thebes 
will be disappointed. Occasionally 
they are found, and brought to travel- 
lers ; and those who understand them 
and know how to make a judicious 
choice, not giving a high price for the 
bad, but paying well for objects of 
real value, may occasionally obtain ( 
some interesting objects. The dealers 
soon discover whether the purchaser 
understands their value ; and if he is 
ignorant they will sell the worst to 
him for a high price, and false ones, 
rather than the best they have. In- 
deed a great portion of those sold by 
dealers are forgeries ; and some are so 
cleverly imitated, that it requires a 
practised eye to detect them ; parti- 
cularly scarabsei. Papyri are made up 



very cleverly, on a stick, enveloped 
in fragments, or leaves : the outer 
covering being a piece of real papyrus, 
and the whole sealed with clay. Good 
papyri are broken up to obtain these 
outer coatings to false ones ; and un- 
less a papyrus can be at least partly 
unrolled, it is scarcely worth while for 
a novice in antiques to purchase it. 

Capital quail-shooting may be had 
on both sides of the river in the 
month of March, or even earlier. 
About 4 hrs.' ride inland on the W. 
bank, in the direction of Erment, is a 
lake, at which good duck-shooting may 
be had in the winter. It is necessary, 
however, to be provided with a tent, so 
as to encamp the night near the lake, 
and be ready for shooting at daybreak. 
A visit to the ruins of Karnak by 
moonlight— a visit which none should 
neglect to pay if they have the oppor- 
tunity — may be combined witli a 
night's watching for hysenas, who 
occasionally, but very seldom are to 
be seen there. 

b. Mode of Seeing Thebes. 

In order that Thebes and its re- 
mains may produce their best effect, 
the W. side should certainly be 
first visited ; and last of all Karnak 
on the E. Those who are on their 
way up the river to the 1st or 2nd 
Cataract will do well, if the wind is 
1 favourable on their arrival at Luxor, 
to stop there no longer than may be 
absolutely necessary for procuring 
provisions, getting letters, &c, and 
leave all the sight-seeing till they 
come back on their way down. Should 
the wind however be adverse, or there 
be none at all, they may prefer, instead 
, of tracking on, to remain till a change 
in the weather occurs, and occupy the 
time in doing some of the sights ; they 
will then require to stay a shorter time 
on their way down. 

Some persons will, no doubt, feel 
disposed to take a more cursory view 
of the ruins of Thebes than others, 
being pressed for time, or feeling no 
very great interest in antiquities. For 
such three days may be sufficient 
, for seeing the principal objects of in- 



Egypt. 



HISTORY AND TOPOGRAPHY. 



397 



terest. They may be employed as 
follows : 

1st Day.— Cross early to the W. 
bank, and visit the Colossi, the Mem- 
nonium, Dayr el Medeeneh, if time 
serves, and Medeenet Haboo. 

2nd Day. — Cross early to the W. 
bank and visit Koorneh, and then 
ride along the valley to the Tombs of 
the Kings. Instead of coming back 
by the same way, climb the path to the 
top of the Libyan Mountain, whence 
there is a magnificent view over the 
plain of Thebes, and descend to Dayr 
el Bahree, well worth seeing ; thence, 
if there is time, to the tombs of the 
Assasee'f. 

3rd Day. — The temple of Luxor, 
which will not take long, and Karnak. 

In this way the traveller who merely 
wishes to say lie has seen Thebes may 
get through it in three days. Indeed, if 
he is abnormally industrious, starting 
early, returning late, and going quickly 
from one thing to another, he may 
manage to cast a glance at some 
things not included in the above pro- 
gramme. But all who can should 
spend at least a week at Thebes. 
Karnak alone ought to have 2 days 
given to it ; and, as will be seen from 
the description of the various remains 
on the W. bank, there is plenty there 
to occupy several days. 



c. History and Topography of 
Thebes. 

The name Thebes is corrupted from 
the Tape of the ancient Egyptian 
language, the Tape' of the Copts, 
which, in the Memphitic dialect of 
Coptic, is pronounced Thaba, easily 
converted into @7?/3a<, or Thebes. 
Some writers have confined themselves 
to a closer imitation of the Egyptian 
word; and Pliny and Juvenal have 
both adopted Thebe, in the singular 
number, as the name of this city. In 
hieroglyphics it is written Ap^ Ape, 
or with the feminine article Tape, the 
meaning of which appears to be "the 



head" Thebes being the capital of the 
country. 

Thebes was also called Diospolis 
(Magna), which answers to Amunei, 
" the Abode of Amun," the Egyptian 
Jupiter. The city stood partly on the 
E., partly on the W. of the Nile; 
though the name Tape' (Thebes) was 
applied to the whole city on either 
bank. The western division had the 
distinctive appellation of Pathyris, or, 
as Ptolemy writes it, Tathyris, being 
under the peculiar protection of 
Athor, who is called "the President 
of the West;" for though Amun (or 
Amun-re) was the chief deity wor- 
shipped there, as well as in other 
quarters of Diospolis, Athor had a 
peculiar claim over the Necropolis 
beneath the western mountain, where 
she was fabulously reported to receive 
the setting sun into her arms. Pa- 
thyris was Pathros ; though Jeremiah 
(xliv. 15) probably alludes to another 
city of Athor in the Delta. 

In the time of the Ptolemies the 
western division of the city, or, "the 
Libyan suburb," was divided into dif- 
ferent quarters, as the Memnonia (or 
Memnoneiaj ; and even the tombs 
were portioned off into districts, at- 
tached to the quarters of the town. 
Thus we find that Thynabunuin. 
where the priests of Osiris were bu- 
ried, belonged to and stood within the 
limits of the Memnonia. It is probable 
that in late times, when the city and 
its territory were divided into 2 sepa- 
rate nomes, the portion on the western 
bank being under the protection of 
Athor, received the name " Pathy- 
ritic;" and Thebes being afterwards 
broken up into several small detached 
towns, which was the case even in 
Strabo's time, Pathyris became a dis- 
tinct city. 

The period of its foundation still 
remains, like that of Memphis, the 
capital of Lower Egypt, enveloped in 
that obscurity which is the fate of all 
the most ancient cities; but from the 
names of the oldest kings seen about 
Memphis, it is evident that Thebes was 
not so ancient as the capital of Lower 
Egypt ; and there is even reason to 



398 



THEBES. 



Sect. IV. 



suppose that Hermonthis (now Er- 
ment) was older than Thebes. 

Ancient authors do not agree as to 
the extent of this city, which, accord- 
ing to Strabo, was 80 stadia in length, 
while Diodoms allows the circuit to 
have been only 140 — a disparity which 
may be partially reconciled by sup- 
posing that the latter speaks of it 
when still an infant city. The epiphet 
Hecatompylos, applied to it by Homer, 
has generally been thought to refer to 
the 100 gates of its wall of circuit ; 
but this difficulty is happily solved by 
an observation of Diodorus, that many 
suppose them " to have been the pro- 
pyl sea of the temples," and that this 
metaphorical expression rather implies 
a plurality than a definite number. 
Were it not so, the reader might be 
surprised to learn that this 100-gated 
city was never enclosed by a wall — a 
fact fully proved by the non-existence 
of the least vestige of it; for, even 
allowing it to have been of crude 
brick, it would, from its great thick- 
ness, have survived the ravages of 
time, equally with those of similar 
materials of the early epoch of the 
third Thothmes. Or, supposing it to 
have been destroyed by the waters of 
the inundation, and buried by the 
alluvial deposit, in those parts which 
stood on the cultivated land, the rocky 
and uninundated acclivity of the hdger 
would at least have retained some 
traces of its former existence, even 
were it razed to the ground. 

It is not alone from the authority of 
ancient writers that the splendour and 
* power of this city (which had the 
reputation of furnishing 20,000 armed 
chariots from its vicinity) are to be 
estimated; but the extent of the 
Egyptian conquests adding continu- 
ally to the riches of the metropolis, 
the magnificence of the edifices which 
adorned it, the luxe of the individuals 
who inhabited it, the spoil taken 
thence by the Persians, and the gold 
and silver collected after the burning 
of the city, amply testify the immense 
wealth of Egyptian Thebes. 

The immense army which a force 
of 20,000 chariots would imply was. 



not of course raised at Thebes alone ; 
which Diodorus seems to admit; but 
he also miscalculates the number when 
he computes the chariots at 20,000 
and reckons only 100 stables and 200 
horses in each, which, allowing 2 to 
each car, will only supply half the 
number. Moreover, he places these 
stables between Thebes and Memphis. 

The greatest step towards the de- 
cline and fall of this city was the pre- 
ference given to Lower Egypt (but 
not to Memphis, as Diodorus sup- 
poses) ; and the removal of the seat 
of government to Tanis and Bubastis, 
and subsequently to Sais and Alex- 
andria, proved as disastrous to the 
welfare, as the Persian invasion to 
the splendour, of the capital of Upper 
Egypt. Commercial wealth, on the 
accession of the Ptolemies, began to 
flow through other channels ; Coptos 
and Apollinopolis succeeded to the 
lucrative trade of Arabia, and Ethiopia 
no longer contributed to the revenues 
of Thebes. And its subsequent de- 
struction, after a 3 years' siege, by 
Ptolemy Lathyrus, struck a death- 
blow to the welfare and existence of 
this capital, which was thenceforth 
scarcely deemed an Egyptian city. 
Some few repairs were, however, made 
to its dilapidated temples by Euer- 
getes II. and some of the later 
Ptolemies; but it remained depopu- 
lated, and at the time of Strabo's visit 
it was already divided into small de- 
tached villages. 

The principal part of the city, pro- 
perly so called, lay on the E. bank ; 
that on the opposite side, which con- 
tained the quarter of the Memnonia, 
and the whole of its extensive Necro- 
polis, bore the name of the Libyan 
suburb. It is not certain whether or 
no cultivated spots of land were in 
early times admitted amidst the houses ; 
but it appears from the sculptures of 
the tombs that the principal inhabit- 
ants had extensive gardens attached 
to their mansions, independent of 
their villas and farms outside the 
city; and in the reigns of the Ptole- 
mies several parcels of land were sold 
and let within the interior of the 
Libyan suburb. 



Egypt 



TEMPLE OE KOORNEH. 



399 



" Alone of the cities of Egypt, the 
situation of Thebes is as beautiful by 
nature as by art. The monotony of 
the two mountain ranges, Libyan and 
Arabian, for the first time assumes a 
new and varied character. They each 
retire from the river, forming a circle 
round the wide green plain; the 
western rising into a bolder and more 
massive barrier, and enclosing the 
plain at its northern extremity as by a 
natural bulwark ; the eastern, further 
withdrawn, but acting the same part 
to the view of Thebes as the Argolic 
mountains to the plain of Athens, or 
the Alban hills to Kome — a varied and 
bolder chain, rising and falling in 
almost Grecian outline, though cast in 
the conical form which marks the hills 
of Nubia further south, and which, 
perhaps, suggested the Pyramids. 
Within the circle of these two ranges, 
thus peculiarly its own, stretches the 
green plain on each side the river to 
an unusual extent ; and on each side 
the river, in this respect unlike Mem- 
phis, but like the great city further E. 
on the Euphrates — like the cities of 
Northern Europe on their lesser 
streams — spreads the city of Thebes, 
with the Nile for its mighty thorough- 
fare. ' Art thou better than No-Amon 
that was situated by the " river of the 
Nile " — that had the waters round 
about it — whose rampart was " the 
sealike stream," and whose wall was 
the " sealike stream." ' Nahum iii. 8." 
— A. P. Stanley. 

The most ancient remains now 
existing at Thebes are unquestionably 
in the great temple of Karnak, the 
largest and most splendid ruin of 
which perhaps either ancient or mo- 
dern times can boast, being the work 
of a number of successive monarchs, 
each anxious to surpass his prede- 
cessor by increasing the dimensions 
and proportions of tiie part he added. 
It is this fact which enables us to 
account for the diminutive size of the 
older parts of this extensive building. 
And to their comparatively limited 
scale, offering greater facility, as their ; 
vicinity to the sanctuary greater j 
temptation, to an invading enemy to 
destroy them, added to their remote ! 



antiquity, are to be attributed their 
dilapidated state, and the total dis- 
appearance of the sculptures executed 
during the reigns of the Pharaohs, 
who preceded Osirtasen I. of the Xllth 
dynasty, the earliest monarch whose 
name exists on the monuments of 
Eastern Thebes. There are, however, 
the vestiges of earlier times on the 
W. bank, especially at Drah Aboo-1- 
Neggah. 

It cannot be too often repeated, that, 
in order to enjoy a visit to the ruins of 
this city, Karnak, from being the most 
splendid, should be the last visited by 
the stranger, who will then be able to 
appreciate the smaller monuments of 
the western bank, the " Libyan suburb 
of Thebes," which included the ex- 
tensive quarter of the Memnonia, and 
reached to the small temple of Adrian 
on the W., and, in the opposite direc- 
tion, as far as the eastern tombs of its 
immense cemetery. 



d. Euins and Eemains : — Western 
Bank. 1. Temple of Koorneh. 

To commence with the northernmost 
ruin on the W. bank ; the first object 
worthy of notice is the small temple- 
palace at Old Koorneh ( Goorna), dedi- 
cated to Amun, the Theban Jupiter, 
by Sethi I., and completed by his son 
Kameses II., the supposed Sesostris of 
the Greeks. It is sometimes called 
Kasr er Eubayk. 

Its plan offers the usual symme- 
trophobia of Egyptian monuments, but 
it presents a marked deviation from 
the ordinary distribution of the parts. 
The entrance leads through a pylone, 
or pylon, bearing, in addition to the 
name of the founder, that of Kameses 
III., beyond which is a dromos of 
128 ft., whose mutilated sphinxes are 
scarcely traceable amidst the mounds 
and ruins of Arab hovels. A second 
pylon terminates this, and commences 
a second dromos of nearly similar 
length, extending to the colonnade or 
; corridor in front of the temple, whose 
j columns, of one of the oldest Egyptian 
orders, are crowned by an abacus, 
i which appears to unite the stalks of 



400 



THEBES. 



Sect. IV. 



water-plants that compose the shaft 
and capital. 

Of the intercolumniations of these 
10 columns 3 only agree in breadth, 
and a similar discrepancy is observed 
in the doorways which form the 3 
entrances to the building. The temple 
itself presents a central hall about 
57 ft. in length, supported by 6 co- 
lumns, having on either side 3 small 
chambers, one of which leads to a 
lateral hall, and the opposite one to a 
passage and open court on the E. side. 
Upon the upper end of the hall open 
5 other chambers, the centre one of 
which leads to a large room, supported 
by 4 square pillars, beyond which was 
the sanctuary itself: but the N. end 
of this temple is in too dilapidated a 
state to enable us to make an accurate 
restoration of its innermost chambers. 
The lateral hall on the W., which 
probably belonged to the palace of the 
king, is supported by 2 columns, and 
leads to 3 other rooms, behind which 
are the vestiges of other apartments ; 
and on the E. side, besides a large 
hypoethral court, were several similar 
chambers, extending also to the north- 
ern extremity of its precincts. On the 
architrave over the corridor is the 
dedication of Kameses II., to whom, 
in his character of Phrah (Pharaoh), 
or the Sun, under the symbolic form 
of a hawk, Amunre is presenting the 
emblem of life. Therein, after the 
usual titles of the king, we are told 
that " Kameses, the beloved of Amun, 
has dedicated this work to his father 
Amunre, king of the gods, having 
made additions for him to the temple 
of his father, the king (fostered by Ea 
and Truth), the Son of the Sun (Sethi)." 
The whole of this part of the building 
bears the name of Kameses II., though 
his father is represented in some of 
the sculptures as taking part in the 
religious ceremonies, and assisting in 
making offerings to the deities of the 
temple he had founded. 

On the N.W. side of the inner wall 
of this corridor, the arks or shrines of 
queen Ames-No friare (or T-Nofriare), 
aud of Sethi, are borne each by 12 
priests, in the £l procession of shrines," 
attended by a fan-bearer and high- 



priest to the god of the temple ; and 
in a small tablet, added at a later 
period, the king Phtah-se-Phtah is 
represented in presence of Amunre, 
Ames-Nofriare, Sethi, and Kameses II., 
receiving the emblems of royal power 
from the hands of the deity. 

The most interesting part of this 
temple is the lateral hall on the W. 
side, which, with the 3 chambers 
behind it, king Sethi dedicated to his 
father Kameses I. ; but dying before 
the completion of the hall, his son 
Kameses II. added the sculptures that 
cover the interior and corridor in front 
of it. Those within the front wall, on 
the rt. hand entering the door, repre- 
sent, in the lower compartment, king 
Rameses II. introduced by Mandoo 
to Amunre, behind whom stands his 
grandfather Rameses I., bearing the 
emblems of Osiris. Over him we 
read : " The good God, Lord of the 
world ; son of the Sun, lord of the 
powerful, Rameses deceased, esteemed 
by the great God, Lord of Abydus, 
(i. e. Osiris)." Thoth, the god of 
letters, notes off the years of the 
panegyries of the king on a palm- 
branch, the symbol of a year. In the 
compartment above this he is intro- 
duced to the deity by Atmoo (Atum), 
and by Mandoo (Munt), who pre- 
senting him with the emblem of life, 
says, " I have accompanied you in 
order that you may dedicate the temple 
to your father Amunre." In the com- 
partment over the door, 2 figures of 
Rameses I., seated in sacred shrines, 
receive the offerings or liturgies of his 
grandson, one wearing the crown of 
the upper, the other that of the lower 
country. On the other side of the 
door the king is offering to Amunre, 
Khonso, and Rameses I. ; and on the 
side walls King Sethi also partakes of 
similar honours. 

In the centre chamber Sethi offi- 
ciates before the statue of his father 
placed in a shrine, like that before 
mentioned ; from which it is evident 
that Rameses II. continued the dedi- 
cations to the 1st Rameses, which had 
been commenced by his father, as the 
hieroglyphics themselves state. All 



Egypt. 



EAMESEUM OR MEMNONIUM. 



401 



the lateral chambers and the hypse- 
thral court are of Eameses 11. ; and 
on the jambs of the side-doors in the 
great hall the name of his son Pthah- 
men, or Menephtah, was added in 
the succeeding reign. Queen Ames- 
Nofriare occurs again in the court ; 
and on the outside of the N.E. corner, 
and on the fragment of a wall on the 
other (S.W.) side, is an Ethiopian ox 
and Capricorn, which are brought by- 
some of the minor priests for the 
service of the temple. Little else 
is deserving of notice in this ruin, 
if we except the statue and shrine of 
Amunre ; whose door the king has just 
opened, previous to his performing 
"the prescribed ceremonies" in honour 
of the deity. In the hieroglyphics, 
though much defaced, we read, " Be- 
hold, I open ... my father Amunre." 

On leaving the temple of Koorneh, 
you follow the edge of the cultivated 
land, passing near several stone frag- 
ments and remains of crude - brick 
walls. On the right hand are the 
tombs of Drah aboo '1-Neggah, the 
Assasseef, and Sheykh Abdel Koor- 
neh. A short distance after passing 
this last, you arrive at a collection of 
important ruins, which stand well 
out at the foot of the neighbouring 
mountains. These are the remains 
of the Kameseum or temple of Ba- 
rneses II., erroneously called the Mem- 
nonium, and the tomb of Osymandyas. 
There is, however, reason to suppose 
that it was the Memnonium of Strabo, 
and that the title of Miamun, attached 
to the name of Eameses II., being cor- 
rupted by the Greeks into Memnon, 
became the origin of the word Mem- 
nonium or Memnonia. 

2. The Kameseum oe Memnonium. 

For symmetry of architecture and 
elegance of sculpture the Memnonium 
may vie with any other Egyptian 
monument. No traces are visible of 
the dromos that probably existed before 
the pyramidal towers which form the 
facade of its first area — a court whose 
breadth of 180 ft., exceeding the length 
by nearly 13 yards, was reduced to a 
more just proportion by the introduc- 



tion of a double avenue of columns on 
either side, extending from the towers 
to the N. wall. In this area, on the rt. 
of a flight of steps leading to the next 
court, was a stupendous Syenite statue 
of the king, seated on a throne, in the 
usual attitude of Egyptian figures, the 
hands resting on his knees, indicative 
of that tranquillity which he had re- 




oni eooo 

• ««S @© oo 
• • *M o o 

ooo 




Go® O 



m 



o o 

o o 

oMM li K # 




PLAN OF THE BAMF>EUM, OE MEMNONIUM. 

a a, Towers of Propylon. b, Entrance, c c, 
Area. r>, Broken granite statue of Rameses II. 
f, Entrance, between f f, The Pylon, g g, 
2nd Area, with, h h, Osiride columns, l and j, 
Traces of sculpture, k, Sculptures representing 
the wars of Rameses 11. l and m, Sphinxes. 
n, o, p, Entrances into q, The grand hall. s. s 
Pedestals for statues, t, Sculptured battle 
scenes, u, Chamber with astronomical subject 
on ceiling, v, Another chamber, with w x, 
Sculptured scenes, t, Other chambers. 



402 



THEBES. 



Sect. IV. 



turned to enjoy in Egypt after the 
fatigues of victory. But the hand of 
the destroyer has levelled this monu- 
ment of Egyptian grandeur, whose 
colossal fragments lie scattered round 
the pedestal ; and its shivered throne 
evinces the force used for its destruc- 
tion. 

If it is a matter of surprise how the 
Egyptians could trau sport and erect a 
mass of such dimensions, the means 
employed for its ruin are scarcely less 
wonderful ; nor should we hesitate to 
account for the shattered appearance of 
the lower part by attributing it to the 
explosive force of powder, had that 
composition been known at the sup- 
posed period of its destruction. But 
is this early destruction certain ? The 
throne and legs are completely de- 
stroyed, and reduced to comparatively 
small fragments, while the upper part, 
broken at the waist, is merely thrown 
back upon the ground, and lies in that 
position which was the consequence of 
its fall ; nor are there any marks of 
the wedge or other instrument which 
should have been employed for re- 
ducing those fragments to the state 
in which they now appear. The 
fissures seen across the head and in 
the pedestal are the work of a later 
period, when some of the pieces were 
cut for millstones by the Arabs. To 
say that this is the largest statue in 
Egypt will convey no idea of the 
gigantic size or enormous weight of 
a mass which, from an approximate 
calculation, exceeded, when entire, 
nearly 3 times the solid contents of 
the great obelisk of Karnak, and 
weighed about 887 tons. 

No building in Thebes corresponds 
exactly with the description given of 
the tomb of Osymandyas by Hecatseus. 
Diodorus, who quotes his work, gives 
the dimensions of the first or outer 
court, 2 plethra (181 ft. 8 in. Eng.), 
agreeing very nearly with the breadth, 
but not with the length, of that now 
before us ; but the succeeding court, 
of 4 plethra, neither agrees with this, 
nor can agree with that of any other 
Egyptian edifice, since the plan of an 
Egyptian building invariably requires i 



a diminution, but no increase, of 
dimensions, from the entrance to the 
inner chambers; and while the body 
of the temple, behind the portico, re- 
tained one uniform breadth, the areas 
in front, and frequently the portico it- 
self, exceeded the inner portion of it 
by their projecting sides. The peri- 
style and " columns in the form of liv- 
ing beings," roofed colonnade, sitting 
statues, and triple entrance to a cham- 
ber supported by columns, agree well 
with the approach to the great hall of 
this temple : and the largest statue in 
Egypt can only be in the building 
hi fore us. Yet the sculptures to which 
he alludes remind us rather of those 
of Medeenet Haboo ; and it is possible 
that either Hecatseus or Diodorus may 
have united or confounded the details 
of the two edifices. 

The second area is about 140 ft. by 
170, having on the S. and N. sides a 
row of Osiride pillars, connected with 
each other by 2 lateral corridors of 
circular columns. Three flights of 
steps lead to the northern corridor 
(which may be called the portico), 
behind the Osiride pillars, the centre 
one having on each side a black 
granite statue of Kameses II., the base 
of whose throne is cut to fit the talus 
of the ascent. 

Behind the columns of the northern 
corridor, and on either side of the 
central door of the great hall, is a 
limestone pedestal, which, to judge 
from the space left in the sculptures, 
must have once supported the sitting 
figure of a lion, or perhaps a statue 
of the king. Three entrances open 
into the grand hall, each with a sculp- 
tured doorway of black granite ; and 
between the 2 first columns of the 
central avenue, 2 pedestals supported 
(one on either side) 2 other statues of 
the king. Twelve massive columns. 
32 ft. 6 in. high, without the abacus, 
and 21 ft. 3 in. circumference, form 
a double line along the centre of this 
hall, and 18 of smaller dimensions 
(17 ft. 8 in. circumference), to the rt. 
and 1., complete the total of the 48, 
which supported its solid roof studded 
with stars on an azure ground. To 
the hall, which measures 100 ft. by 



Egypt. 



RAMESIUM OR MEMNONIUM. 



403 



133, succeeded 3 central and 6 lateral 
chambers, indicating by a small flight 
of steps the gradual ascent of the rock 
on which this edifice is constructed. 
Of 9, 2 only of the central apartments 
now remain, each supported by 4 
columns, and each measuring about 
30 ft. by 55 ; but the vestiges of their 
walls, and the appearance of the rock, 
which has been levelled to form an 
area around the exterior of the build- 
ing, point out their original extent. 
The sculptures, much more interesting 
than the architectural details, have 
suffered much more from the hand of 
the destroyer ; and of the many curious 
battle-scenes which adorned its walls, 
4 only now remain ; though the traces 
of another may be perceived behind 
the granite colossus on the N. face of 
the wall. 

On the N. face of the eastern pyra- 
midal tower or propylon is represented 
the capture of several towns from an 
Asiatic enemy, called in the hiero- 
glyphics the Khetas, whose chiefs are 
led in bonds by the victorious Egyp- 
tians towards their camp. Several of 
these towns are introduced into the 
picture, each bearing its name in 
hieroglyphic characters, which state 
them to have been taken in the 4th 
year of king Kameses II. 

This important fact satisfactorily 
shows that the early part of the reigns 
of their most illustrious monarchs was 
employed in extending their conquests 
abroad, which they returned to com- 
memorate on the temples and palaces 
their captives assisted in constructing. 
And, claiming the enjoyment of that 
tranquillity their arms had secured, 
they employed the remainder of their 
reigns in embellishing their capital, 
and in promoting the internal pros- 
perity of the country. 

Among early nations cruelty, or at 
least harsh conduct to an enemy, has 
ever been looked upon as the attribute 
of a conqueror; and the power of a 
monarch, or the valour of a nation, was 
estimated by the inexorability of their 
character. Thus Achilles is to be re- 
presented as " inexorabilis, acer, jura 
neget sibi nata;" and the Egyptian 
sculptors appear to have intended to 



convey the same idea to the spectator ; 
confirming a remark of Gibbon, that 
" conquerors and poets of every age 
have felt the truth of a system which 
derives the sublime from the principle 
of terror." In the scene before us, an 
insolent soldier pulls the beard of his 
helpless captive, while others wantonly 
beat a suppliant ; and the display of 
this principle is the more striking, as 
the Egyptians on other occasions have 
recorded their humane treatment of an 
enemy in distress. 

Beyond these is a corps of infantry 
in close array, flanked by a strong 
body of chariots ; and a camp, indi- 
cated by a rampart of Egyptian shields, 
with a wicker gateway, guarded by four 
companies of sentries, who are on duty 
on the inner side, forms the most inte- 
resting object in the picture. Here the 
booty taken from the enemy is col- 
lected ; oxen, chariots, plaustra, horses, 
asses, sacks of gold, represent the con- 
fusion incident after a battle ; and the 
richness of the spoil is expressed by 
the weight of a bag of gold, under 
which an ass is about to fall. One 
chief is receiving the salutation of a 
foot-soldier ; another, seated amidst the 
spoil, strings his bow ; and a sutler sus- 
pends a water-skin on a pole he has 
fixed in the ground. Below this a body 
of infantry marches homewards ; and 
beyond them the king, attended by his 
fan-bearers, holds forth his hand to 
receive the homage of the priests and 
principal persons, who approach his 
throne to congratulate his return. His 
charioteer is also in attendance, and 
the high-spirited horses of his car are 
with difficulty restrained by three 
grooms who hold them. Two captives 
below this are doomed to be beaten by 
four Egyptian soldiers ; while they 
in vain, with outstretched hands, im- 
plore the clemency of their heedless 
conqueror. 

The sculptures on the gateway refer 
to the panegyries, or assemblies, of the 
king, to whom different divinities are 
said to " give life and power " (or 
"pure life"). Over this gate passes 
a staircase, leading to the top of the 
building, whose entrance lies on the 
exterior of the E. side. 



404 



THEBES. 



Sect. IV. 



Upon the "W. tower is represented a 
battle, in which the king discharges 
his arrows on the broken lines and 
flying chariots of the enemy ; and his 
figure and car are again introduced, 
on the upper part, over the smaller 
sculptures. In a small compartment 
beyond these, which is formed by the 
end of the corridor of the area, he 
stands armed with a battle-axe, about 
to slay the captives he holds beneath 
him, who, in the hieroglyphics above, 
are called " the chiefs of the foreign 
countries." In the next compartment, 
attended by his fan-bearers, and still 
wearing his helmet, he approaches 
the temple; and to this the hiero- 
glyphics before him appear to allude. 

On the N. face of the S.E. wall of 
the next area is another historical sub- 
ject, representing Rameses II. pursuing 
an enemy, whose numerous chariots, 
flying over the plain, endeavour to re- 
gain the river, and seek shelter under 
the fortified walls of their city. And 
so forcibly do the details of this picture 
call to mind the battles of the Iliad, 
that some of them might serve as illus- 
trations to that poem. 

In order to check the apj)roach of 
the Egyptians, the enemy has crossed 
the river, whose stream, divided into 
a double fosse, surrounded the towered 
walls of their fortified city, and opposed 
their advance by a considerable body 
of chariots; while a large reserve of 
infantry, having crossed the bridges, is 
posted on the other bank, to cover the 
retreat or second their advance ; but, 
routed by the Egyptians, they are 
forced to throw themselves back upon 
the town, and many, in recrossing the 
river, are either carried away by the 
stream, or fall under the arrows of 
the invaders. Those who have suc- 
ceeded in reaching the opposite bank 
are rescued by their friends, who, 
drawn up in three phalanxes (de- 
scribed in the hieroglyphics as 8000 
strong), witness the defeat of their 
comrades, and the flight of the re- 
mainder of their chariots. Some carry 
to the rear the lifeless corpse of their 
chief, who has been drowned in the 
river, and in vain endeavour to restore 
life, by holding his head downwards 



to expel the water ; and others implore 
the clemency of the victor, and ac- 
knowledge him their conqueror and 
lord. 

As in the sculpture on the pro- 
pylon, the enemy are called Klietas, a 
name probably given to some con- 
federation of Asiatic tribes. The 
scene is probably laid in Syria, and 
the river is the Orontes. The scene 
in which Rameses is represented 
charging the enemy by himself, and 
forcing them to recross the river, is 
the subject of a long historical poem, 
carved on one of the exterior walls of 
Karnak, and on the N. face of the 
pylon of the temple of Luxor. It is 
known as the Poem of Pentaoor, and 
has been translated by M. de Rouge. 

Above these battle-scenes is a pro- 
cession of priests, bearing the figures 
of the Theban ancestors of Rameses II. 
The first of these is Menes; then a 
king of the Xlth dynasty ; and after 
him those of the XVIIIth dynasty. 
The intermediate monarchs are omit- 
ted. The remaining subjects are 
similar to those in the coronation of 
the king at Medeenet Haboo, where 
the flight of the four carrier-pigeons ; 
the king cutting ears of corn, after- 
wards offered to the god of generation ; 
the queen; the sacred bull; and the 
figures of his ancestors, placed be- 
fore the god, are more easily traced 
from the greater preservation of that 
building. 

Beyond the W. staircase of the N. 
corridor, the king kneels before 
Amunre, Maut, and Khons or Khonso ; 
Thoth notes on his palm-branch the 
years of the panegyries ; and the Gods 
Mandou and Atmoo introduce Rameses 
into the presence of that triad of deities. 

On the other side, forming the S. 
wall of the great hall, is a small but 
interesting battle, where the use of the 
ladder and of the testudo throws consi- 
derable light on the mode of warfare at 
that early peiiod. The town, situated 
on a lofty rock, is obstinately defended, 
and many are hurled headlong from its 
walls by the spears, arrows, and stones 
of the besieged ; they, however, on the 
nearer approach of the Egyptian king, 
are obliged to sue for peace, and send 



Egypt. 



EAMESITTM OR 



MEMNONIUM. 



405 



heralds with presents to deprecate his ( 
fury ; while his infantry, commanded 
by his sons, are putting to the sword 
the routed enemy they have overtaken 
beneath the walls, where they had in 
vain looked for refuge, the gates being 
already beset by the Egyptian troops. 

These sculptures are strong corro- 
borative proof, were any needed, of 
the correctness of the evidence con- 
tained in the Bible of the foreign wars 
and conquests of Egypt. We read 
there that "Necho, king of Egypt, 
came up to fight against Carchemish, 
by Euphrates," in the reign of Josiah ; 
while imprudent interference cost him 
his kingdom and his life. Still 
stronger, indeed, is the following ex- 
press statement of the former extent 
of the Egyptian dominions, that " the 
king of Egypt came not again any 
more out of his land ; for the king of 
Babylon had taken from the river 
(torrent) of Egypt unto the river Eu- 
phrates, all that pertained to the king 
of Egypt." And even if the authority 
of Herodotus, who makes the Col- 
chians an Egyptian colony, and of 
Diodorus, who speaks of their Baetrian 
subjects, were called in question, yet 
the circumstantial and preponderating 
evidence of the Scriptures leaves no 
room to doubt that the arms of the 
early and more potent Egyptian mon- 
archy had extended at least as far as 
the Euphrates and the neighbouring 
countries. Nor does Egyptian sculp- 
ture fail to prove this interesting 
historical fact, which, independent of 
the colour of those people, of much 
lighter hue than the inhabitants of the 
Nile, is confirmed by the dress and 
features of the prisoners of Tirhakah,- — 
the Assyrians of Sennacherib, who 
are similar to some of those captured 
by the earlier Pharaohs. 

To return to the great hall. One of 
the architraves presents a long inscrip- 
tion, purporting that Amunmai Barne- 
ses has made the sculptures (or the 
work) for his father Amunre, king of 
the guds, and that he has erected the 

hall of hewn stone, good and 

hard blocks, supported by fine columns 



i (alluding, from their form, to those 
of the central colonnade) in addition 
to (the side) columns (beiug similar to 
those of the lateral colonnades). At 
the upper end of this hall, on the 
north-west wall, the king receives 
the falchion and sceptres from Amunre, 
who is attended by the goddess Maut ; 
and in the hieroglyphics mention is 
made of this palace of Barneses, of 
which the deity is said to be the guar- 
dian. We also learn from them that 
the king is to smite the heads of his 
foreign enemies with the former, and 
with the latter to defend or rule his 
country, Egypt. On the corresponding 
wall he receives the emblems of life 
and power from Amunre, attended by 
Khons, in the presence of the lion- 
headed goddess. Below these com- 
partments, on either wall, is a proces- 
sion of the twenty-three sons of the 
king ; and on the west corner are three 
of his daughters, but without their 
names. 

On the ceiling of the next chamber 
is an astronomical subject. On the 
upper side of it are the twelve Egyp- 
tian months, and at the end of Mesdre 
a space seems to be left for the five 
days of the epact, opposite which is 
the rising of the Dog-star, under the 
figure of Isis-Sothis. Ia the hiero- 
glyphics of the border of this picture, 
mention is made of the columns and 
of the building of this chamber with 
" hard stone," where apparently were 
deposited the " books of Thoth." On 
the walls are sculptured sacred arks, 
borne in procession by the priests ; and 
at the base of the door leading to the 
next apartment is an inscription, pur- 
porting that the king had dedicated it 
to Aniun, and mention seems to be 
made of its being beautified with gold 
and precious ornaments. The door 
itself was of two folds, turning on 
bronze pins, which moved in circular 
grooves of the same metal, since re- 
moved from the stones in which they 
were fixed. On the N. wall of the 
next and last room that now remains, 
the king is making offerings and burn- 
ing incense, on one side to Phtah and 
the lion-headed goddess ; on the other 
to Ba (the sun), whose figure is gone. 



406 



THEBES. 



Sect. IV. 



Large tablets before him mention the 
offerings he has made to different 
deities. 

About 120 ft. to the E. of the outer 
court and the front towers of the 
Memnonium is the tank cased with 
stone usually attached to the Egyp- 
tian temples. 

Other ruins. — In its immediate vici- 
nity are the vestiges of another sand- 
stone building, the bases of whose 
columns scarcely appear above the 
ground ; and between these two ruins 
are several pits, of a later epoch, used 
for tombs by persons of an inferior 
class. 

There are also some remains to the 
N. of the Memnonium built of crude 
bricks, on which the names of Amun- 
noo-het and Thothmes I. are associated 
within one common cartouche, and 
others have the names of Thothmes 
III. and of Amunoph II. 

On the W. of the Memnonium are 
other remains of masonry ; and that 
edifice is surrounded on three sides by 
crude-brick vaults, which appear to 
have been used for habitations. They 
are probably of early Christian time. 
Other vestiges of sandstone remains 
are traced on both sides of these 
brick galleries ; and a short distance 
to the W. are crude-brick towers and 
walls, enclosing the shattered remains 
of a sandstone edifice, which, to judge 
from the stamp on the bricks them- 
selves, was erected during the reign of 
Thothmes III. The total ruin of 
these buildings may be accounted for 
from the sniallness of their size, the 
larger ones being merely defaced or 
partially demolished, owing to the 
great labour and time required for 
their entire destruction. 

Below the squared scarp of the rock 
to the W. of this are other traces of 
sandstone buildings ; and at the south 
lie two broken statues of Amunoph III., 
which once faced towards the palace 
of Rameses II. They stood in the usual 
attitude of Egyptian statues, the left 
leg placed forward and the arms fixed 
to the side. Their total height was 
about 35 ft. They either belonged to 
an avenue leading to the temple at 



{ Kom el Hettan, or to the edifice at a 
short distance beyond them, which was 
erected by, the same Amunoph, as we 
learn from the sculptures on its fallen 
walls. These consisted partly of lime- 
stone and partly of sandstone ; and, to 
judge from the execution of the sculp- 
tures and the elegance of the statues 
once standing within its precincts, it 
was a building of no mean pretensions. 
Two of its sitting colossi represented 
Amunoph III. ; the others, Menephtah, 
the son and successor of Rameses II. 
These last were apparently standing 
statues in pairs, two formed of one 
block, the hand of one resting on the 
shoulder of the other ; but their muti- 
lated condition prevents our ascertain- 
ing their exact form, or the other 
persons represented in these groups. 
But an idea may be given of their 
colossal size by the breadth across the 
shoulders, which is 5 ft. 3 in. ; and 
though the sitting statues of Amunoph 
were much smaller, their total height 
could not have been less than 10 ft. 

About 700 ft. to the S. of these ruins 
is the Kom el Hettan, or the " Mound 
of Sandstone," which marks the site 
of another temple of Amunoph III. ; 
and, to judge from the little that re- 
mains, it must have held a conspicuous 
rank among the finest monuments of 
Thebes. All that now exists of the 
interior are the bases of its columns, 
some broken statues, and Syenite 
sphinxes of the king, with several lion- 
headed figures of black granite. About 
200 ft. from the N. corner of these 
ruins are granite statues of the asp- 
headed goddess and another deity, 
formed of one block, in very high 
relief. In front of the door are two 
large tablets < stelae) of gritstone, with 
the usual circular summits, in the 
form of Egyptian shields, on which 
are sculptured, long inscriptions, and 
the figures of the king and queen, to 
whom Amunre and Sokari present the 
emblems of life, Beyond these a long 
dromos of 1100 ft. extends to the two 
sitting colossi, which, seated majesti- 
cally above the plain, seem to assert 
the grandeur of ancient Thebes. 

Other colossi of nearly similar di- 



Egypt- 



THE COLOSSI VOCAL MEMNON. 



407 



mensions once stood between these and 
the tablets before mentioned ; and the 
fragments of two of them, fallen pro- 
strate in the dromos, are now alone 
visible above the heightened level of 
the alluvial soil. 

3. The Colossi; the Vocal 
Memnon. 

These two huge statues, commonly 
called "the Colossi," both represent 
Amunoph III., and no doubt stood at 
the entrance of the temple of that 
monarch, already mentioned, and of 
which next to nothing remains. They 
were of a coarse hard gritstone mixed 
with chalcedonies, and were both 
originally monoliths. They stood on 
pedestals of the same material, which 
in their turn rested on a built sand- 
stone foundation. The height of the 
statues alone is about 50 ft. ; but with 
the pedestals they must have stood 
more than 60 ft. above the surround- 
ing plain. At the time they were 
erected, the ground immediately sur- 
rounding them was desert. The soil, 
which now rises to a height of about 
7 ft. above their base, has been de- 
posited by the Nile in the course of 
the successive years which have 
since elapsed. During the inundation 
they are surrounded by water. 

The northernmost of the two statues 
is known as the Colossus of Memnon, 
or the Vocal Statue of Memnon ; and 
was once the wonder of the ancients, 
owing to the sound which it was said 
to utter every morning at the rising 
of the sun. 

Like the other, it was a monolith ; 
but it is conjectured to have been 
partially thrown down by the earth- 
quake of b.c. 27, to which Eusebius 
attributes the destruction of so many 
of the monuments of Thebes, Some 
authors, however, attribute its muti- 
lation to Cambyses, and others to 
| Ptolemy Lathyrus. The repairs, 
effected by means of blocks of sand- 
stone placed horizontally in five layers, 
and forming the body, head, and upper 
part of the arms, were made in the 
reign of Septiniius Severus. 
No record exists of the sound ■which 



made the statue so famous having 
been heard while it was entire. Strabo, 
who visited it with iElius Gallus, 
the governor of Egypt, speaks of the 
"upper part" having been "broken 
and hurled down," as he was told, 
"by the shock of an earthquake,'' 
and says that he heard the sound, but 
could " not affirm whether it pro- 
ceeded from the pedestal or from the 
statue itself, or even from some of those 
who stood near its base ;" and it ap- 
pears, from his not mentioning the 
name of Memnon, that it was not yet 
supposed to be the statue of that 
doubtful personage. But it was not 
long before the Roman visitors ascribed 
it to the "Son of Tithonus," and a 
multitude of inscriptions, the earliest 
in the reign of Nero, and the most 
recent in the reign of Septimius 
Severus, testify to his miraculous 
powers, and the credulity of the 
writers. 

Pliny calls it the statue of Memnon, 
and Juvenal thus refers to it : — 

" Dimidio magicae resonant ubi Memnone 
chorda?." 

Various opinions exist among modern 
critics as to whether the sound this 
statue was said to emit, and which is 
described as resembling either the 
breaking of a harp-string or the ring 
of metal, was the result of a natural 
phenomenon or of priestly craft. 
Some say that the action of the 
rising sun upon the cracks in the 
stone moist with dew caused 
the peculiar sound produced ; while 
others declare that it was a trick of 
the priests, one of whom hid himself 
in the statue, and struck a metallic- 
sounding stone there concealed. The 
chief arguments in favour of this last 
view are, that such a stone still exists 
in the lap of the statue, with a recess 
cut in the block immediately behind 
it, capable of holding a person com- 
pletely screened from view below, and, 
above all, the suspicious circumstance 
that the sound was heard twice or 
thrice by important personages, like 
the Emperor Hadrian,— " Xaipwu Kai 
rpirou a-xov irj" rejoicing (at the 
presence of the emperor), it " uttered 



408 



THEBES. 



Sect. IV. 



a sound a third time," — while ordinary 
people only heard it once, and that 
sometimes not until after two or three 
visits. 

The form of these colossi resembles 
that mentioned by Diodorus in the 
tomb of Osymandyas, in which the 
figures of the daughter and mother 
of the king stood on either side of 
the legs of the larger central statue, the 
length of whose foot exceeded 7 cubits, 
or 3J yards. Such indeed is the size 
of their feet ; and on either side stand 
attached to the throne the wife and 
mother of Amunoph, in height about 
6 yards. The traces of a smaller 
figure of his queen are also seen be- 
tween his feet. 

The proportions of the colossi are 
about the same as of the. granite sta- 
tue of Barneses II. ; but they are 
inferior in the weight and hardness of 
their materials. They measure about 

18 ft. 3 across the shoulders; 16 ft. 6 
from the top of the shoulder to the 
elbow; 10 ft. 6 from the top of the 
head to the shoulder ; 17 ft. 9 from 
the elbow to the finger's end; and 

19 ft. 8 from the knee to the plant of 
the foot. The thrones are ornamented 
with figures of the god Nilus, who, 
holding the stalks of two plants pe- 
culiar to the river, is engaged in bind- 
ing up a pedestal or table,, surmounted 
by the name of the Egyptian monarch 
— a symbolic group, indicating his 
dominion over the upper and lower 
countries. A line of hieroglyphics 
extends perpendicularly down the 
back, from the shoulder to the pe- 
destal, containing the name of the 
Pharaoh they represent. 

Three hundred feet behind these 
are the remains of another colossus of 
similar form and dimensions, which, 
fallen prostrate, is partly buried by 
the alluvial deposits of the Nile. 

Corresponding to this are four 
smaller statues, formed of one block, 
and representing male and female 
figures, probably of Amunoph and his 
queen. They are seated on a throne, 
now concealed beneath the soil, and 
two of them are quite defaced. Their 
total height, without the head, which 
has been broken off, is 8 ft. 3 in., in- 



cluding the pedestal, and they were 
originally only about 9 ft. 10 in. They 
are therefore a strange pendant for a 
colossus of GO ft., and, even making 
every allowance for Egyptian sym- 
metrophobia, it is difficult to account 
for their position. But the accumu- 
lation of the soil, their position on 
sandy ground, and. their general di- 
rection, satisfactorily prove that they 
occupy their original site. 

Eighty- three yards behind these are 
the fragments of another colossus, 
which, like the last, has been thrown 
across the droruos it once adorned ■ and 
if the nature of its materials did not 
positively increase its beauty, their 
novelty, at least, called on the spec- 
tator to admire a statue of an enor- 
mous mass of crystallized carbonate 
of lime. From this point you readily 
perceive that the ground has sunk 
beneath the vocal statue, which may 
probably be partly owing to the nu- 
merous excavations that have been 
made at different times about its base. 

This dromos, or paved approach to 
the temple, was probably part of the 
Royal Street" mentioned in some 
papyri found at Thebes ; which, cross- 
ing the western portion of the city 
from the temple, communicated, by 
means of a ferry, with that of Luxor, 
founded by the same Amunoph, on 
the other side of the river; as the 
great dromos of sphinxes, connecting 
the temples of Luxor and Karnak, 
formed the main street in the eastern 
district of Thebes. 

Continuing to the westward along 
the edge of the hdger, you arrive at 
the extensive mounds and walla of 
Christian hovels, which encumber and 
nearly conceal the ruins of Medeenet 
Haboo, having passed several remains 
of other ancient buildings which once 
covered the intermediate space. Among 
these the most remarkable are near 
the N.N.E. corner of the mounds, 
where, besides innumerable fragments 
of sandstone, are the vestiges of two 
large colossi. In those Christian re- 
mains are some small crude-brick 
pointed arches of very early time. 



'Egypt. 



SMALL TEMPLE AT MEDEEXET HABOO. 



409 



4. Temples of Medeenet Haboo, i 
axd other kutxs xeae. 

The ruins at Medeenet Haboo are ! 
undoubtedly of one of the four temples j 
mentioned by Diodorus ; the other j 
three being those of Karnak, Luxor, ! 
and the Memnoniurn or first Eame- I 
seuni. Strabo, whose own observa- 
tion, added to the testimony of several ! 
ruins still traced on the W. bank, is 
far more authentic, affirms that Thebes ! 
" had many temples, the greater part \ 
of vrhich Cambyses defaced." 

During the empire the village of 
Medeenet Haboo was still inhabited, | 
and the early Christians converted j 
one of the deserted courts of the great 
temple into a church, having its nave 
separated from the aisles by columns, j 
and terminating in an apse at the E. 
end; the idolatrous sculptures of their 
Pagan ancestors being concealed by a 
coating of clay. The small apart- 
ments at the back part of this building 
were appropriated by the priests of 
the new religion, and houses of crude 
brick were erected on the ruins of the 
ancient village, and within the pre- 
cincts of the temple. The size of the 
church and extent of the village 
prove its Christian population to have 
been considerable, and show that 
Thebes ranked among the principal 
dioceses of the Coptic Church. But 
the invasion of the Arabs put a period 
to its existence, and its timid inmates, 
on their approach, fled to the neigh- 
bourhood of Esneh; from which time 
Medeenet Haboo ceased to hold a 
place among the villages of Thebes. 

It was probably on this occasion 
that the granite doorway was entered 
by violence ; though it is difficult to 
ascertain whether it took place then, 
or during the siege or the Persians 
or Ptolemies. But it is curious to ob- 
serve that the granite jambs have been 
cut through exactly at the part uhere 
the bar icas placed across the door. 

The small Temple at Medeenet Haboo. 
— Before this temple is an open court, 
about SO ft. by 125, whose front gate 
bears on either jamb the figure and 
name of Autocrator, Csesar, Titus, 



xElius, Adrianus. Antoninus, Eusehes. 
Besides this court, Antoninus Pius 
added a row of eight columns, united 
(four on either side) by intercolumnar 
screens, which form its N. end ; and 
his name again appears on the inner 
faces of the doorway, the remaining 
part being unsculptured. On the N. 
of the transverse area, behind this 
colonnade, are two pyramidal towers, 
apparently of Eoman date, and a 
pylon uniting them, which last bears 
the names and sculptures of Ptolemy 
Lathyrus on the S., and of Dionysius 
on the N. face. To this succeeds 
a small hypaethral court and pyra- 
midal towers of the Ethiopian Pha- 
raoh who defeated Sennacherib ; 
which, previous to the Ptolemaic ad- 
ditions, completed the extent of the 
elegant and well-proportioned vesti- 
bules of the original temple. Tl.is 
court was formed by a row of four 
columns on either side, the upper part 
of which rose considerably above the 
screens that united them to each 
other and to the towers at its northern 
extremity. Here Nectant bo has effaced 
the name of Tirhakah and introduced 
his own : and the hieroglyphics of 
Ptolemy Lathyrus have usurped a 
place among the sculptures of the 
Ethiopian monarch. 

Passing these towers you enter an- 
other court, 60 ft. long, on either side 
of which stood a row of nine columns, 
with a lateral entrance to the right 
and left. The jambs of one of these 
gateways still remain. They are of 
red granite, and bear the name of 
Petamunap. 

The corresponding door is, like the 
rest of the edifice, of sandstone from 
the quarries of Silsilis. This court 
may be called the inner vestibule, and 
to it succeeds the original edifice, com- 
posed of an isolated sanctuary, sur- 
rounded on three sides by a corridor 
of pillars, and on the fourth by six 
smaller chamber?. 

The original founder of this part of 
the building was Amun-noo-het, or 
Hatasoo, who raised the great obelisk 
of Karnak; Thothmes II. continued or 
altered the sculptures ; and Thothmes 
III. completed the architectural details 



410 



THEBES. 



Sect. IV. 



of the sanctuary and peristyle. To 
these were afterwards added the hiero- 
glyphics of Kameses III. on the out- 
side of the building, to connect, by 
similarity of external appearance, the 
temple of his predecessors with that 
he erected in its vicinity. Some re- 
storations were afterwards made by 
Ptolemy Physcon; and, in addition 
to the sculptures of the two front 
door-ways, he repaired the columns 
which support the roof of the peristyle. 
Hakdris, of the XXIXth dynasty, 
had previously erected the wings on 
either side ; and with the above men- 
tioned monarchs he completes the 
number of eleven who added repairs 
or sculptures to this building. A 
stone gateway was also added at the 
N.E. extremity of this temple. The 
doorway is curious, from being made 
in the fashion of those of the early 
time of the Pyramid kings. About 
170 ft. N. by E. from this is an under- 
ground passage, upwards of 60 ft. in 
length and 2 ft. 5 in breadth, descend- 
ing to a small tank, also of hewn stone, 
and still containing water, about 8 ft. 
deep ; and what is most remarkable 
is that the water is perfectly sweet, 
though in the midst of mounds abound- 
ing in nitre. 

About i)0 ft. from the E. side of the 
inner court is an open tank or basin, 
cased with hewn stone, whose original 
dimensions may have been about 50 ft. 
square; beyond which, to the S., are 
the remains of a large crude-brick 
wall, with another of stone, crowned 
by battlements in the form of Egyptian 
shields, and bearing the name of 
Sameses V., by whom it was probably 
erected. This wall turns to the N. 
along the E. face of the mounds, and 
appears to have enclosed the whole of 
the temenos surrounding the temples, 
and to have been united to the E. side 
of the front tower of the great temple. 
Close to the tank is a broken statue, 
bearing the ovals of Kameses II. and 
of Taia, the wife of Amunoph III., his 
ancestor ; and several stones, inscribed 
with the name of this Eameses, have 
been used in the construction of the 
gateway of Lathyrus and the adjoining 
towers. 



Great Temple at Medeenet Haboo. — 
We now proceed to notice the great 
temple of Kameses III. The S. or 
front part consists of a building once 
isolated, but since united by a wall 
with the towers of the last-mentioned 
temple, before which two lodges form 
the sides of its spacious entrance. 
Still farther to the S. of this stood a j 
raised platform, strengthened by other 
masonry, bearing the name of the 
founder of the edifice, similar to those 
met with before the dromos of several 
Egyptian temples. Within, or to the 
N. of the lodges, is the main part of 
the building, resembling a pyramidal 
tower on either hand, between which 
runs an oblong court, terminated by a 
gateway, which passes beneath the 
chambers of the inner or N. side. 
The whole of this edifice constituted 
what has been called the palace of the 
king ; and in addition to several 
chambers that still remain, several 
others stood at the wings, and in the 1 
upper part, which have been destroyed. 
The sculptures on the walls of these ! 
private apartments are the more inte- 
resting, as they are a singular in- 
stance of the internal decorations of 
an Egyptian palace. Here the king I 
is attended by his hareem, some of 
whom present him with flowers, or j 
wave before him fans and flabella ; j 
and a favourite is caressed, or invited 
to divert his leisure hours with a 
game of draughts : but they are all ] 
obliged to stand in his presence, and I 
the king alone is seated on an elegant 
fauteuil amidst his female attendants 
— a custom still prevalent throughout i 
the East. The queen is not among 
them; and her oval is always blank, 
wherever it occurs, throughout the 
building. 

The same game of draughts is re- 
presented in the grottoes of Beni 
Hassan, which are of a much earlier 
period, in the reign of Osirtasen, of ; 
the XHth dynasty. That it is not 
chess is evident from the men being 
all of similar size and form, varying ' 
only in colour on opposite sides of the 
board. They have sometimes human 
heads ; and some have been found of 
a small size, with other larger pieces. 



Egypt. 



GREAT TEMPLE AT 



MEDEENET HABOO- 



411 



as if there was a distinction, like our 
kings and common men in draughts. 

On the front walls the conqueror 
smites his suppliant captives in the 
presence of Amunre, who, on the N.E. 
side, appears under the form of Ba, 
the physical Sun. with the head of a 
hawk. An ornamental border, repre- 
senting "the chiefs" of the vanquished 
nations, Asiatic and African, extends 
along the base of the whole front ; and 
on either side of the oblong court or 
passage of the centre Barneses offers 
similar prisoners to the deity of the 
temple, who says. " Go, my cherished 
and chosen, make war on foreign 

! nations, besiege their forts, and carry 
off their people to live as captives." 
Here ornamented balustrades, sup- 

I ported each by four figures of African 
and Northern barbarians, leniind us 
of Gothic taste; and the summit of 
the whole pavilion was crowned with 
a row of shields, the battlements of 
Egyptian architecture. Hence a dro- 
mos of 265 ft. led to the main edifice 
on the northward, whose front is 
formed of two lofty pyyramidol towers 
or propyla, with a pydon or doorway 
between them, the entrance to the first 
area or propylseum. 

The sculptures over this door refer 
to the panegyries of the king, whose 
name, as at the palace of Eameses II., 
appears in the centre. Those on the 
W. tower represent the monarch about 

I to slay two prisoners in the presence 
of Phtah-Sokari, others being bound 
below and behind the figure of the 

i god. In the lower part is a tablet, 

t commencing with the 12th year of 
Eameses; and on the E. tower the 

I same conqueror smites similar captives 

e before Amunre. Beneath are other 
names of the conquered cities or dis- 
tricts of this northern enemy ; and at 

1 the upper part of the propylon a figure 
j of colossal proportion grasps a group 
j of suppliant captives his uplifted arm 
: is about to sacrifice. 

2 Passing through the pylon, you enter 
d a large hypsethral court about 110 ft. 
3 e by 135, having on one side a row of 
lD seven Osiride pillars, and on the other 
n f ( eight circular columns, with bcll- 
4 formed capitals, geuerally, though 



erroneously, supposed to represent the 
full-blown lotus. 

Columns of this form are usually 
met with in the great halls of these 
temples, and are undoubtedly the 
must elegant of the Egyptian orders. 
The plant from which their capital is 
borrowed is the papyrus, which is 
frequently seen in the sculptures of 
the tomhs. 

On the western pyramidal tower, or 
propylon, at the inner end of the first 
court, Eameses HI. leads the prisoners 
he has taken of the Tochari to 
Amunre, who presents the falchion of 
vengeance, which the king holds forth 
his hand to receive ; and on the corre- 
sponding propylon is a large tablet, 
beginning with the " eighth year of 
his beloved Majesty" Eameses III. 
The doorway, or pylon, between these 
towers, is of red granite, the hiero- 
glyphics on whose jambs are cut to 
the depth of two or three inches. 
Those on the outer face contain offer- 
ings to different deities, among which 
we find a representation of the gate- 
way itself ; and at the base of the 
jambs are four lines, stating that 
" Barneses made these buildings for 
his father Amunre, (and) erected for 
him (this) fine gateway of good blocks 
of granite stone, the door itself of wood 
embellished with plates of pure gold 
. . . for his good name (Eameses), 
Am mi rejoicing to behold it." 

The summit of this pylon is crowmed 
by a row of sitting cynocephali (or 
apes), the emhlems of Thoth. 

The next area is far more splendid, 
and may be looked upon as one of the 
finest which adorn the various temples 
of Egvpt. Its dimensions are about 
123 ft/ by 133, and its height from the 
pavement to the cornice 39 ft. 4. It 
is surrounded by an interior peristyle, 
whose east and west sides are sup- 
ported by five massive columns, the 
south by a row of eight Osiride pillars, 
and the north by a similar number, 
behind which is an elegant corridor 
of circular columns, whose effect is 
unequalled by any other in Thebes. 
The colours, too, many of which are 
still preserved, add greatly to the 
beauty of its columns, of whose mas- 
t 2 



412 



THEBES. 



Sect. IV 



sive style some idea may be formed, 
from their circumference of nearly 
23 ft. to a height of 24, or about 
3 diameters. 

In contemplating the grandeur of 
this court, one cannot but be struck 
with the paltry appearance of the 
Christian colonnade that encumbers 
the centre ; or fail to regret the de- 
molition of the interior of the temple, 
whose architraves were levelled to 
form the columns that now spoil the 
architectural effect of the area ; and 
the total destruction of the Osiride 
figures once attached to its pillars. 
But if the rigid piety, or the domestic 
convenience, of the early Christians 
destroyed much of the ornamental 
details of this grand building, we are 
partly repaid by the interesting sculp- 
tures they unintentionally preserved 
beneath the clay or stucco with which 
they concealed them. 

The architraves present the dedi- 
cation of the palace of " Barneses at 
Thebes," which is said to have been 
built of hard blocks of sandstone, and 
the adytum to have been beautified 
with the precious metals. Mention is 
also made of a doorway of hard stone, 
ornamented in a manner similar to the 
one before noticed. 

On the east, or rather north-east, 
w r all, Barneses is borne in his shrine, 
or canopy, seated on a throne orna- 
mented by the figures of a lion, and a 
sphinx which is preceded by a hawk. 
Behind him stand two figures of Truth 
and Justice, with outspread wings. 
Twelve Egyptian princes, sons of the 
king, bear the shrine; officers wave 
flabella around the monarch ; and 
others, of the sacerdotal order, attend 
on either side, carrying his arms and 
insignia. Four others follow; then 
six of the sons of the king, behind 
whom are two scribes and eight at- 
tendants of the military class, bearing 
stools and the steps of the throne. In 
another line are members of the sacer- 
dotal order, four other of the king's 
sons, fan-bearers, and military scribes ; 
a guard of soldiers bringing up the 
rear of the procession. Before the 
shrine, in one line, march six officers, 
bearing sceptres and other insignia ; 



in another, a scribe reads aloud the 
contents of a scroll he holds unfolded 
in his hand, preceded by two of the 
king's sons and twp distinguished 
persons of the military and priestly 
orders. 

The rear of both these lines is 
closed by a pontiff, who, turning 
round towards the shrine, burns in- 
cense before the monarch; and a band 
of music, composed of the trumpet, 
drum, double pipe, and crotala, or 
clappers, with choristers, forms the 
van of the procession. The king, 
alighted from his throne, officiates as 
priest before the statue of Amun- 
Khem, or Amunre Generator; and, 
still wearing his helmet, he presents 
libations and incense before the altar, 
which is loaded with flowers and 
other suitable offerings. The statue 
of the god, attended by officers bear- 
ing flabella, is carried on a palanquin, 
covered with rich drapery, by twenty- 
two priests; and behind it follow 
others, bringing the table and the 
altar of the deity. Before the statue 
is the sacred bull, followed by the 
king on foot, wearing the cap of the 
"lower country." Apart from the 
procession itself stands the queen as 
a spectator of the ceremony; and be- 
fore her a scribe reads a scroll he has 
unfolded. A priest turns round to 
offer incense to the white bull, and 
another, clapping his hands, brings 
up the rear of a long procession of 
hieraphori, carrying standards, images, 
and other sacred emblems; and the 
foremost bear the statues of the 
king's ancestors. 

This part of the picture refers to 
the coronation of the king, who, in the 
hieroglyphics, is said to have " put on 
the crown of the upper and lower 
countries ; " which the carrier-pigeons, 
flying to the four sides of the world, 
are to announce to the gods of the 
south, north, east, and west. In the 
next compartment the president of 
the assembly reads a long invocation, 
the contents of which are contained 
in the hieroglyphic inscription above ; 
and the six ears of corn, which the 
king, once more wearing his helmet, 
has cut with a golden sickle, are held 



Egypt 



SCULPTURES AT MEDEENET HABOO. 



413 



out by a priest towards the deity. 
The white bull, and the images of 
the king's ancestors, are deposited in 
his temple, in the presence of Amun- 
Khein, the queen still witnessing the 
ceremony, which is concluded by an 
offering of incense and libation made 
by Eameses to the statue of the god. 

In the lower compartments, on this 
side of the temple is a procession 
of the arks of Amunre, Maut, and 
Khonso, which the king, whose ark 
is also carried before him, comes to j 
meet. In another part the gods Seth 
and Hor-Hat pour alternate emblems 
of life and power (or purity) over the ! 
king; and on the south wall he is 
introduced by several divinities into 
the presence of the patron deities of 
the temple. In the upper part of the 
west wall Rameses makes offerings to 
Phtah-Sokari and to Kneph ; in an- 
other compartment he burns incense 
to the ark of Sokari ; and near this is j 
a tablet relating to the offerings made | 
to the same deity. The ark is then j 
borne by 16 priests, with a pontiff 
and another of the sacerdotal order in 
attendance. The king then joins 
in another procession formed by eight 
of his tons and four chiefs, behind 
whom two priests turn round to offer 
incense to the monarch. The hawk, 
the emblem of the king, or of Horus, 
precedes them, and 18 priests carry 
the sacred emblem of the god Nofre- 
Atmoo, which usually accompanies the 
ark of Sokari. 

On the south wall marches a long 
procession, composed of hieraphori, 
bearing different standards, thrones, 
arks, and insignia, with musicians, 
who precede the king and his attend- 
ants. The figure of the deity is not 
introduced, perhaps intimating that 
this forms part of the religious pomp 
of the corresponding wall, and from 
the circumstance of the king here 
wearing the pshent, it is not impro- 
bable it may also allude to his coro- 
nation. 

The remainder of the temple to the 
W. was until lately completely buried 
beneath the ruins of the Coptic village. 
Unfortunately the lab mr bestowed on 



its excavation was not repaid by the 
discovery of anything of very great 
interest. A large hall with little more 
than the base of the splendid columns 
which once adorned it remaining, and 
some small chambers on either side of 
it, covered with the ordinary religious 
scenes, are all that was found. The 
colours of the paintings in some of 
these chambers are still very bright. 

Battle Scenes. — The commencement 
of the interesting historical subjects 
of Medeenet Haboo U at the south- 
west corner of this court, on the inner 
face of the tower. Here Rameses, 
standing in his car, which his horses 
at full speed carry into the mid^t 
of the enemy's ranks, discharges his 
arrows on their flying infantry. The 
Egyptian chariots join in the pursuit, 
and a body of their allies assist in 
slaughtering those who oppose them, 
or bind them as captives. The right 
hands of the slain are then cut off as 
trophies of victory. 

The sculptures on the west wall 
are a continuation of the scene. The 
Egyptian princes and generals con- 
duct " captive chiefs " into the pre- 
sence of the king. He is seated at 
the back of his car, and the spirited 
horses are held by his attendants on 
foot. Besides other trophies, large 
heaps of hands are placed before him, 
which an officer counts one by one, as 
the other notes down their number on 
a scroll, each heap containing 3000, 
and the total indicating the returns 
of the enemy's slain. The number of 
captives, reckoned 1000 in each line, 
is also mentioned in the hieroglyphics 
above, where the name of tlie Rebo 
points out the nation against whom 
this war was carried on. Their flow- 
ing dresses, striped horizontally with 
blue or green bands on a white 
ground, and their long hair and aqui- 
line nose, give them the character of 
some eastern nation, probably in the 
vicinity of Assyria, as their name re- 
minds us of the Rhibii of Ptolemy. 
A long hieroglyphic inscription is 
placed over the king, and a still longer 
tablet, occupying a great part of this 
wall, refers to the exploits of the 



414 



THEBES. 



Sect. IV. 



Egyptian conqueror, and bears the date 
of liis fifth year. 

The suite of this historical subject 
continues on the south wall. The 
king, returning victorious to- Egypt, 
proceeds slowly in his car, conducting 
in triumph the prisoners he has made, 
who walk beside and before it, three 
others being bound to the axle. Two 
of his sons attend as fan-bearers, and 
the seveial regiments of Egyptian in- 
fantry, with a corps of their allies, 
under the command of three other of 
these princes, marching in regular 
step and in the close array of disci- 
plined troops, accompany their kin<r. 
He arrives at Thebes, and presents his 
captives to Amunre and Maut, the 
deities of the city, who compliment 
him, as usual, on the victory he has 
gained, and the overthrow of the 
enemy he has " trampled beneath his 
feet." 

On the north wall the king presents 
offerings to different gods, and below 
is an ornamental kind of border, com- 
posed of a procession of the king's sons 
and daughters. Four of the former, 
his immediate successors, bear the asp 
or basilisk, the emblem of majesty, and 
have their kingly ovals added to their 
names. In the E. wall of the corridor 
is a secret passage, which leads to an 
opening over the side door, as if in- 
tended to enable those within to look 
down and annoy any assailants from 
without ; and another passage is on the 
W. wall of the great area just de- 
scribed ; but both appear to have been 
made after the building was completed. 

Passing through the centre door, on 
the inner or north side of this cor- 
ridor, you arrive at the site of the 
1 all. On either side of the entrance 
the king is attended by his consort, 
who, as usual, holds the histrum, but 
her name is not introduced. 

If the sculptures of the area arrest 
the attention of the antiquary, or ex- 
cite the admiration of the traveller, 
those of the exterior of the building 
are no less curious in an historical 
point of view, and the north and east 
walls are covered with a profusion of 
the most varied and interesting sub- 
jects. 



Beginning at the east end of the 
! north wall, there are a succession of 
• 10 pictures, arranged in compartments, 
i illustrating the history of a war waged 
! by Eameses III. against the Liboo or 
! Bebo, and the Takkaro or Tochari. 1st 
i picture : A trumpeter assembles the 
troops, who salute the king as he 
i passes in his car. Eameses advances 
| at a slow pace in his chariot, attended 
by fan-bearers, and preceded by his 
I troops ; and a lion running at the side 
of the horses reminds us of the account 
given of Osymandyas, who was said 
to have been accompanied in war 
by that animal. Another instance 
of it is met with at Derr, in Nubia, 
among the sculptures of the second 
Eameses. 2nd picture: The enemy 
await the Egyptian invaders in the 
open field; the king presses forwards 
in his car, and bends his bow against 
the enemy. Several regiments of 
Egyptian archers in close array ad- 
vance on different points, and harass 
them with showers of arrows. The 
chariots rush to the charge, and a body 
of allies maintains the combat, hand 
to hand, with the enemy, who are at 
length routed, and fly before their 
victorious aggressors. '3rd picture : 
Some thousands are left dead on the 
field, whose tongues and hands, being 
cut off, are brought by the Egyptian 
soldiers as proofs of their success. 
Three thousand five hundred and 
thirty-five hands and tongues form 
part "of the registered returns ; and two 
other heaps, and a third of tongues, 
containing each a somewhat larger 
number, are "brought" under the 
superintendence of the chief officers, 
like David's trophies, "to the king." 
(Cf. 1 Sam. xviii. 27, and 2 Kings x. 
8.) Wi picture: The monarch then 
alights from his chariot and distributes 
rewards to his troops, and haran- 
gues the generals, while his military 
secretaries draw up an account of 
the number of spears, bows, swords, 
and other arms taken from the enemy, 
which are laid before them; and 
mention seems to be made in the 
hieroglyphics of the horses that have 
been captured. 5th picture: Eameses 
then proceeds in his car, having his 



Egypt. 



SCULPTURES AT MEDEENET HABOO. 



415 



bow and sword in one hand and 
his whip in the other, indicating that 
his march still lies through an ene- 
my's country. The van of his army 
is composed of a body of chariots; 
the infantry, in close order, preced- 
ing the royal car, constitute the centre, 
and other similar corps form the 
wings and rear. The hieroglyphic 
text contains little but praises ad- 
dressed to the king and thanks to 
the gods. 6th picture: The troops 
are again summoned by sound of 
trumpet to the attack of another 
enemy, the Takkaro, and the Egyptian 
monarch gives orders for charging 
the hostile army drawn up in the open 
plain. The troops of the enemy, after 
a short conliict, are routed, and retreat 
in great disorder. The women en- 
deavour to escape with their children 
on the first approach of the Egyptians, 
and retire in plaustra drawn by oxen. 
The flying chariots denote the great- 
ness of the general panic. 1th -picture : 
The conquering Egyptians advance 
into the interior of the country. Here, 
while passing a large morass, the king j 
is attacked by several lions, one of 
which, transfixed with darts and arrows, 
he lays breathless beneath his horse's 
feet ; another attempts to fly towards j 
the jungle, but, receiving a last and 
fatal wound, writhes in the agony of 
approaching death. A third springs 
up from behind his car. and the hero 
prepares to receive and check its fury 
with his spear. It was, perhaps in 
this country that Amunoph III. kilL-d 
the 110 lions, which, according to the 
inscription on a scarabaeus in the Cairo 
Museum, he boasts of having slain in 
the first 10 years of his reign. Below 
this group is represented the march of 
the Egyptian army, with their allies, 
tue Shairetana, the Shaso or Shos ? 
(supposed to be Arabs), and a third 
corps, armed with clubs, whose form 
and character are very imperfectly 
preserved. 

8th picture: Here we have the only 
representation existing in Egypt of a 
naval engagement. The Egyptians 
attack the hostile ships with a fleet of 
galleys, which in their shape differ 
essentially from those used on the 



Nile. The general form of the vessels 
, of both combatants is very similar: a 
j raised gunwale, protecting the rowers 
: from the missiles of the foe, extends 
j from the head to the stern, and a lofty 
! poop and forecastle contain each a 
! body of archers ; but the head of a 
j lion, which ornaments the prows of 
the Eg} 7 ptian galleys, serves to distin- 
guish them from those of the enemy. 
The former bear down their opponents, 
and succeed in boarding ihem and 
taking several prisoners. One of the 
hostile galleys is upset, and the slingers 
in the shrouds, with the archers and 
spearmen on the prows, spread dismay 
among the few who resist. The king, 
trampling on the prostrate bodies of 
the enemy, and aided by a corps of 
bowmen, discharges from the shore a 
continued showers of arrows : and his 
attendants stand at a short distance 
with his chariot and horses, awaiting 
his return. The scene of this engage- 
ment is doubtful, but it is evident that 
it took place either close to the coast 
or at the mouth of a river. 9th pic- 
ture : The conquering army leads in 
triumph the prisoners of the two 
nations they have captured in the naval 
fight, and the amputated hands of the 
slain are laid in heaps before the 
military chiefs. Though this custom 
savours of barbarism, the humanity of 
the Egyptians is very apparent in the 
above conliict : where the soldiers on the 
fchore and in the ships do their utmost 
to rescue their enemies from a watery 
grave. The king distributes rewards 
to his victorious troops : and then com- 
mences the march back to Egypt. On 
the way he stops at a town called in 
the hieroglyphics Migdol-en-Bamesen- 
hakou. 1 0th picture : Triumphal return 
of the king to Thebes conducting his 
prisoners in triumph, and making 
offerings to the Theban triad, Amun, 
Maut, and Khons. The text contains 
his address to the divinities and their 
response, and also an address of the 
prisoners to the king imploring his 
clemency, in order that they may live 
and celebrate his courage and virtues. 

In the compartments above these 
historical scenes the king makes suit- 
able offerings to the gods of Egypt ; 



416 



THEBES. 



Sect. IV. 



and on the remaining part of the E. 
wall, to the S. of the second propylon, 
another war is represented. 

In the fii st picture the king, alighted 
from his chariot, armed with his spear 
and shield, and trampling on the 
prostrate bodies of the slain, besieges 
the fort of an Asiatic enemy, whom he 
forces to sue for peace. In the next 
he attacks a larger town surrounded 
by water. The Egyptians fell the 
trees in the woody country which sur- 
rounds it, probably to form testudos 
and ladders for the assault. Some are 
already applied by their comrades to 
the walls, and, while they reach their 
summit, the gates are broken open, 
and the enemy are driven from the 
ramparts, or precipitated over the 
parapet, by the victorious assailants, 
who announce by sound of trumpet the 
capture of the place. In the third 
compartment, on the N. face of the 
first propylon, Kameses attacks two 
large towns, the upper one of which 
is taken with little resistance, the 
Egyptian troops having entered it and 
gained possession of the citadel. In 
the lower one the terrified inhabitants 
are engaged in rescuing their children 
from the approaching danger, by hur- 
rying them into the ramparts of the 
outer wall. The last piciure occup ; es , 
the upper or N. end of the E. side, j 
where the king presents his prisoners j 
to the gods of the temple. 

The western wall is entirely covered 
by a large hieroglyphical tablet, re- 
cording various offerings made in the 
different months of the year by Ka- 
meses III. 

The head and forepart of several 
lions project, at intervals, from below 
the cornice of the exterior of the 
building, who.>e perforated mouths, 
communicating by a tube with the 
summit of the roof, served as conduits 
for the r-un-water which occasionally 
fell at Thebes. Nor were they ne- 
glectful of any precaution that might 
secure the paintings of the interior 
from the effects of rain ; and the joints 
of the stones which formed the ceiling 
being protected by a long piece of 
stone, let in immediately over the line 
of their junction, were rendered im- 



pervious to the heaviest storm. For 
fchowers fall annually at Thebes ; per- 
haps on an average four or five in the 
year ; and every eight or ten years 
heavy rains fill the torrent-beds of the 
mountains, which run to the banks of 
the Nile. A storm of this kind did 
much damage to Belzoni's tomb some 
years ago. 

Square apertures were also cut at 
intervals in the roofs, the larger ones 
intended for the admission of light, 
the smaller probably for suspending 
the chains that supported lamps for 
the illumination of the interior. 

Six hundred and fifty feet S.W. of 
the pavilion of Medeenet Haboo is a 
small Ptolemaic temple, dedicated to 
Thoth. In the adytum are some 
curious hieroglyphical subjects, which 
have thrown great light upon the 
names and succession of the Ptolemies 
who preceded Physcon, or Euergetes 
II. This monarch is here represented 
making offerings to four of his prede- 
cessors, Soter, Philadelphus, Philo- 
pator, and Epiphanes, each name being 
accompanied by that of their respective 
queens. It is here, in particular, that 
the position of the Ptolemaic cogno- 
men, as Soter, Philadelphus, and others, 
satisfactorily proves that it is after, 
and not in the name,_ that we must 
look for the title which distinguished 
each of these kings ; nor will any one 
conversant with hieroglyphics fail to 
remark the adoption of these cogno- 
mens in each prenomen of a succeed- 
ing Ptolemy; a circumstance analo- 
gous to the more ancient mode of 
borrowing, or quartering, from the 
prenomens of an earlier Pharaoh some 
of the characters that composed that 
of a later king. 

This small sandstone huilding, whose 
total length does not exceed 48 ft., 
consists of a transverse outer court, 
and three smaller successive chambers, 
communicating with each other. Near 
it, to the W., was an artificial basin, 
now forming a pond of irregular shape 
during the inundation, and surrounded 
on three sides by mimosas; beyond 
which, to the N.W. and W., are the 
traces of some ruins, the remains of 



Egypt, 



DAYK EL MEDEENEH. 



417 



Egyptian and Copt tombs, and the 
limited enclosure of a modern church. 

A low plain, once a lake, extends 
from the S.W. of this temple to the 
distance of 7300 ft., by a breadth of 
3000, whose limits are marked by high 
mounds of sand and alluvial soil ; on 
one series of which stands the modern 
village of Kom el By rat, the two south- 
ernmost presenting the vestiges of 
tombs, and the relics of human skele- 
tons. This lake is called Birltet 
Haboo. That the tradition, which 
makes this a real lake, is founded on 
fact, is evident from the appearance 
of the mounds of alluvial soil around 
it, which are taken from its ex- 
cavated bed; and, if required, we 
might find an additional proof in 
the upper part of the mounds on the 
desert side having on their summit 
some of the stones that form the sub- 
stratum beneath the alluvial deposit. 
The excavation was. evidently made 
after the mud of the inundation had 
accumulated considerably upon the 
Theban plain ; and though a smaller 
lake had probably been made there 
before, this larger one may not date 
till after the age of Amunoph III., his 
colossi being based on the stony hdger 
of the desert, which the inundation 
did not then reach. 

The lake was intended for the same 
purpose as that of Memphis ; and it is 
not impossible that the tombs on its 
southern shores may have been of 
those offenders who were doomed to 
be excluded from a participation in 
the funeral honours which the pious 
enjoyed in the consecrated mansions 
of the dead on the N. side of this 
Acherusian lake : — " Centum errant 
annos." 

Another small Temple. — Three thou- 
sand feet S.W. of the western angle of 
the lake is a small Temple of Roman 
date, bearing the name of Adrian, and 
of Antoninus Pius, who completed it, 
and added the pylon in front. Its 
total length is 45 ft., and breadth 53 ; 
with an isolated sanctuary in the 
centre, two small chamber's on the 
N.E., and three on the S.W. side ; the 
first of which contains a staircase 



leading to the roof. In front stand 
two pylons, the outermost one being 
distant from the door of the temple 
about 200 ft. 



5. Dayr el Medeeneh. 

Between the Colossi and Medeenet 
Haboo, and behind the old cemetery 
called Koornet Murraee, is a small 
temple erected by Ptolemy Philopator. 
It is called Dayr el Medeeneh, from 
having been the abode of the early 
Christians. It measures 60 ft. by 33. 
Being left unfinished, it was completed 
by Physcon, or Euergetes II., who 
added the sculptures to the walls of the 
interior, and part of the architectural 
details of the portico ; the pylon in 
front bearing the name of Dionysus. 
The vestibule is ornamented with two 
columns supporting the roof, but it is 
unsculptured. The corridor is sepa- 
rated from this last by intercolumnar 
screens, uniting, on either side of its 
entrance, one column to a pilaster, 
surmounted by the head of Athor. 
On the E. wall of this corridor or pro- 
naos, Ptolemy Philometor, followed by 
" his brother, the god," Physcon, and 
the queen Cleopatra, makes offerings 
to Amunre ; but the rest of the sculp- 
tures appear to present the names of 
Physcon alone, who adopted, on his 
brother's death, the name and oval of 
Philometor, with the additional title 
of " god Soter." 

A staircase, lighted by a window 
of peculiar form, once led to the roof; 
and the back part of the naos consists 
of three parallel chambers. The centre 
one, or adytum, presents the sculp- 
tures of Philopator on the back and 
half the side walls, which last were 
completed by the 2nd Euergetes ; as 
recorded in a line of hieroglyphics at 
the junction of the first and subse- 
quent compartments. Amunre, with 
Maut and Khonso, Athor and Justice, 
share the honours of the adytum; 
but the dedication of Philopator de- 
cides that the temple was consecrated 
to the Egyptian Aphrodite, " the pre- 
sident of the west." In the eastern 
chamber Philopator again appears in 
t 3 



418 



THEBES. 



Sect. IV. 



the sculptures of the end wall, where \ 
Athor and Justice hold the chief 
place ; while Amunre and Osiris, the 
principal deities in the lateral com- 
partments, receive the offerings of 
Euergetes II. 

In the western chamber the sub- 
jects are totally different from any 
found in the temples of Thebes ; and 
appear to have a sepulchral character. 
Here Philopator pays his devotions to 
Osiris and Isis ; on the E. side Phys- 
con offers incense to the statue of 
Khem, preceded by Anubis, and fol- 
lowed by the ark of Sokari ; and on 
the opposite wall is the judgment 
scene, frequently found on the papyri 
of the Egyptians. Osiris, seated on 
his throne, awaits the arrival of those 
souls which are ushered into Amenti ; 
the four genii stand before him on a 
lotus-blosbom ; and the female Cer- 
berus is there, with Harpocrates seated 
on the crook of Osiris. Thoth, the 
god of letters, presents himself before 
the king of Hades, bearing in his hand 
a tablet, on which the actions of the 
deceased are noted down ; while Horus 
and Aroeris are employed in weighing 
the good deeds of the judged against 
the ostrich - feather, the symbol of 
Justice or Truth. A cynocephalus, 
the emblem of Thoth, is seated on the 
top of the balance. At length comes 
the deceased; who advances between 
two figures of the goddess, and bears | 
in his hand the symbol of truth, indi- j 
eating his meritorious actions, and his ' 
fitness for admission to the presence of 
Osiris. The 42 assessors, seated above, 
in two lines, complete the sculptures of 
the W. wall ; and all these symbols of 
death seem to show that the chamber 
was dedicated to Osiris, in his peculiar 
character of judge of the dead. 

Besides the monarchs by whom the 
temple was commenced, we may men- 
tion the " Autocrator Ceesar," or Au- 
gustus, whose name appears at the 
back of the naos. 

Several enchorial and Coptic in- 
scriptions have been written in the in- 
terior, and on the outside of the vesti- 
bule, whose walls, rent by the sinking 
of the ground and human violence, 
make us acquainted with a not uncom- 



mon custom of Egyptian architects, — 
the use of wooden dovetailed cramps, 
which connected the blocks of masonry. 
Wood, in a country where very little 
rain falls, provided the stones are 
closely fitted together, lasts for ages, as 
may be seen by these sycamore cramps ; 
and the Egyptians calculated very ac- 
curately the proportionate durability of 
different substances, and the situation 
adapted to their respective properties. 
Hence, they preferred sandstone to 
calcareous blocks for the construction 
of their temples, a stone which, in the 
dry climate of Egypt, resists the action 
of the atmosphere much longer than 
either limestone or granite ; but they 
used calcareous subtractions beneath 
the soil, because they were known to 
endure where the contact with the salts 
would speedily decompose the harder 
but less durable granite. 

The walls surrounding the court 
of this temple present a peculiar style 
of building, the bricks being disposed 
in concave and convex courses forming 
a waving line, which rises and falls 
alternately along their whole length. 

6. Dayr el Bahree. 

After passing the hill of Sheykh 
Abd el Koorneh, at the northern 
extremity of the Assasseef, and im- 
mediately be-low the cliffs of the 
Libyan mountain, is an ancient temple, 
whose modern name, Dayr el Bahree, 
or " the Northern Convent," indicates 
its having served, like most of the 
temples at Thebes, as a church and 
monastery of the early Christians. 

An extensive dromos of 1600 ft., 
terminated at the S.E. by a sculptured 
pylon, whose substructions alone mark 
its site, led in a direct line between a 
double row of sandstone sphinxes to 
the entrance of its square enclosure; 
before which two pedestals still point 
out the existence of the obelisks they 
once supported. Following the same 
line, and 200 ft. to the N.W. of this 
gateway, is an inclined plane of ma- 
sonry, leading to a granite pylon in 
front of the inner court ; and about 
150 ft. from the base of this ascent a 
wall at right angles with it extends 



Egypt. 



D AYR EL BAHItEE. 



419 



on either side to the distance of 100 ft., 
having before it a peristyle of eight 
polygonal columns, forming a covered 
corridor. 

The plan on which this temple was 
constructed is curious, and differs 
entirely from that of any other in 
Egypt. It was built in stages up the 
slope of the mountain, flights of steps 
leading from one court to the other. 
The builder of this temple would seem 
to have been Amun-noo-het, or Hat- 
a-soo, the sister of Thothmes II. and 
Thothmes III. Her name appears 
constantly in various parts of the 
building, though nearly always it has 
been defaced, and replaced by that ' 
of Thothmes III. Considering the I 
material of which this temple is built, 
a beautiful marble-like limestone, it is 
astonishing that it should have escaped 
destruction, were it not that the tombs 
of the Assassee'f afforded a quarrying 
ground as rich and more accessible. 

On the S.W. side of the lowest court 
of the temple— the one first arrived at 
from the E. — are some interesting 
sculptures, unfortunately much dis- 
figured. Several regiments of Egyp- 
tian soldiers are marching with boughs 
in their hands, bearing the weapons 
of their peculiar corps, and forming 
a triumphal procession to the sound 
of the trumpet and drum. An ox is 
sacrificed, and tables of offerings to the 
deity of Thebes are laid out in the 
presence of the troops. The rest of 
the sculptures are destroyed, but the 
remains of two boats prove that the 
upper compartments were finished 
with the same care as the others. 
The other walls contain remains of 
similar sculpture, and among them 
a series of hawks in very prominent 
relief, about the height of a man, sur- 
mounted by the asp and globe, the 

; emblems of the sun and of the king 

'■ as Pharaoh. 

The granite pylon at the upper ex- 

» tremity of the inclined ascent bears, 

3 like the rest of the building, the name 
of the founder, Amun-noo-het, which, 

I in spite of the architectural usurpa- 
t tion of the third Thothmes, is still 
J traced in the ovals of the jambs and 

I I lintel. We read, after the name of 



Thothmes III. (but still preceded by 
the square title, banner, or e.-cutcheon 
of Pharaoh Amun-noo-het), " She has 
made this work for her father, 4 Amunre, 
lord of the regions ' (i. e. of Upper and 
Lower Egypt) : she has erected to him 
this fine gateway,— ' Amun protects' 
the work, — of granite ; she has done 
this (to whom) life is given for ever." 

Beyond this pylon, following the 
same line of direction, is a small area 
of a later epoch, and another granite 
pylon, being the entrance of a large 
chamber to which is it attached. 

There are some very beautiful 
sculptures at th<-! back of the temple, 
a short distance from the great granite 
pylon. A warlike expedition appears 
to have reached its termination. On 
the S. wall is depicted the arrival of 
captives and hostages bearing tribute. 
Among other things they bring trees 
whose roots are tied up in baskets. 
The scene appears to be laid on the 
sea-shore, along which a detachment 
of Egyptian troops advances to receive 
the new-comers. It is curious to note 
the fishes appearing through the trans- 
parent water. The scene is continued 
on the W. wall. On the upper com- 
partment is represented a fresh arrival 
of prisoners. Below the Egyptian 
fleet is drawn up on tho sea-shore, 
while the process of embanking various 
merchandise as tribute is being carried 
on. The fish are again depicted with 
the same curious effect. 

In a side chamber to the S. are some 
more scenes. Here it is no longer tho 
green waves of the sea, but the 'due 
waters of the Nile, on which float 
highly ornamented boats. Below are 
more troops on the march. 

In one of the smaller chambers the 
colours of the paintings are wonderfully 
vivid and well preserved. On both 
sides of one of the passages is a beauti- 
fully sculptured scene, representing 
the royal infant suckled by the god- 
dess Athor, under the form of a most 
perfectly proportioned cow. 

The inner chambers are made to 
imitate vaults, like the one still re- 
maining on the outs : .de ; but they are 
not on the principle of the arch, being 
1 composed of blocks placed horizon- 



420 



THEBES. 



Sect. IV. 



tally, one projecting beyond that im- 
mediately below it, till the uppermost 
two meet in the centre ; the interior 
angles being afterwards rounded off to 
form the vault. The Egyptians were 
not, however, ignorant of the principle 
or use of the arch ; and the reason of 
their preferring one of this construction 
probably arose from the difficulty of 
repairing an injured vault in the tun- 
nelled rock, and the consequences 
attending the decay of a single block. 
Nor can any one, in observing the 
great superincumbent weight applied 
to the haunches, suppose that this style 
of building is devoid of strength, and 
of the usual durability of an Egyptian 
fabric, or pronounce it to be ill-suited 
to the purpose for which it was erected, 
the support of the friable rock of the 
mountain, within whose excavated 
base it stood, and which threatened to 
let fall its crumbling masses on its 
summit. 

The entrance to these vaulted 
chambers is by a granite doorway ; 
and the first, which measures 30 ft. 
by 12. is ornamented with sculptures 
that throw great light on the names of 
some of the members of the Thothmes 
family. Here Thothmes I., and his 
queen Ames, accompanied by their 
young daughter, but all " deceased " at 
the time of its construction, receive 
the adoration and offerings of Amuti- 
noo-het, and of Thothmes III., fol- 
lowed by his daughter Ee-ni-nofre. 
The niche and inner door also present 
the name of the former, effaced by 
the same Thothmes, whose name 
throughout the interior usurps the 
place of his predecessor's. To tliis 
succeeds a smaller apartment, which, 
like the 2 lateral rooms with which it 
communicates, has a vaulted roof; and 
beyond is an adytum of the late date 
of Ptolemy Physcon. 

Several blocks, used at a later period 
to repair the wall of the inner or upper 
court, bear hieroglyphics of various 
epochs, having been brought from other 
structures ; among which the most 
remarkable are — one containing the 
name of King Horus, the predecessor 
of Eameses I., and mentioning " the 
father of his father's lather's father, 



Thothmes III., who was, in reality, his 
fourth ancestor; and another of the 
4th year of Menephtah, the son of 
Eameses II. 

On the E. side of the dromos, and 
about 600 ft. from the pedestals of the 
obelisks, are the fragments of granite 
sphinxes and cahareous columns of an 
early epoch, at least coeval with the 
founder of these structures ; and a short 
distance beyond them is a path lead- 
ing over the hills to the Tombs of the 
Kings. 



7. Tombs of the Kings. — Bab, or 
blb4n el molook, " the gate " 
or " Gates . op the Kings." 

The distance from the river is about 
3 miles. The road lies pa<t the temple 
of Koorneh, and then enters a barren, 
desolale valley, utterly blasted by the 
heat of the sun. Near the entrance 
to the gor^e in which are the tombs 
usually visited, belonging entirely to 
the XlXth and XXth dynasties, a 
branch path leads westward to another 
vallev, in which are the tombs of the 
XVIIIth dynasty. 

The principle of construction in the 
royal tombs at Bab el Molook is 
entirely different from that which 
regulated the ordinary Egyptian mau- 
soleum, as described in Sect. II., 
Descbipt. op Cairo, Exc. vii., h. 
Here there is no rnastabah, and no 
exterior chambers, in which the sur- 
viving relations met at certain seasons 
to pay their respects to the dead. The 
" Tombs of the Kings " at Bab el 
Molook are all excavated out of the 
rock, and consist of long inclined 
passages, with here and there halls 
and small chambers, penetrating to a 
greater or less distance into the heart 
of the mountain. Once the royal 
mummy was safely deposited in it* 
resting-place, the entrance was built 
up, and the surrounding rock levelled, 
so as to leave no trace of the existence 
of the tomb. It has been conjectured 
by M. Mariette that the representa- 
tives, to a certain extent, of the masta- 
bahs, are to be found at Thebes in 
the temples that line the edge of the 



Egypt. 



TOMBS OF 



THE KINGS. 



421 



desert. Thus the "Rameseum would 
be, as it were, the mastabah of the 
tomb of Rameses II., situated in this 
valley ; Medeenet Haboo, of the tomb 
of Rameses III. ; Koorneh, of the tomb 
of Eameses I., and so on. These 
temples were cenotaphs, in which the 
memory of the king was preserved and 
worshipped. 

The number of tombs now open in 
the principal valley is 25. but they are 
not all kings' tombs ; some are those 
of princes and high functionaries. 
Strabo speaks of having seen about 
40, but he included in this number 
those of the western valley, and, per- 
haps, the Tombs of the Queens. 

It would be impossible to give a 
detailed account of all these tombs, 
which indeed differ very much in in- 
terest, or to offer any very satisfactory 
explanation of the paintings they con- 
tain. It will be sufficient to notice at 
length a few of the most important. 
They are known to the guides by the 
numbers affixed to them by Sir Gard- 
ner Wilkinson, but two or three of 
the best worth seeing have special 
designations. 

No. 17. The Tomb of Sethi L, com- 
monly called Belzmii's Tomb. — This 
tomb, which was discovered by Bel- 
zoni, is by far the most remarkable for 
its sculpture and the state of its pre- 
servation. But the plan is far from 
being well regulated, and the devia- 
tion from one line of direction greatly 
injures its general effect ; nor does the 
rapid descent by a staircase of 24 ft. in 
perpendicular depth, on a horizontal 
length of 29, convey so appropriate 
an idea of the entrance to the abode 
of death as the gradual talus of other 
of these sepulchres. To this staircase 
succeeds a passage of 18J ft. by 9, in- 
cluding the jambs: and passing another 
door, a second staircase descends in 
horizontal length 25 ft. ; beyond which 
2 doorways and a passage of 29 ft. 
bring you to an oblong chamber 12 ft. 
by 14, where a pit, filled up by Belzoni, 
once appeared to form the utmost limit 
of the tomb. Part of its inner wall 
was composed of blocks of hewn stone, 
closely cemented together, and covered 



with a smooth coat of stucco, like the 
other walls of this excavated cata- 
comb, on which was painted a con- 
tinuation of those subjects that still 
adorn its remaining sides. 

Independent of the main object of 
this pit, so admirably calculated to mis- 
lead, or at least to check the search of 
the curious and the spoiler, another 
advantage was thereby gained in the 
preservation of the interior part of the 
tomb, which was effectually guaranteed 
from the destructive inroad of the rain- 
water, whose torrent its depth com- 
pletely intercepted; a fact which a 
storm some years ago, by the havoc 
caused in the inner chambers, sadly 
demonstrated. 

The hollow sound of the wall of 
masonry above mentioned, and a small 
aperture, betrayed to Belzoni, the i-ecret 
of its hidden chambers; and a palm- 
tree, supplying the pla -e of the more 
classic ram, soon forced the inter- 
mediate barrier, who.-e breach dis- 
played the splendour of the succeeding 
hall, at once astonishing and delight- 
ing its discoverer, whose labours were 
so gratefully repaid. But this was not, 
the only part of the tomb that had 
been closed ; the outer door was also 
blocked up with masonry; and the 
staircase before it was concealed by 
accumulated fragments, and by the 
earth that had fallen from the hill 
above. And it was the sinking of the 
ground at this part, from the water 
that had soaked through into the 
tomb, that led the peasants to suspect 
the secret of its position ;' which was 
rev( aled by them to Belzoni. 

The four pillars of the first hall 
beyond the pit, which support a roof 
about 26 ft. square, are decorated, like 
the whole of the walls, with highly- 
finished and well-preserved sculptures, 
which from their vivid colours appear 
but the work of yesterday ; and near 
the centre of the inner wall a few steps 
lead to a second hall, of similar dimen- 
sions, supported by two pillars, but left 
in an unfinished state, the sculptois 
not having yet commenced the outline 
of the figures the draughtsmen had but 
just completed. It is hei^e that the 
first deviations from the general line 



422 



THEBES. 



Sect, IV. 



of direction occur ; which are still 
more remarkable in the staircase that 
descends at the southern corner of the 
first hall. 

To this last succeed two passages, 
and a chamber 17 ft. by 14, communi- 
cating by a door nearly in the centre 
of its inner wall, with the grand hall, 
which is 27 it. square, and supported 
by six pillars. Ou eitber side of this 
hall is a small chamber, opposite the 
angle of the first pillars ; and the upper 
end terminates in a vaulted saloon, 19 
ft. by 30, in whose centre stood an 
alabaster sarcophagus, now in the 
Soane Museum, upon the immediate 
summit of an inclined plane, which, 
wdth a staircase on either side, de- 
scends into the heart of the argil- 
laceous rock for a distance of 150 ft. 
When Belzoni opened this tomb it ex- 
tended much farther ; but the rock, 
which from its friable nature could 
only be excavated by supporting the 
roof with scaffolding, has since fallen, 
and curtailed a still greater portion of 
its original length. 

This passage, like the entrance of 
the tomb and the first hall, was closed 
and concealed by a wall of masonry, 
which, coming even with the base of 
the sarcophagus, completely masked 
the staircase, and. covered it with an 
artificial floor. 

It seems hardly probable that the 
sacred person of an Egyptian king 
would be exposed in the inviting situa- 
tion of these sarcophagi, especially 
when they took so much care to conceal 
the bodies of inferior subjects. It is 
true the entrance was closed, but the 
position of a monarch's tomb would be 
known to many besides the priest- 
hood, and traditionally remembered by 
others ; some of whom, in later times, 
might not be proof against the tempta- 
tion of such rich plunder. The priests 
must at least have foreseen the chance 
of this; and we know that many of 
the tombs were plundered in very early 
times ; several were the resting-places 
of later occupants ; some were burnt 
and reoccupied (probably at the time 
of the Persian invasion) ; and others 
were usurped by Greeks. 

Some of the sepulchres of the kings 



were open from a very remote period, 
and seen by Greek and .Roman visitors, 
who mention them in inscriptions 
written on their walls, as the syringes 
(avpiyyes) or tunnels — a name by which 
they are described by Pausanias : and 
Diodorus, who, on the authority of the 
priests, reckons 47, says that 17 re- 
mained in the time of Ptolemy Lagus. 
From this we may infer that 17 were 
then open, and that the remaining 30 
were closed in his time. Stiabo too 
supposes their total number to have 
been about 40. 

A small chamber and two niches 
are made in the N.W. wall of this 
part of the grand hall; and at the 
upper end a step It ads to an unfinished 
chamber, 17 ft. by 43, supported by a 
row of four pillars. On the S.W. are 
other niches, and a room about 25 ft. 
square, ornamented with two pillars 
and a broad bench (hewn, like the rest 
of the tomb, in the rock) around three 
of its sides, 4 ft. high, with four shallow 
recesses on ( ach face, and surmounted 
by an elegant Egyptian cornice. It is 
difficult to understand the purport of 
it, unless its level summit served as a 
repository for the mummies of the in- 
j ferior persons of the king's household; 
but it is more probable that these were 
also deposited in pits. 

The total horizontal length of this 
catacomb is 320 ft., without the in- 
clined descent below the sarcophagus, 
and its perpendicular .depth 90. But, 
including that part, it measures 470, 
and in depth about 180 ft., to the spot 
where it is closed by the fallen rock. 

The sculptures in the first passage 
consist of lines of hieroglyphics relat- 
ing to th^ kine Sethi, or Osirei, "the 
beloved of Phtah," who was the father 
of Rameses II. and the occupant of the 
tomb. In the staircase which succeeds 
it are on one side 37, on the other 39 
genii of various forms ; among which 
■ a figure represented with a stream of 
j tears issuing from his eyes is remark- 
I able from having the (Coptic) word 
rimi, "lamentation," in the hierogly- 
phics above. 

In the next passage are the boats 
of Kneph ; and several descending 
planes, on which are placed the valves 



Egypt. 



TOMBS OF 



THE KINGS. 



423 



of door*, probably referring to the 
descent to Amenti. The goddess of 
Truth or Justice stands at the lower 
extremity. In the small chamber over 
the pit the king makes offerings to 
different gods, Osiris being the prin- 
cipal deity. Athor, Horus, Isis, and 
Anubis, are also introduced. 

On the pillars of the first hall the 
monarch stands in the presence of 
various divinities, who seem to be re- 
ceiving him after his death. But one 
of the most interesting subjects here is 
a procession of four different people, 
of red, white, black, and again white 
complexions, four by four, followed by 
Re, " the sun." The four red figures 
are Egyptians, designated under the 
name rot, " mankind ;" the next, a 
white race, with blue eyes, long bushy 
beards, and clad in a short dress, are a 
northern nation, with whom the Egyp- 
tians were long at war, and appear to 
signify the nations of the north ; as the 
negroes (called Nahsi) the south ; and 
the four others, also a white people, 
with a pointed beard, blue eyes, feathers 
in their hair, and crosses or other de- 
vices about their persons, and dressed 
in long flowing robes, the east. These 
then are not in the character of pri- 
soners, but a typification of the four 
divisions of the world, or the whole 
human race, and are introduced among 
the sculptures of these sepulchres in 
the same abstract sense as the trades 
of the Egyptians in the tombs of private 
individuals; the latter being an epi- 
tome of human life, as far as regarded 
that people themselves, the former re- 
ferring to the inhabitants of the whole 
world. 

On the end wall of this ball is a fine 
group, which is remarkable as well for 
the elegance of its drawing as for the 
richness and preservation of the colour- 
ing. The subject is the introduction of 
the king, by Horus, into the presence 
of Osiris and Athor. 

Though not the most striking, the 
most interesting drawings in this 
tomb are those of the next hall, which 
was left unfinished ; nor can any one 
look upon those figures with the eye 
of a draughtsman, without paying a 



just tribute to the freedom of their 
outlines. 

| In preparing the wall to receive the 
bas-reliefs it was sometimes customary 
to portion it out into squares ; but it 
was not the method universally adopted 
for drawing Egyptian figures. We 
see in this and other places that they 
were sketched without that prescribed 
measurement ; and it is probable that 
this was principally used when a copy 
was made of an original drawing — a 
method adopted by us at the present 
day. Here we find that the position 
of the figures was first traced with a 
red colour by the draughtsman ; when, 
having been submitted to the inspec- 
tion of the master-artist, those parts 
which he deemed deficient in propor- 
tion or correctness of attitude were 
altered by him in black ink (as appears 
to have been the case in the figures 
here designed) ; and in that state they 
were left for the chisel of the sculptor. 
But on this occasion the death of the 
king or some other cause prevented 
their completion ; though their un- 
finished condition, so far from exciting 
our regret, affords a satisfactory op- 
portunity of appreciating the skill of 
the Egyptian draughtsmen. We here 
see the bold decided line which was 
the aim of all antique drawing. In 
these figures some of the lines are a 
foot or a foot and a quarter in length ; 
as from the shoulder to the elbow, or 
the knee to the instep ; and done at a 
single stroke; while the red lines of 
the inferior artist, and his pentimenti, 
show, that, though he occasionally 
failed in the perfect use of his pencil, 
he was instructed in the same bold 
style of drawing, and in the import- 
ance of one long-continuous outline. 

The subjects in the succeeding 
passages refer mostly to the liturgies 
or ceremonies perfoimed to the de- 
ceased monarch. In the square cham- 
ber beyond them the king is seen in 
the presence of the deiti s Athor, 
Horus, Anubis, Isis, Osiris, Nofre- 
Atmoo, and Phtah. 

The grand hall contains numerous 
subjects, among which are a series of 
mummies, each in its own repository, 
whose folding-doors are thrown open ; 



424 



THEBES. 



Sect. IV. 



and it is probable that all the parts of 
these catacombs refer to different states 
through which the deceased passed, 
and the various mansions of Hades or 
Amenti. The representations of the 
door-valves at their entrance tend to 
confirm this opinion ; while many of the 
subjects relate to the life and actions of 
the deceased, and many are similar to 
those in the ' Book of the Dead.' 

In the side chambers are some 
mysterious ceremonies connected with 
fire, and various other subjects; and 
the transverse vaulted part of the great 
hall, or saloon of the sarcophagus, orna- 
mented with a profusion of sculpture, is 
a termination worthy of the rest of this 
grand sepulchral monument. In the 
chamber on the 1., with the broad bench, 
are various subjects ; some of which, 
especially those appearing to represent 
human sacrifices, may refer to the ini- 
tiation into the higher mysteries, by the 
supposed death and regeneration of 
the Neophyte. 

Although when this tomb was dis- 
covered by Belzoni it had already, at 
some remote period, been opened and 
violated, no injury had been done to 
the sculptures on the walls, and when 
he first saw it every bas-relief was 
perfect, and the paintings as vivid and 
fresh as the day they were done. 
Fifty years' exposure to the tender 
mercies of the savan, the antiquity- 
monger, and the tourist, have con- 
siderably spoilt its original beauty, 
and the thoughtful visitor cannot fail 
to mark with regret the spoliations 
and defacements to which it has been 
subjected. 

No. 11. The Tomb of Barneses III. 
commonly called JBruce's, or The Har- 
pers' Tomb. — This tomb was discovered 
by the traveller Bruce, hence one of 
its names. The other appellation is 
derived from the famous picture in 
one of the chambers of the men play- 
ing the harp. The execution of the 
sculptures is inferior to that in No. 17, 
but the nature of the subjects is more 
interesting. 

The line of direction in this cata- 
comb, after the first 130 ft., is inter- 
rupted by the vicinity of the adjoining 



tomb, and makes, in consequence, a 
slight deviation to the rt. of 13 ft., 
when it resumes the same direction 
again for other 275, which give it a 
total length of 405 ft. 

Its plan differs from that of No. 17, 
and the rapidity of its descent is con- 
siderably less, being perpendicularly 
only 31 ft. 

The most interesting part is unques- 
tionably the series of small chambers 
in the two first passages, since they 
throw considerable light on the style 
of the furniture and arms, and conse- 
quently on the manners and customs, 
of the Egyptians. 

In the first to the 1. (entering) is the 
kitchen, where the principal groups, 
though much defaced, may yet be 
recognised. Some are engaged in 
slaughtering oxen, and cutting up the 
joints, which are put into caldrons on 
a tripod placed over a wood fire ; and 
in the lower line a man is employed 
in cutting a leather strap he holds 
with his feet— a pract'ce still common 
throughout the East. Another pounds 
something for the kitchen in a large 
mortar ; another apparently minces the 
meat ; and a pallet, suspended by ropes 
running in rings fastened to the roof, 
is raised from the ground, to guard 
against the intrusion of rats and other 
depredators. On the opposite side, in 
the upper line, two men knead a sub- 
stance with their feet ; others cook 
meat, pastry, and broth, probably of 
lentils, which fill some baskets beside 
them ; and of the frescoes in the lower 
line, sufficient remains to show that 
others are engaged in drawing off, by 
means of syphons, a liquid from vases 
before them. On the end wall is the 
process of making bread; but the 
dough is kneaded by the hand, and 
not, as Herodotus and Strabo say, by 
the feet ; and small black seeds (pro- 
bably the habbeh soda still used in 
Egypt) being sprinkled on the surface 
of the cakes, they are carried on a 
wooden pallet to the oven. 

In the opposite chamber are several 
boats, with square chequered sails, 
some having spacious cabins, ami 
others only a seat near the mast. • 
They are richly painted, and loaded 



Egypt. 



TOMBS OF THE KINGS. 



425 



with ornaments ; and those in the lower 
lines have the mast and yard lowered 
over the cabin. 

The succeeding room, on the rt. 
hand, contains the various arms and 
warlike implements of the Egyptians ; 
among which are knives, quilted hel- 
mets, spears, yatakans, or daggers, 
quivers, bows, arrows, falchions, coats 
of mail, darts, clubs, and standards. 
On either side of the door is a black 
cow with the head-dress of Athor, one 
accompanied by hieroglyphics signify- 
ing the N., the other by those of the S. ; 
intimating that these are the legends 
of Upper and Lower Egypt. The blue 
colour of some of the weapons suffices 
to prove them to have been of steel, 
and is one of several strong arguments ! 
in favour of the conclusion that the 
early Egyptians were acquainted with 
the use of iron. The next chamber 
has chairs of the most elegaut form, 
covered with rich drapery, highly orna- 
mented, and in admirable taste ; nor 
can any one who sees the beauty of j 
Egyptian furniture refuse for one mo- 
ment his assent to the fact that this 
people were greatly advanced in the j 
arts of civilisation and the comforts of j 
domestic life. Sofas, couches, vases j 
of porcelain and pottery, copper uten- 
sils, cahirons, rare woods, printed 
stuffs, leopard-skins, baskets of a very 
neat and graceful shape, and basins 
and ewers, whose designs vie with 
the productions of the cabinet-maker, 
complete the interesting series of these 
paintings. 

The next contains agricultural scenes, 
in which the inundation of the Nile 
passing through the canals, sowing 
and reaping wheat, and a grain which 
from its height and round head ap- 
pears to be the doora or sorghum, as 
well as the flowers of the country, are 
represented. But, however successful 
the Egyptians may have been in seiz- 
ing the character of animals, tbey 
failed in the art of drawing trees and 
flowers, and their coloured plants 
would perplex the most profound bo- 
tanist equally with the fanciful pro- 
ductions of an Arabic herbarium. 
That which fellows contains different 



forms of the god Osiris, having various 
attributes. 

The second chamber, on the oppo- 
site side, merely offers emblems and 
deities. In the next are birds, and 
some productions of Egypt, as geese 
and quails, eggs, pomegranates, grapes, 
with other fruits and herbs, among 
which last is the ghulga, or Periploca 
secamone of Linnams, still common in 
the deserts of Egypt, and resembling 
in form the ivy, which is unknown in 
the country. The figures in the lower 
Lne are of the god Nilus. 

In the succeeding chamber are rud- 
ders and sacred emblems ; and the 
principal figures in the last are two 
harpers playing on instruments of not 
inelegant form before the god Moui, or 
Hercules. From the.-e the tomb re- 
ceived its name. One (if not both) 
of the minstrels is blind. 

Each of these small apartments has 
a pit, now closed, where it is probable 
that some of the officers of the king's 
household were buried ; in which case 
the subjects on the walls refer to the 
station they held ; as, the chief cook, 
the superintendent of the royal boats, 
the armour-bearer, the stewards of the 
household, and of the royal demesne, 
the priest of the king, the gardener, 
hieraphoros, and minstrel. 

The subjects in the first passage, 
after the recess to the right, are similar 
to those of No. 17, and are supposed to 
relate to the descent to Amenti ; but 
the figure of Truth, and the other 
groups in connection with that part 
of them, are placed in a square niche. 
The character of the four people in 
the first hall differs slightly from those 
of the former tomb ; four blacks, clad 
in African dresses, being substituted 
instead of the Egyptians, though the 
same name, Rot, is introduced before 
them. 

Beyond the grand hall of the sarco- 
phagus are three successive passages, 
in the last of which are benches in- 
tended apparently for the same pur- 
pose as those of the lateral chamber 
in No. 17, to which they are greatly 
inferior in point of taste. The large 
granite sarcophagus was removed hence 
by Mr. Salt. This tomb is much de- 



426 



THEBES. 



Sect. IV. 



faced, and the nature of the rock was 
unfavourable for sculpture. There are 
several Greek graffiti, a fact which 
shows that it was one of those open 
during the reign of the Ptolemies. 

No 9. The Tomb of Barneses VI., 
called, as we learn from the graffiti 
inside, by the Romans the Tomb of 
Memnon, prohably from its being the 
handsomest then open ; though the 
title of Miamun given to the occupant 
of this catacomb, in common with many 
other of the Pharaohs, may have led to 
this error. It was greatly admired by 
the Greek and Roman visitors, who 
expressed their satisfaction by ex-votos, 
and inscriptions of various lengths, and 
who generally agree that, having "ex- 
amined' these syringes" or tunnels, 
that of Memnon had the greatest 
claim upon their admiration ; though 
one morose old gentleman, of the name 
of Epiphanius, declares he saw nothing 
to admire "but the stone," meaning 
the sarcophagus, near which he wrote 
his laconic and ill-natured remark : 
EiTL<pauLOS i(TTop7]!Ta ovdev 5e eQavy.aaa 
1} fj-v top KiQou. In the second passage, 
on the left going in, immediately under 
the figure of a wicked soul, returning 
from the presence of Osiris in the form 
of a pig, is a longer inscription of an ' 
Athenian, the Daduclais (SaSouxos) of 
the Eleusinian mysteries, who visited 
Thebes in the reign of Constantine. 
This was about sixty years before they 
were abolished by Theodosius, after 
having existed for nearly 1800 years. 
The inscription is also curious, from 
the writer's saying: that he visited the 
avpiyyes " a long time after the divine 
Plato." 

The total length of this tomb is 
342 ft., with the entrance passage, the 
perpendicular depth below the surface 
24 ft. 6 in. ; and in this gradual descent, 
and the regularity of the chambers and 
passages, consists the chief beauty of 
its plan. The general height of the 
first passages is 12 and 13 ft., about 
two more than that of No. 11, and 
three more than that of No. 17. 

The sculptures differ from those of 
the above-mentioned tombs, and the 
figures of the four nations are not in- 



troduced iu the first hall ; but many of 
the ceilings present many very inter- 
esting astronomical subjects. 

In the last passage before the hall 
of the sarcophagus, the tomb No. 12 
crosses over the ceiling, at whose side 
an aperture has been forced at a later 
epoch. The sarcophagus, which is of 
granite, has been broken and lies in 
a ruined state near its original site. 
The vaulted roof of the hall presents 
an astronomical subject, and is richly 
ornamented with a profusion of small 
figures. Indeed all the walls of this 
tomb are loaded with very minute 
details, but of small proportions. 

No. 8. The Tomb of Menephtah, the 
son of Rameses II. On the left side, 
entering the passage, is a group of 
very superior sculpture, representing 
the king and the god Re. 

The style of this tomb resembles 
that of No. 17, and others of that 
epoch ; and in the first hall are figures 
of the four nations. The descent is 
very rapid, which, as usual, takes off 
from that elegance so much admired in 
No. 9 ; and the sculptures, executed 
in intaglio on the stucco, have suf- 
fered much from the damp occasioned 
by the torrents, which, when the rain 
falls, pour into it with great violence 
from a ravine near its mouth. Its 
length, exclusive of the open passage 
of 40 ft. in front, is 167 ft. to the 
end of the first hall, where it is closed 
by sand and earth. This was also 
one of the seventeen mentioned by 
Diodorus. 

No. 6. 77, e Tomb of Rameses IX. 
The sculptures differ widely from those 
of the preceding tombs. In the third 
passage they refer to the generative 
principle. The features of the king 
are peculiar, and, from the form of the 
nose, so very unlike that of the usual 
Egyptian face, there is no doubt that 
their sculptures actually offer por- 
traits. On the inner wall of the last 
chamber, or hall of the sarcophagus, 
is a figure of the child Harpocrates, 
seated in a winged globe; and from 
being beyond the sarcophagus, which 
was the abode of death, it appears to 



Egypt 



TOMBS OF THE KXNGS. 



427 



refer to the well-known idea that dis- 
solution was followed by reproduction 
into life. The total length of this 
tomb is 243 ft., including the outer 
entrance of 25. It was open during 
the time of the Ptolemies. 

No. 2. Tomb of Earners IV. This is 
a small but elegant tomb, 218 ft. long, 
including the kypsethral passage of 47. 
The colossal granite sarcophagus re- 
mains in its original situation, though 
broken at the side, and is 11 ft. 6 in. 
by 7, and upwards of 9 ft. iu height. 
The bodies found in the recesses be- 
hind this ball seem to favour the con- 
jecture that they were intended, like 
those before mentioned, in Nos. 11 
and 17, as receptacles for the dead. 
The inscriptions prove it to have been 
one of the seventeen open in the time 
of the Ptolemies. 

No. 14. Tomb of Pthah-se-pthah, who 
seems to have reigned in right of his 
wife, the queen Taosiri ; as she occurs 
sometimes alone, making offerings to 
the gods, and sometimes in company 
with her husband. This catacomb 
was afterwards appropriated by king 
Sethi, or Osirei II., and again by his 
successor, whose name is met with 
throughout on the stucco which covers 
part of the former sculptures, and in 
intaglio on the granite sarcophagus in 
the grand hall. In the passages be- 
yond the staircase the subjects relate 
to the liturgies of the deceased mon- 
arch, and in the side chamber to the 
1. is a bier attended by Anubis, with 
the vases of the four genii beneath it. 
In the first grand vaulted hall, below 
the cornice which runs round the 
lower part, various objects of Egyp- 
tian furniture are represented, as metal 
mirrors, boxes and chairs of very ele- 
gant shape, vases, fans, arms, neck- 
laces, and numerous insignia. In the 
succeeding passages the subjects re- 
semble many of those in the un- 
finished hall' of No. 17. The sculp- 
tures are in intaglio ; but whenever 
the name of the king appears it is 
merely painted on the stucco ; and 
those in the second vaulted hall are 
partly in int iglio and partly in out- 



line, but of a good style. .The sarco- 
phagus has been broken, and the lid, 
on which is the figure of the king in 
relief, has the form of the royal name 
or oval. 

This tomb was open in the time 
of the Ptolemies. Its total length 
is 3ti3 ft., without the hypsethral en- 
trance, but it is unfinished; and be- 
hind the first hall another large cham- 
ber with pillars was intended to have 
been added. 

No. 15. Tomb of Sethi, or Osirei II. 
The figures at the entrance are in relief, 
and of very good style. Beyond this 
passage it is unfinished. Part of the 
broken sarcophagus lies on the other 
side of the hall. It bears the name of 
this monarch in intaglio ; and his figure 
on the .lid, a fine specimen of bold relief 
in granite, is raised 9 in. above the 
surface. This catacomb was open ut 
an early epoch. Its total length is 
236 ft 

No. 16. Tomb of Barneses J., the 
father of Sethi I., and grandfather of 
Eameses II., being the oldest tomb 
hitherto discovered in this valley, and 
among the number of those opened 
by Belzoni. The sarcophagus within 
it bears the same name. 

Mention has already been made of a 
ravine which branches off from the 
main valley of the Tombs of the Kings, 
and which is commonly called the 
Western Valley. In it are the tombs 
of the last kings of the XVIIIth dy- 
nasty. Among them is the tomb of 
Amunoph III. It is of considerable 
size, but the line of direction varies in 
three different parts, the first extending 
to a distance of 145 ft., the second 119, 
and the third 88, being a total of 
352 ft. in length, with several lateral 
chambers. Towards the end of the 
first line of direction is a well now 
nearly closed, intended to prevent the 
ingress of the rain-water and of the too 
curious visitor ; and this deviation may 
perhaps indicate the vicinity of another 
tomb behind it. 

It is probable that there are more 
tombs in this valley belonging to kings 



428 



THEBES. 



Sect. IV. 



of the XVIIIth dynasty, the discovery 
of which would be very interesting. 

All who have the time and are not 
too tired, instead of returning to the 
river by the way they came, should 
climb the footpath that leads up from 
the eastern valley of the Tombs of the 
Kings to the top of the mountain over- 
looking the plain of Thebes, and im- 
mediately above the temple of Dayr el 
Bahree. Not only is the view to be 
obtained from the high peak, to the 
right of the flat plateau ou which the 
path emerges, the most beautiful iu 
Egypt, but one can understand the 
map of Thebes better from this point 
than from anywhere else. 



8. Tombs of Priests and Private 
Individuals. 

It is difficult to determine what par- 
ticular portions of the vast Necropolis 
of Thebes were set apart for the sepul- 
ture of the various classes of persons, 
but it may be observed that in those 
places where the compact nature of 
the rock was not suited for large ex- 
cavations, the tombs of the priests and 
important functionaries are invariably 
met with, while those of persons of in- 
ferior rank are to be looked for, either 
in the plain beneath, or in the less 
solid parts of the adjacent hills. 

It is equally impossible to class the 
different parts of the Necropolis accord- 
ing to their antiquity, as tombs of a 
remote epoch are continually inter- 
mixed with those of more recent date. 
There is every reason, however, to 
believe that the oldest tombs at Thebes 
are to be found near Koorneh in the 
hill behind the temple. 

This cemetery, which is called Drah 
Aboo'l Negga, contains tombs of the 
Xlth-dynasty period. The coffins of 
two kings named Entef of that dy- 
nasty were found there, and are now at 
Paris. There are also tombs of the 
XVIIth, and of the beginning of the 
XVIIIth dynasty. Here was found, 
by M. Mariette in 1859, the coffin of 
Queen Aah-Hotep, with the magnifi- 
cent collection of jewellery now in the 
Cairo Museum (see Sect. II., Descript. 



of Cairo, § 17). There are no tombs 
at Drah Aboo'l Negga worth seeing, 
but it is a curiously weird place with 
its barren terraced hills covered with 
the debris of the excavations. 

Tombs of the Assascef. — Continuing 
in a 8. direction from Drah Aboo'l 
Negga, we reach another part of the 
necropolis, situated as it were in the 
centre of the amphitheatre at the back 
of which is Dayr el Bahree. The 
Tombs of the Assase'ef, as they are 
called, are excavated out of the hard 
white limestone which forms the nu- 
cleus of the Libyan hills ; and to this 
circumstance must be attributed the 
dilapidated state in which they now 
are, they having been destroyed and 
broken up for the sake of the lime. 
They are not less remarkable for their 
extent than for the profusion and de- 
tail of their ornamental sculpture. 
The smallest commence with an outer 
court, decorated by a peristyle of pil- 
lars. To this succeeds an arched en- 
trance to the tomb itself, which con- 
sists of a long hall, supported by a 
double row of four pillars, and another 
of smaller dimensions beyond it, with 
four pillars in the centre. 

The largest of all the Tombs of the 
Assaseef, and indeed of all the sepul- 
chres of Thebes, far exceeding in extent 
any of the Tombs of the Kings, is that 
of a certain Petamunoph, situated at 
the extreme west of the cemetery. Its 
outer court or area is 103 ft. by 76, 
with a flight of steps descendiug to its 
centre from the entrance, which lies 
between two massive crude-brick walls, 
once supporting an arched gateway. 
The inner door, cut like the rest of the 
tomb in the limestone rock, leads to 
a second court. 53 ft. by 67, with a 
peristyle of pillars on either side, be- 
hind which are two closed corridors. 
That on the W. contains a pit and one 
small square room, and the opposite 
one has a similar chamber, which leads 
to a narrow passage, once closed in 
two places by masonry, and evidently 
used for a sepulchral purpose. 

Continuing through the second area, 
you arrive at a porch whose arched 
summit, hollowed out of the rock, has 



Egypt. 



TOMBS OF THE ASSASEEF, 



429 



the light form of a small segment of a I 
circle; and from the surface of the j 
inner wall project the cornice and j 
mouldings of an elegant doorway. 

This opens on the first hall, 53 ft. i 
by 37, once supported by a double , 
line of 4 pillars, dividing the nave (if j 
1 may so call it) from the aisles, with 
half pillars as usual attached to the 
end walls. Another ornamented door- 
way leads to the second hall, 32 ft. 
square, with 2 pillars in each row, 
disposed as in the former. Passing 
through another door you arrive at 
a small chamber, 21 ft. by 12, at 
whose end wall is a niche, formed of 
a scries of jambs, receding successively 
to its centre. Here terminates the 
first line of direction. A square room 
lies on the left (entering), and on the 
right another succession of passages, 
or narrow apartments, leads to 2 
flights of steps, immediately before 
which is another door on the right. 
Beyond these is another passage, and 
a room containing a pit 45 ft. deep, 
which opens at about one-third of its 
depth on a lateral chambe r. 

A third line of direction, at right 
angles with the former, turns to the 
right, and terminates in a room, at 
whose upper end is a squared pedestal. 

fit turning through this range of 
passages, and re-ascending the 2 stair- 
case s, the door above alluded to pre- 
sents itself on the 1. hand. You 
shortly arrive at a pit (opening on 
another set of rooms, beneath the 
level of the upper ground-plan), and, 
after passing it, a large square, sur- 
rounded by long passages, arrests the 
attention of the curious visitor. At 
each angle is the figure of one of 
the 8 following goddesses — Neitl^ 
Sate', Isis Nephthys, Nepte, Justice, 
Selk, and Athor — who, standing with 
outspread arms, preside over and pro- 
tect the sacred enclosure, to which 
they front and are attached. 

Eleven niches, in six of which are 
small figures of different deities, oc- 
cur at intervals on the side walls, 
and the summit is crowned by a 
fiieze of hieroglyphics. Three cham- 
bers lie behind this square, and the 
passage which goes round it descends 



on that side, and rejoins, by an 
ascending talus on the next, the 
level of the front. A short distance 
beyond is the end of this part of the 
tomb ; but the above-mentioned pit 
communicates with a subterranean 
passage opening on a vaulted cham- 
ber, from whose upper extremity 
another pit leads, downwards, to a 
second, and, ultimately, through the 
ceiling of the last, upwards, to a third 
apartment coming immediately below 
the centre of the square above noticed. 
It has one central niche, and seven 
on either side, the whole loaded with 
hieroglyph ical sculptures, which cover 
the walls in every part of this exten- 
sive tomb. 

An idea of its length, and conse- 
quently of the profusion of its orna- 
mental details, may be gathered from a 
statement of the total extent of each 
series of the passages, both in the upper 
and under part of the excavation. 
From the entrance of the outer area 
to the first deviation from the ori- 
ginal right line is 320 ft. The total 
of the next range of passages to the 
chamber of the great pit is 177 ft. The 
third passage, at right angles to this 
last, is 60 ft. ; that passing over the 
second pit is 125 ft. ; and adding to 
these three of the sides of the iso- 
lated square, the total is 862 ft., in- 
dependent of the lateral chambers. 

The area of the actual excavation 
is 22,217 square feet, and with the 
chambers of the pits 23,809 ; though, 
from the nature of its plan, the 
ground it occupies is nearly one acre 
and a quarter ; an immoderate space 
for tire sepulchre of one individual, 
even allowing that the members of his 
family shared a portion of its extent. 
The date of this tomb is doubtful. 

In one of the side chambers is the 
royal name, which may possibly be of 
king Horus of the XVTIIth dynasty. 
If so, this wealthy priest might seem to 
have lived in the reign of that Pha- 
roah ; but the style of the sculptures 
would rather confine his era to the. 
later period of the XXVIth dynasty. 

The wealth of private individuals 
who lived under this dynasty, and 
immediately before the Persian inva- 



430 



THEBES. 



Sect, IV. 



sion, was very great ; nor can any 
one, on visiting these tombs, doubt 
a fact corroborated by the testimony 
of Herodotus and other authors, who 
state that Egypt was most flourishing 
about the reign of Amasis. 

But though the labour and expense 
incurred in finishing them far exceed 
those of any other epoch, the execu- 
tion of the sculptures, charged with 
ornament and fretted with the most 
minute details, is far inferior to that in 
vogue during the reign of the XVIIIth 
dynasty, when freedom of drawing 
was united with simplicity of effect. 
And the style of the subjects in the 
catacombs of this last-mentioned era 
excites our admiration, no less than 
the skill of the artists who designed 
them ; while few of those of the 
XXVIth dynasty can be regarded with 
a similar satisfaction, at least by the 
eye of an Egyptian antiquary. One, 
however, of these tombs, bearing the 
name of an individual who lived 
under the 1st Psammetichus, deserves 
to be excepted as the subjects there 
represented tend to throw consider- 
able light on the manners and cus- 
toms, the trades and employments, of 
the Egyptians ; and there are some 
elegant and highly-finished sculptures 
in the area of a tomb immediately 
behind that of Petamunoph. 

The date of the tombs in this Necro- 
polis is of the XlXth, XXI Ind, and 
XXVIth dynasties. Unfortunately, 
those that remain worth seeing are 
few, and not very interesting. In visit- 
ing them the best plan is to trust to 
the guides, who know which are 
worth showing. The large tomb of 
Petamunoph is so infested with bats, 
that visitors who dislike these animals 
had better not venture into it. 

Tombs of Sheykh Abd-el-Koomeh. — 
Continuing in a southerly direction 
from the Assase'ef, another burying- 
ground is reached, consisting of tombs 
hollowed out of the hill called Sheykh 
Abd-el-Koorneh, immediately behind 
the Eameseum. The principle of 
these tombs is the same as those at 
Beni Hassan, — a chamber hollowed out 
in the rock to serve as a mortuary 



chapel, and a well leading from it to 
the vault in which reposed the mum- 
mied body. From a distance the 
great square doors of these tombs, ex- 
tending in symmetrical order along 
the side of the hill, have all the ap- 
pearance of the batteries of a fortress. 

Many of them are covered with 
most interesting sculptures, to give a 
detailed account of which, however, 
would take up too much space here. 
It will be sufficient to mention and 
describe some of the more important. 
Like the Tombs of the Kings, they 
were numbered by Sir Gr. Wilkinson, 
and the numbers still remain, and 
are known to the guides, who will 
conduct the visitor to those best worth 
seeing, and in the best state of repair. 
It may be mentioned that Nos. 16 
and 35 are considered the most in- 
teresting. 

No. 14 is much ruined, but remark- 
able as being the only one in which a 
drove of pigs is introduced. They are 
followed by a man holding a knotted 
whip in his hand, and would appear, 
from the wild plants before them, to 
be a confirmation of Herodotus's ac- 
count of their employment to tread-in 
the grain after the inundation; which 
singular use of an animal so little 
inclined by its habits to promote agri- 
cultural objects has been explained 
by supposing they were introduced 
beforehand, to clear the ground of the 
roots and fibres of the weeds which 
the water of the Nile had nourished 
on the irrigated soil. They are here 
brought, with the other animals of 
the farmyard, to be registered by the 
scribes ; who, as usual, note down the 
number of the cattle and possessions 
of the deceased ; and they are divided 
into three distinct lines, composed of 
sows with young, pigs, and boars. The 
figures of the animals in this catacomb 
are very characteristic. 

No. 16 is a very interesting tomb, 
as well in point of chronology as in 
the execution of its paintings. Here the 
names of four kings, from the third 
Thothmes to Amunoph III. inclusive, 
satisfactorily confirm the order of their 



Egypt. 



TOMBS OF SIIEYKH 



ABD EL KOOKNEH. 



431 



succession as given in the Abydus 
tablet and the lists of Thebes. In 
the inner chamber, the inmate of the 
tomb, a "royal scribe," or basilico- 
grammat, undergoes his final judg- 
ment previous to admission into the 
presence of Osiris. Then follows a 
long proces^on, arranged in four 
lines, representing the lamentations of 
the women, and the approach of the 
coffin, containing the body of the de- 
ceased, drawn on a sledge by four 
oxen. In the second line men advance 
with different insignia belonging to 
the king Amunoph; in the third, with 
variuus offerings, a chariot, chairs, and 
other objects ; and in the last line a 
priest, followed by the chief mourners, 
officiates before the boats, in which are 
seated the basilico-grammat and his 
sister. 

" The rudders," according to Hero- 
dotus, " are passed through the keel :" 
or rather attached to the top of the 
sternpost, or to the tafirail, in their 
larger boats of burthen, while those 
of smaller size have one on either 
side. They consist, like the other, of 
a species of large paddle, with a rope 
fastened to the upper end, by which 
their sway on the centre of motion is 
regulated to and fro. One square sail, 
lowered at pleasure over the cabin, 
with a yard at the top and bottom, is 
suspended at its centre to the summit 
of a short mast, which stands in the 
middle, and is braced by stays fastened 
to the fore and after part of the boat. 

On the opposite wall is a fowling 
and fishing scene ; and the dried fish 
suspended in the boat remind us of 
the observations of Herodotus and 
Diodorus, who mention them as con- 
stituting a very considerable article of 
food among this people ; for, with the 
exception of the priesthood, they were 
at all times permitted to eat those 
which were not comprised among the 
sacred animals of the country. Here 
is al.-o the performance of the liturgies 
to the mummies of the deceased. Nor 
do the paintings of the outer chamber 
less merit our attention. Among the 
most interesting is a party entertained 
at the house of the royal scribe, who, 
seated with his mother, caresses on 



his knee the youthful daughter of his 
sovereign, to whom he had probably 
been tutor. Women dance to the 
sound of the Egyptian guitar in their 
presence, or place before them vases 
of flowers and precious ointment ; and 
the guests, seated on handsome chairs, 
are attended by servants, who offer 
them wine in "golden goblets," each 
having previously been welcomed by 
the usual ceremony of having his head 
anointed with sweet-scented ointment. 
This was a common custom ; and in 
another of these tombs a servant is 
represented bringing the ointment in 
a vase, and putting it on the heads of 
the guests, as well as of the master 
and mistress of the house. A lotus- 
flower was also presented to them on 
their arrival. 

In the lower part of the picture, a 
minstrel, seated cross-legged, according 
to the custom of the East, plays on 
a harp of seven strings, accompanied 
by a guitar, and the chorus of a vocal 
performer, the words of whose song 
appear to be contained in eight lines 
of hieroglyphics, which relate to 
Amun, and to the person of the tomb, 
beginning, " Incense, drink-offerings, 
and sacrifices of oxen," and conclud- 
ing with an address to the basilico- 
grammat. Beyond these an ox is 
slaughtered, and two men, having cut 
off the head, remove the skin from the 
legs and body. Servants carry away 
the joints as they are separated, the 
head and fore-leg with the shoulder 
being the first, the other legs and the 
parts of the body following in proper 
succession. A mendicant receives a 
head from the charity of one of the 
servants, who also otters him a bottle 
of water. This gift of tlie head shows 
how great a mistake Herodotus has 
made on the subject, when he says, 
"no Egyptian will taste the head of 
any species of animal." There were 
no Greeks in Egypt at the time this 
was painted ; and the colour of the 
man (for the Egyptians were careful 
in distinguishing that of foreigners) 
is the same as usually given to the 
inhabitants of the valley of the Nile. 
Indeed the head is always met with, 
even in an Egyptian kitchen. On the 



432 



THEBES. 



Sect. IV. 



opposite wall are some buffoons who 
dance to the sound of a drum, and 
other subjects. 

In No. 17 is a very rich assortment of 
vases, necklaces, and other ornamental 
objects, on the innermost corner to 
the rt. (entering) ; and some scribes 
on the opposite wall, take account 
of the cattle and possessions of the 
deceased. A forced passage leads to 
the adjoning tomb, where, at one end 
of the front chamber, are several in- 
teresting subjects, as chariot makers, 
sculptors, cabinet-makers, and various 
trades ; and at the other two pyra- 
midal towers, with the tapering staffs 
to which streamers were usually at- 
tached, and with two sitting statues 
in front. On the opposite side a guest 
arrives in his chariot at the house of 
his friend, attended by six running- 
footmen, who carry his sandals, tablet, 
and stool. "He is very late," and 
those who have already come to the 
entertainment are seated in the room, 
listening to a band of music, com- 
posed of ihe harp, guitar, double-pipe, 
lyre, and tambourine, accompanied by 
female choristers. 

Behind the Christian ruins, close to 
No. 23, are the remains of a curious 
Greek inscription, being the copy of a 
letter from the celebrated "Athanasius, 
Archbishop of Alexandria, to the 
orthodox " monks at Thebes. 

No. 31 presents some curious sub- 
jects, among which are offerings of 
gold rings, eggs, apes, leopards, ivory, 
ebnny, skins, and a camelopard, with 
several other interesting frescoes, un- 
fortunately much destroyed. Over 
the eggs is the word soouhi, in the 
hieroglyphics, signifying " eggs." The 
names of the Pharaohs here are 
Thothmes I. and III. In the inner 
mom is a chase, and the chariot of the 
chasseur, partially preserved. 

In No. 33 the chief object worthy 
of notice is the figure of a queen, 
wife of Thothmes III. and mother of 
Amunoph II., holding her young son 
in her lap, who tramples beneath his 



feet nine captives of nations he after- 
wards subdued. Before the canopy, 
under which they are seated, are 'a 
fan-bearer, some female attendants, 
and a minstrel who recites to the 
sound of a guitar the praises of 
the young king. On the corre- 
sponding wall is a collection of fur- 
niture and ornamental objects, with 
the figures of Amunoph II., his 
mother, and Thothmes I. On the 
opposite wall, an offering of ducks 
and other subjects are deserving of 
notice. 

No. 34 has the name of the same 
Amunoph and of Thothmes I., his 
immediate predecessor. It contains a 
curious design of a garden and vine- 
yard, with other subjects. The next 
tomb to this, on the south, though 
much ruined, offers some excellent 
drawing, particularly in some dancing 
figures to the left (entering), whose 
graceful attitudes remind us rather of 
the Greek than the Egyptian school ; 
and indeed, were we not assured by 
the name of Amunoph II. of the 
remote period at which they were 
executed, we might suppose them the 
production of a Greek pencil. (See 
woodcut 236, ' Anc. Eg.') 

On the right-hand wall are some 
very elegant vases, of what has been 
called the Greek style, but common 
in the oldest tombs in Thebes. They 
are ornamented as usual with ara- 
besques and other devices. Indeed all 
these forms of vases, the so-called 
Tuscan border, and many of the 
painted ornaments which exist on 
(Jreek remains, are found on Egyptian 
monuments of the earliest epoch, long 
before the Exodus of the Israelites; 
plainly removing all doubts as to 
their original invention. Above these 
are curriers, chariot-makers, and other 
artisans. Others are employed in 
weighing gold and silver rings, the 
property of the deceased. 

The Egyptian weights were an en- 
tire calf, the head of an ox (the half 
weight), and small oval balls (the 
quarter weights) ; and they had a very 
ingenious mode of preventing the scale 
from sinking, when the object they 



Egypt. 



TOMBS OF SHEYK ABD EL KOOBNEH. 



433 



weighed was taken out, by means of a 
ring upon the beam. 

The semicircular knife used for 
cutting leather is precisely similar to 
that employed in Europe at the pre- 
sent day for the same purpose, of 
which there are several instances in 
other parts of Thebes ; and another 
point is here satisfactorily established, 
that the Egyptian chariots were of 
wood, and not of bronze, as some have 
imagined. 

The person of this catacomb was a 
high-priest, but his name is erased. 

No. 35 is by far the most curious of 
all the private tombs in Thebes, since 
it throws more light on the manners 
and customs of the Egyptians than 
any hitherto discovered. 

In the outer chamber on the left 
hand (entering) is a grand procession 
of Ethiopian and Asiatic chiefs, bear- 
ing a tribute to the Egyptian monarch, 
Thothmes III. They are arranged in 
five lines. The first or uppermost 
consists of blacks, and others of a 
red colour from the country of Pount, 
who bring ivory, apes, leopards, skins, 
and dried fruits. Their dress is short, 
similar to that of some of the Asiatic 
tribes, who are represented at Medeenet 
Haboo. 

In the second line are a people 
of a light red hue, with long black 
hair descending in ringlets over their 
shoulders, but without beards : their 
dress also consists of a short apron 
thrown round the lower part of the 
body, meeting and folding over in 
front, and they wear sandals richly 
worked. Their presents are vases of 
elegant form, ornamented with flowers, 
necklaces, and other costly gifts, 
| which, according to the hieroglyphics, 

I they bring as "chosen (offerings) of 
the chiefs of the Gentiles of Kufa." 

In the third line are Ethiopians, who 
( are styled " Gentiles of the South." 
The leaders are dressed in the Egyp- 
tian costume, the others have a girdle 
| of skin, with the hair, as usual, out- 

II wards. They bring gold rings, and 
« bags of precious stones (?) or rather 
\ gold-dust, hides, apes, leopards, ebon y 

ivory, ostrich eggs and plumes, ,a 



camelopard, hounds with handsome 
collars, and a drove of long-horned 
oxen. 

The fourth line is composed of men 
of a northern nation, clad in long 
white garments, with a blue border, 
tied at the neck, and ornamented with 
a cross or other devices. On their head 
is either a close cap, or their natural 
hair, short, and of a red colour, and 
they have a small, beard. Some 
bring long gloves, which, with their 
close sleeves, indicate as well as 
their white colour, that they are the 
inhabitants of a cold climate. Among 
other offerings are vases, similar to 
those of the Kufa, a chariot and 
horses, a bear, elephant, and ivory. 
Their name is Kotennoo, which reminds 
us of the Katheni of Arabia Petrsea ; 
but the style of their dress and the 
nature of their offerings require them 
to have come from a richer and more 
civilised country, probably much far- 
ther to the north. Xenophon mentions 
gloves in Persia. 

In the fifth line Egyptians lead the 
van, and are followed by women of 
Ethiopia (Oush), " the Gentiles of 
the South," carrying their children in 
a pannier suspended from their head. 
Behind these are the wives of the 
Kotennoo, who are dressed in long 
robes, divided into three sets of ample 
flounces. * 

The offerings being placed in the 
presence of the monarch, who is seated 
on his throne at the upper part of the 
picture, an inventory is taken of them 
by the Egyptian scribes. Those op- 
posite the upper line consist of baskets 
of dried fruits, gold rings, and two 
obelisks. 

On the second line are ingots and 
rings of silver, gold and silver vases of 
very elegant form, and several heads 
of animals of the same metals. 

On the third are ostrich eggs and 
feathers, ebony, precious stones and 
rings of gold, an ape, several silver 
cups, ivory, leopard-skins, ingots and 
rings of gold, sealed bags of precious 
stones or gold-dust, and other objects ; 
and on the fourth line are gold and 
silver rings, vases of the same metal, 
and of porcelain, with rare woods and 
u 



434 



THEBES. 



Sect. IV. 



various other rich presents. (See plate 
at end of vol. i. 1, 'Anc. Eg.') 

The inner chamber contains sub- 
jects of the most interesting and di- 
versified kind. Among them, on the 
left, (entering), are cabinet-makers, 
carpenters, rope-makers, and sculp- 
tors, some of whom are engaged in 
levelling and squaring a stone, and 
others in fiuishing a sphinx, with two 
colossal statues of the king. The 
whole process of brick -making is also 
introduced. Their bricks were made 
with a simple mould ; the stamp (for 
they bore the name of a king, or of 
some high-priest) was not on the 
pallet, but was apparently impressed 
on the upper surface previous to their 
drying. 

The makers are not, however, Jews, 
as some have supposed ; but of the 
countries mentioned in the sculptures. 
It is sufficiently interesting to find a 
subject illustrating so completely tbe 
description of the Jews and their 
taskmasters given in the Bible ; with- 
out striving to give it an importance 
to which it has no claim. ('Anc. Eg.,' 
vol. ii. p. 99.) 

Others are employed in heating a 
liquid over a charcoal fire, to which 
are applied, on either side, a pair of 
bellows. These are worked by the 
feet, the operator standing and press- 
ing them alternately, while »he pulls 
up each exhausted skin by a string 
he holds in his hand. In one in- 
stance the man has left the bellows, 
but they are raised, as if full of air, 
which would imply a knowledge of 
the valve. Another singular fact is 
learnt from these paintings — their ac- 
quaintance with the use of glue — 
which is heated on the fire, and 
spread with a thick brush on a level 
piece of board. One of the work- 
men then applies two pieces of differ- 
ent coloured wood to each other, and 
this circumstance seems to decide 
that glue is here intended to be repre- 
sented rather than a varnish or colour 
of any kind. 

On the opposite wall the attitude 
of a maid-servant pouring out some 
wine to a lady, one of the guests, and 
returning an empty cup to a black | 



slave who stands behind her, is ad- 
mirably portrayed; nor does it offer 
the stiff position of an Egyptian 
figure. And the manner in which 
the slave is drawn, holding a plate 
with her arm and hand reversed, is 
very characteristic of a custom pecu- 
liar to the blacks. The guests are 
entertained by music, and the women 
here sit apart from the men. Several 
other subjects are worthy of notice 
in this tomb ; among which may be 
mentioned a garden (on the right- 
hand wall) where the personage of the 
tomb is introduced in his boat, towed 
by his servants on a lake surrounded 
by Theban palms and date -trees. 
Numerous liturgies (or parentalia) are 
performed to the mummy of the de- 
ceased ; and a list of offerings, at the 
upper end of the tomb, are registered, 
with their names and number, in se- 
parate columns. 

The form of this inner chamber is 
singular, the roof ascending at a con- 
siderable angle towards the end wall ; 
from below which the spectator, in 
looking towards the door, may ob- 
serve a striking effect of false per- 
spective. In the upper part is a niche, 
or recess, at a considerable height 
above the pavement. The name of the 
individual of the tomb has been erased. 

Other very curious sculptures adorn 
a tomb, immediately below the isolated 
hill to the west of the entrance of the 
Assaseef. In the outer chamber is 
the most complete procession of boats 
of any met with in the catacombs of 
Thebes. Two of them contain the 
female relatives of the deceased, his 
sister being chief mourner. One has 
on board the mummy, deposited in a 
shrine, to which a priest offers in- 
cense; in the other several women 
seated, or standing on the roof of the 
cabin, beat their heads in token of 
grief. In a third boat are the men, 
who make a similar lamentation, with 
two of the aged matrons of the family ; 
and three others contain the flowers 
and offerings furnished by the priests 
for the occasion, several of whom 
are also in attendance. ('Anc. Eg.,' 
plate 84.) 



Egypt. 



TOMBS OF KOORNET MURRAEE. 



435 



The Egyptians ccmld not even here 
resist their turn for caricature. A 
small boat, owing to the retrograde 
movement of a larger one that had 
grounded and was pushed off the 
bank, is struck by the rudder, and a 
large table, loaded with cakes and 
various things, is overturned on the 
boatmen as they row. 

The procession arrives at the oppo- 
site bank, and follows the officiating 
priest along the sandy plain. The 
" sister " of the deceased, embracing 
the mummy, addresses her lost relative : 
flowers, cakes, incense, and various 
offerings are presented before the tomb; 
the ululation of the men and women 
continues without ; and several females, 
carrying their children in shawls sus- 
pended from their shoulders, join in 
the lamentation. 

On the corresponding wall, men and 
women, with the body exposed above 
the waist, throw dust on their heads, 
or cover their face with mud,— a cus- 
tom recorded by Herodotus and Di- 
odorus, and still retained in the 
funeral ceremonies of the Egyptian 
peasants to the present day. The 
former states that " the females of 
the family cover their heads and faces 
with mud, and wander through the 
city beating themselves, wearing a 
girdle, and having their bosoms bare, 
accompanied by all their intimate 
friends ; the men also make similar 
lamentations in a separate company." 

Besides other interesting groups on 
this wail are the figures of the mother, 
wife, and daughter of the deceased, 
following a funeral sledge drawn by 
oxen, where the character of the three 
ages is admirably portrayed. 
_ In the inner chamber are an Egyp- 
tian house and garden, the cattle, and 
a variety of other subjects, among 
which may be traced the occupations 
of the weaver, and of the gardener 
drawing water with the pole and 
bucket, the shadoof of the present 
day. 

Statues in high relief are seated at 
the upper end of this part of the tomb, 
and on the square pillars in its centre 
are the names of Amunoph I. and 
queen Ames-nofri-are. 



Tombs of Koornet Murraee. — S.W. of 
the cemetery just described, after pas- 
sing the temple of Dayr el Medeeneh, 
are some more tombs, similar in their 
character to those on the hill of Sheykh 
Abd el Koorneh, and known by the 
name of Koornet Murraee. Among 
them are one or two interesting ones, 
especially that of a certain Hoo'f, a 
great functionary of the XVIIIth dy- 
nasty. It is covered with paintings, 
which, unfortunately, as is the case 
in so many of the tombs, are fast dis- 
appearing. In one of the pictures the 
lung is represented on his throne, 
within a richly-ornamented canopy, 
attended by a fan-bearer, who also 
holds his sceptre. A procession ad- 
vances in four lines into his presence. 
The lower division consists of Egyp- 
tians of the sacerdotal and military 
classes,, some ladies of consequence, 
and young people bringing bouquets 
and boughs of trees. They have just 
entered the gates of the royal court, 
and are preceded by a scribe, and 
others of the priestly order, who do 
obeisance before the deputy of -his 
majesty, as he stands to receive them. 
This officer appears to have been the 
person of the tomb, and it is remark- 
able that he is styled " Eoyal Son/' 
and " Prince of Cush,'' or Ethiopia. 
In the second line black "chiefs of 
Cush " bring presents of gold rings, 
copper, skins, fans, or umbrellas of 
feather-work, and an ox, bearing on 
its horns an artificial garden and a 
lake of fish. Having placed their 
offerings they prostrate themselves 
before the Egyptian monaich. A 
continuation of these presents follows 
in the third line, where, besides rings 
of gold, and bags of precious stones 
or gold-dust, are the camelopard, 
panthers' skins, and long-horned cat- 
tle, whose heads and horns are 
strangely ornamented with the heads 
and hands of negroes. 

In the upper line, the queen of the 
same people arrives in a chariot drawn 
by oxen, and overshadowed by an 
umbrella, accompanied by her attend- 
ants, some of whom bear presents of 
gold. She alights, preceded and fol- 
lowed by the principal persons of her 
u 2 



436 



THEBES I TOMBS 



OF THE QUEENS. 



Sect. IV. 



suite, and advances to the presence of 
the king. This may refer to a marriage 
that was contracted between the Egyp- 
tian monarch and a princess of Ethi- 
opia, or merely to the annual tribute 
paid by that people. Among the dif- 
ferent presents are a chariot, shields 
covered with bulls' hides bound with 
metal borders and studded with pins, 
chairs, couches, head stools, and other 
objects. The dresses of the negroes 
differ in the upper line from those 
below, the latter having partly the 
costume of the Egyptians, with the 
plaited hair of their national head- 
dress ; but those who follow the car of 
the princess are clad in skins, whose 
projecting tail, while it heightens the 
caricature the artist doubtless intended 
to indulge in, proves them to be per- 
sons of an inferior station, who were 
probably brought as slaves to the 
Egyptian monarch. Behind these 
are women of the same nation, bear- 
ing their children in a kind of basket 
suspended to their back. Many other 
interesting subjects cover the walls of 
this tomb, which throw much light on 
the customs of the Egyptians. 

In another catacomb, unfortunately 
much ruined, is a spirited chase, in 
which various animals of the desert 
are admirably designed. The fox, 
hare, gazelle, ibex, eriel (Antelope 
oryx), ostrich, and wild ox fly before 
the hounds ; and the porcupine and 
hygena retire to the higher part of the 
mountains. The female hyaena alone 
remains, and rises to defend her 
young ; but most of the dogs are re- 
presented in pursuit of the gazelles, 
or in the act of seizing those they 
have overtaken in the plain. The 
chasseur follows, and discharges his 
arrows among them as they fly. These 
arrows were very light, being made of 
reed, feathered and tipped with stone. 
They have been found in the tombs, 
together with those having metal 
points ; both being used, as the sculp- 
tures show, at the same periods ; the 
latter for war, the former for the chace. 

In observing the accuracy with 
which the general forms and charac- 
ters of their animals are drawn, one 
cannot but feel surprised that the 



Egyptians should have had so imper- 
fect a knowledge of the art of repre- 
senting the trees and flowers of their 
country, which, with the exception of 
the lotus, palm, and dom, can scarcely 
ever be identified ; unless the fruit, 
as in the pomegranate and sycamore, 
is present to assist us. 

At the entrance of a valley to the 
S.W. of Koornet Murraee are several 
tombs of the early date of Amunoph I., 
which claim the attention of the chro- 
nologer, rather than the admiration of 
the traveller who seeks elegant de- 
signs or interesting sculptures ; and 
a series of pits and crude-brick cham- 
bers occupy the space between these 
and the brick enclosure of a Ptolemaic 
temple to the E. Among the most 
remarkable of these tombs is one con- 
taining the members of Amunoph's 
family, and some of his predecessors ; 
and another, whose crude-brick roof 
and niche, bearing the name of the 
same Pharaoh, proves the existence of 
the arch at that period ; a crude-brick 
pyramid of an early epoch ; and a 
tomb, under the western rock, which 
offers to the curiosity of chronologers 
the names of three successive kings, 
and their predecessor Amunoph I., 
seated with a black queen. Other 
vaulted tombs have been found of kings 
of the XVIIIth and XlXth dynasties. 

The deity who presided over this 
valley, and the mountain behind it, 
was Athor, "the guardian of the west;" 
and many of the tombs have a statue 
of the cow, which was sacred to her, 
whose head and breast project in high 
relief from their innermost wall. 

10. Tombs of the Queens. — About 
J hour's walk from Koornet Murraee 
to the W. and about \ mile to the 
N.W. of Medeenet Haboo is the valley 
of the queens' tombs. But they have 
few attractions for those who are not 
interested in hieroglyphics; and who 
will be probably satisfied with the 
tombs of the kings, of Abd el Koorneh, 
and of the Assaseef. Among the 
most distinguished names in the se- 
pulchres of the queens are those of 
Amunmeit, or Amun-tmei, the daugh- 



Egypt. 



LUXOR. 



437 



ter of Amunoph I. ; of Taia, wife of 
the third Amunoph ; of the favourite 
daughter of Barneses II. ; and of the 
consort of Barneses V. In another 
appears the name of the third Ba- 
rneses, but that of his queen is not 
met with either on its walls or on its 
broken sarcophagus. All these tombs 
have suffered from the effects of fire ; 
and little can be satisfactorily traced 
of their sculptures, except in that of 
Queen Taia. 

It is not improbable, from the hiero- 
glyphics on the jamb of the inner door 
of this tomb, that these are the bury- 
ing-places of the Pallacides, or Pellices 
Jovis, mentioned by Strabo and Dio- 
dorus ; and the distance of 10 stadia 
from these " first " or westernmost 
tombs to the sepulchre of Osyman- 
dyas agrees with that from the sup- 
posed Memnonium to this valley. 
The mummies of their original pos- 
sessors must have suffered in the 
general conflagration which reduced 
to ashes the contents of most of the 
tombs in this and the adjacent valley 
of Dayr el Medeeneh ; and the bodies 
of inferior persons and of Greeks, less 
carefully embalmed, have occupied at 
a subsequent period the vacant burial- 
places of their royal predecessors. 
About J hour's walk further to the 
S.W. is the Gabba.net el Kerdod, or 
" Apes' Burial-ground," so called from 
the ape-mummies found in the ravines 
of the torrents in its vicinity. 

Among other unusual figures care- 
fully interred here are small idols in 
form of human mummies, with the 
emblem of the god of generation. 
Their total length does not exceed 
2 ft., and an exterior coat of coarse 
composition which forms the body, 
surmounted by a human head with 
the bonnet "of the upper country" 
made of wax, conceals their singular 
but simple contents of barley. 

10. Eastern Bank.— Luxor, el Uk- 
sor, or Aboo 'l Haggag, called by 
the Ancient Egyptians " Southern 
Tape." 

Luxor or Lixksor, which occupies 
part of the site of ancient Diospolis, 



still holds the rank of a market-town. 
Its name, Luksor, or El Kosdor, sig- 
nifies " the Palaces," from the temple 
there erected by Amunoph III. |and 
Barneses II. The former monarch 
built the original sanctuary and the 
adjoining chambers, with the addition 
of the large colonnade and the pylon 
before it, to which Barneses II. after- 
wards added the great court, the 
pyramidal towers, and the obelisks 
and statues. 

These, though last in the order of 
antiquity, necessarily form the present 
commencement of the temple, which, 
like many others belonging to different 
epochs, is not " two separate edifices," 
but one and the same building. A 
dromos, connecting it with Karnak, 
extended in front of the two beautiful 
obelisks of red granite, whose four 
sides are covered with a profusion of 
hieroglyphics, no less admirable for 
the style of their execution than for 
the depth to which they are cut, 
which in many instances exceeds 2 
inches. The faces of the obelisks, 
particularly those which are opposite 
each other, are remarkable for a 
slight convexity of their centres, which 
appears to have been introduced to 
obviate the shadow thrown by the 
sun, even when on a line with a 
plane - surface. The exterior angle 
thus formed by the intersecting lines 
of direction of either side of the face 
is about 3 degrees ; and this is one of 
many proofs of their attentive observa- 
tion of the phenomena of nature. The 
westernmost of these two obelisks has 
been removed by the French, and is 
the one now in the Place de la Con- 
corde at Paris. 

Behind the obelisks are two sitting 
statues of the same Barneses, one on 
either side of the pylon or gateway ; 
but, like the former, they are much 
buried in the earth and sand accumu- 
lated around them. Near the N.W. 
extremity of the propyla another 
similar colossus rears its head amidst 
the houses of the village, which also 
conceal a great portion of the interest- 
ing battle-scenes on the front of the 
towers. Many of these are very 
I spirited ; and on the western tower is 



438 



LUXOR. 



Sect, IV. 



the camp, surrounded by a wall, re- 
presented by Egyptian shields, with a 
guard posted at the gate. Within are 
chariots, horses, and the spoil taken 
from the enemy, as well as the holy 
place that held the Egyptian ark in a 
tent ; instances of which are found on 
other monuments, as at Aboo Simbel. 
There is also the king's chariot, shaded 
by a large umbrella or parasol. 

At the doorway itself is the name 
of Sabaco, and on the abacus of the 
columns beyond, that of Ptolemy Phi- 
lopator, both added at a later epoch. 

The area within, whose dimensions 
are about 190 ft. by 170, is surrounded 
by a peristyle, consisting of two rows 
of columns, now almost concealed by 
hovels, and the mosk of the village. 
The line of direction no longer con- 
tinues the same behind this court, the 
Eamesean front having been turned to 
the eastward ; which was done in order 
to facilitate its connexion with the 
great temple of Karnak, as well as to 
avoid the vicinity of the river. 

Passing through the pylon of 
Amunoph, you arrive at the great 
colonnade, where the names of this 
Pharaoh and of Amun-Toonkh (or 
Toonh) are sculptured. The latter, 
however, has been effaced, as is gene- 
rally the case wherever it is met with, 
and those of Horus and of Sethi are 
introduced in its stead. 

Thedength of the colonnade to the 
next court is about 170 ft., but its 
original breadth is still uncertain, nor 
can it be ascertained without con- 
siderable excavation. Indeed it can 
scarcely be confined to the line of the 
wall extending from the pylon, which 
would restrict its breadth to 67 ft. , 
but there is no part of the wall of the 
front court where it could have been 
attached, as the sculpture continues 
to the very end of its angle. The 
side-columns were probably never 
added. 

To this succeeds an area of 155 ft. 
by 167, surrounded by a peristyle of 
12 columns in length and the same 
in breadth, terminating in a covered 
portico of 32 columns, 57 ft. by 111. 

Behind this is a space occupying the 
whole breadth of the building, divided 



into chambers of different dimensions > 
the centre one leading to a hall sup- 
ported by four columns, immediately 
before the entrance to the isolated 
sanctuary. 

On the E. of the hall is a chamber 
containing some curious sculpture, re- 
presenting the accouchement of Queen 
Maut-ih-shoi, the mother of Amunoph. 
Two children nursed by the deity of 
the Nile are presented to Amun, the 
presiding divinity of Thebes; and 
several other subjects relate to the 
singular triad wors lapped in this 
temple. 

The original sanctuary was perhaps 
destroyed by the Persians ; but the 
present one was rebuilt by Alexander 
the son of Alexander, Ptolemy being 
governor of Egypt), and bears his 
name in the following dedicatory for- 
mula : " This work (? i made he, the 
king of men, lord of the regions, 
Alexander, for his father Amunre, pre- 
sident of Tape (Thebes) ; he erected to 
him the sanctuary, a grand mansion, 
with repairs of sandstone, hewn, good, 
and hard stone, in lieu of? (that made 
by?) his majesty, the king of men, 
Amunoph." Behind the sanctuary are 
two other sets of apartments, the larger 
ones supported by columns and orna- 
mented with rich sculpture, much of 
which appears to have been gilded. 
Between this part and the great 
columnar hall is one of the old cham- 
bers, measuring 31 ft. 6 by 57 ft. 1, 
with a semicircular niche. The walls 
are covered with frescoes of late 
Eoman time ; and it was evidently a 
court of law with the usual tribunal, 
in which are painted three figures 
larger than life wearing the toga and 
sandals. The centre one holds a staff 
or sceptre (scipio) in the right hand 
and a globe in the left ; and near him 
was some object now defaced. The 
other two figures have each a scroll 
in one hand. On the walls to the 
right and left are the traces of figures, 
which are interesting from their cos- 
tume ; and on the side-wall to the E. 
are several soldiers with their horses, 
drawn with great spirit. The colours 
are much damaged by exposure, and 
the frescoes can hardly be distin- 



Egypt 



kaenak: the 



GEEAT TEMPLE. 



439 



guished. They probably date after 
the age of Constantine. The costumes 
are remarkable ; and some of the men 
wear embroidered upper garments, 
tight hose, and laced boots, or shoes 
tied over the instep. The false wain- 
scot, or dado, below, is richly coloured 
in imitation of porphyry and other 
stones incrusted in patterns, and is 
better preserved than the frescoes of 
the upper part, where the old gods of 
Egypt in bas-relief have outlived the 
paintings that once concealed them. 
There appear to be traces of a small 
cross painted at one side of the tribune, 
and the figures have a nimbus round 
their heads, but without any of the 
character of Christian saints. Nor was 
the nimbus confined to saints by the 
early Christians. 

Behind the temple is a stone quay, 
apparently of the late era of the 
Ptolemies or Caesars, since blocks 
bearing the sculpture of the former 
have been used in its construction. 
Opposite the corner of the temple it 
takes a more easterly direction, and 
points out the original course of the 
river, which continued across the plain 
now lying between it and the ruins of 
Karnak, and which may be traced by 
the descent of the surface of that 
ground it gradually deserted. The 
southern extremity of the quay is of 
brick (probably a Bonian addition), 
and indicates in like manner the 
former direction of the stream. The 
whole plan of the Temple of Luxor is 
very irregular, from its having been 
built on the bank of the river, and 
following the direction of this quay. 
At the present day it is so buried 
beneath modern mud-huts that little of 
it can be satisfactorily seen. 



11. Karkak. 

The road to Karnak lies through 
fields of poa or ftaZ/a-grass, indicating 
the site of ancient ruins ; and a short 
distance to the right is a mound, with 
the tomb of a sheykh called Aboo 
Jood; a little beyond which, to the 
S. are remains of columns and an 
old wall. Here and there, on ap- 



proaching the temple, the direction of 
the avenue (once a great street) and 
the . fragments of its sphinxes are 
traced in the bed of a small canal or 
watercourse, which the Nile, during 
the inundation, appropriates to its 
rising stream. To this succeeds an- 
other dromos of Criosphinxes, and a 
majestic pylon of Ptolemy Euergetes, 
with his queen and sister Berenice, 
who in one instance present an offering 
to their predecessors and parents, Phil- 
adelphus and Arsinoe. In one of the 
compartments, within the doorway, the 
king is represented in a Greek cos- 
tume; instances of which are rare, 
even on Ptolemaic monuments. An- 
other avenue of sphinxes extends to 
an isolated temple behind this pylon, 
founded by Eameses III., and con- 
tinued by Eameses IV. and VIII., and 
a later Pharaoh of the XXIst dynasty, 
who added a gateway and the court of 
Columns. Other names appear in 
different parts of the building, among 
which are those of Amyrtseus (or as 
some read it, Nectanebo) and Alex- 
ander, on the inner and outer gate- 
ways of the area. 

The Great Temple. — The principal 
entrance of the grand temple lies on 
the N.W. side, facing the river, and 
about 5 mile distant from it. From a 
raised platform commences an avenue 
of Criosphinxes, about 200 ft. in length, 
leading to the front propylon (a), be- 
fore which stood two granite statues 
now mutilated and buried in the soil. 
One of the propylon towers retains a 
great part of its original height, but 
has lost its summit and cornice. In 
the upper part then* solid walls have 
been perforated through their whole 
breadth, for the purpose of fastening 
the timbers that secured the flagstaffs 
usually placed in front of these pro- 
pyla ; but no sculptures have ever 
been added to either face, nor was 
the surface yet levelled to receive 
them. 

The total breadth of this enormous 
propylon is about 370 feet, and its 
depth 50 feet; the height of the 
standing tower is 140 feet. A narrow 
staircase leads up to the top, whence 



440 



KAKNAK. 



Sect. IV. 



West 




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North 



A. First Propylon. 

B. Open Area, with corridors, and 

a single column erect. 

C. Second Propylon. 

D. Great Hall. 

E. Third Propylon. 

F. Fourth Propylon. 

G. Hali with Osiride figures. 

H. Granite Sanctuary and adjoin- 

ing chambers. 

I. Open Corart. 

K. Columnar Edifice of Thothmes 
III. 

L. Temple of Eameses III. 

a. Sculptures of Sethi I. 

b. Sculptures of Shishak. 

c. Sculptures of Rameses II. 

d. Small Obelisk. 

e. Large Obelisk. 

if. Pillars of Osirtasen L 
g. Hall of Ancestors. 



East 



I'LAN OF GEEAT TEMPLE OF KARNAK. 



is obtained, an excellent bird's-eye 
view of the ruins. 

Passing through the gateway of 
this propylon, you arrive at a large 



open court (or area) (b), 275 ft. by 
329, with a covered corridor on either 
side, and a double line of columns 
down the centre, of which only one 



Egypt 



THE GBEAT TEMPLE. 



441 



remains standing. The corridors are 
50 feet high : that on the N. presents 
an even front of 18 columns, that on 
the S. is broken by a small temple 
built by Rameses III. (l), the entrance 
to which abuts on the great area. 

Passing through another huge pro- 
pylon (c), in front of which are two 
granite statues of Rameses III. — one 
only now remains much mutilated, — 
we enter the Grand Hall (d), the 
largest and most magnificent of the 
old Egyptian monuments. The lintel 
stones of its doorway were 40 ft. 
10 in. in length. It measures 170 ft. 
by 329, and is supported by a central 
avenue of 12 massive columns, 62 ft. 
high (without the plinth and abacus) 
and 11 ft. 6 in. diameter; besides 
122 of smaller or (rather) less gigantic 
dimensions, 42 ft. 5 in. in height, 
and 28 ft. in circumference, dis- 
tributed in seven lines on either side 
of the former : 134 columns in all. 
Originally the hall was roofed over, 
and the light only penetrated into 
it through the sort of clerestory, re- 
mains of which may still be seen on 
the S. side. The oldest king's name 
found in this hall is that of Sethi I., 
and he is generally credited with 
its construction, but there is some 
reason for supposing that that honour 
belongs to Amunoph III. The 12 
central columns were originally 14, 
but the two westernmost have been 
enclosed within the front towers of the 
propylon. The two at the other end 
were also partly built into the project- 
ing wall of the doorway, as appears 
from their rough sides, which were 
left uneven for that purpose. Attached 
to this doorway are two other towers, 
closing the inner extremity of the 
hall. 

Another much ruined propylon (e) 
closes the E. end of the Great Hall. 
Beyond is a narrow uncovered court, 
extending along the whole width of 
the building, in which stood two 
obelisks of red granite (d) about 75 
ft. in height. One is thrown down 
and broken, the other still stands. 
They bear on one side the name of 
Thothmes I. of the XVIIIth dynasty, 
and on the other that of Rameses II. 



of the XlXth, showing a difference of 
age of the sculptures of 250 years. 

To this court succeeds another but 
smaller propylon (p), passing through 
the vestibule of which — about 40 ft. 
long — we reach another court, sur- 
rounded by a peristyle of Osiride 
pillars (g). In it are two obelisks of 
red granite {_e) like the others, but 
of larger dimensions, the one now 
standing being 92 ft. high and 8 square, 
the largest obelisk known. This part 
of the building bears the name of 
Thothmes I. ; the obelisk, that of his 
daughter Amunoohet, or Hatasoo. 
From a part of the inscription on one 
of these obelisks, we learn that only 
seven months were employed in its 
erection, including the time spent in 
transporting it from the quarries of 
Assooan. Passing through the portal 
of a dilapidated pylon, you enter an- 
other smaller area, succeeded by a 
vestibule in front of the granite gate- 
way of the towers which form the 
facade of the court before the sanc- 
tuary (h). 

This sanctuary is of red granite, 
divided into two apartments, and sur- 
rounded by numerous chambers of 
small dimensions, varying from 29 ft. 
by 16, to 16 ft. by 8. 

The actual sanctuary itself is one 
mass of ruins, but some of the cham- 
bers are still standing, and are covered 
with sculptures of the XVIIIth dynasty. 
The date of the sanctuary itself is 
much earlier, though the blocks now 
in situ bear the name of Philip Ari- 
dseus, who restored it ; for in the large 
open space (i) immediately behind are 
some polygonal columns (/), with the 
cartouche of Osirtasen I., of the XHth 
dynasty, in the midst of fallen archi- 
traves of the same era ; showing that 
the original construction of the sanc- 
tuary dates from that era. Further 
on in this open space axe two pedestals 
of red granite. They may have sup- 
ported obelisks; but they are not 
square, like the basements of those 
monuments, and rather resemble, for 
this reason, the pedestals of statues. 
Their substructions are of limestone. 

After this you come to the columnar 
edifice of the 3rd Thothmes (k). Its 
u 3 



442 



KARNAK : THE GREAT TEMPLE. 



Sect. IV. 



exterior wall is entirely destroyed, 
except on the N. side. Parallel to 
the four outer walls is a row of square 
pillars, going all round, within the 
edifice, 32 in number: and in the 
centre are 20 columns, disposed in 
two lines, parallel to the back and 
front row of pillars. But the position 
of the latter does not accord with the 
columns of the centre ; and an unusual 
caprice has changed the established 
order of the architectural details, the 
capitals and cornices being reversed, 
without adding to the beauty or in- 
creasing the strength of the building. 
The latter, however, had the effect of 
admitting more light to the interior. 
Adjoining the S.W. angle of its front 
is a small room, commonly called the 
Hall of Ancestors (g), from its having 
contained on its walls a bas-relief re- 
presenting King Thothmes III. mak- 
ing offerings to 56 of his predecessors. 
This valuable monument is now at 
Paris. A series of small halls and 
rooms occupy the extremity of the 
temple. 

In the southern side adytum are 
the vestiges of a colossal hawk, seated 
on a raised pedestal ; the sculptures 
within and without containing the 
name of Alexander, by whose order it 
was repaired and sculptured. 

The total dimensions of this part of 
the temple, behind the inner propylon 
of the grand hall, are 600 ft., by about 
half that in breadth, making the total 
length, from the front propylon to the 
extremity of the wall of circuit, in- 
clusive, 1180 ft. And from this it 
will appear that Diodorus is fully 
justified in the following statement : 
that " the circuit of the most ancient 
of the four temples at Thebes measured 
13 stadia," or about 1J mile English. 
The thickness of the walls, "of 25 
feet," owing to the great variety in 
their dimensions, is too vague to be 
noticed ; but the height he gives to 
the building of 45 cubits (67 ft.), is 
far too little for the grand hall, which, 
from the pavement to the summit of the 
joof inclusive, is not less than 80 ft. 

Comparative antiquity of the build- 
ings of the Great Temple. — No part, 



probably, remains of the earliest foun- 
dation of the temple; but the name 
of Osirtasen suffices to support its* 
claim to great antiquity ; and if no 
monument remains at Thebes of the 
earliest dynasties, this may be ex- 
plained by the fact of its not having 
been founded when the kings of the 
Pyramid period ruled at Memphis. 
The original sanctuary, which was 
probably of sandstone, doubtless ex- 
isted in the reign of that monarch, 
and stood on the site of the present 
one, an opinion confirmed by our 
finding the oldest remains in that 
direction, as well as by the propor- 
tions of the courts and propyla, whose 
dimensions were necessarily made to 
accord with those of the previous parts, 
to which they were united. All is here 
on a limited scale, and the polygonal 
columns of Osirtasen evince the chaste 
style of architecture in vogue at that 
early era. 

Subsequently to his reign were 
added the small chambers of Am- 
unoph I. Then Thothmes I. built 
the court of Osiride columns, and put 
up the two obelisks in the open space 
outside it. The great obelisks inside 
the Osiride court were erected to his 
memory by his daughter Amun-noo- 
het or Hatasoo, whose name also 
appears on the walls of some of the 
chambers near the sanctuary. The 
rest of these chambers were built 
by Thothmes II. The succeeding 
monarch, Thothmes III., made con- 
siderable additions to the buildings 
and sculptures, and erected the great 
columnar edifice at the extreme east 
of the enclosure of the Great Temple. 

The sanctuary, destroyed by the 
Persians, and since rebuilt by Philip 
Aridseus, was also of the same Pha- 
raoh ; who seems to have been the 
first to build it of red granite, and a 
block of that stone which now forms 
part of the ceiling, and bears the 
name of the 3rd Thothmes, belonged 
most probably to the sanctuary he 
rebuilt. 

At the close of his reign the temple 
only extended to the smaller obelisks ; 
before which were added, by Amunoph 
III., the towers of the propylon, whose 



Egypt 



HISTORICAL 



SCULPTURES. 



443 



recesses for the flagstaff's, proving them 
to have been originally the front 
towers of the temple, are still visible 
on the W. face. 
The Great Hall was added by Sethi 

I. , the 3rd king of the XlXth dynasty ; 
and besides the innumerable bas- 
reliefs that adorn its walls, historical 
scenes, in the most finished and 
elegant style of Egyptian sculpture, 
were designed on the exterior of the 
N. side. 

In the reign of Sethi's son, Eameses 

II. , great additions were made. He 
completed the sculptures on the S. 
side of the Great Hall, and on the ex- 
terior of the wall of circuit. He also 
built the area, in front, with massive 
propyla, preceded by granite colossi 
and an avenue of sphinxes. Succeeding 
monarchs continued to display their 
piety, to gratify their own vanity,, or 
to court the goodwill of the priesthood, 
by making additions to the buildings 
erected by their predecessors ; and the 
several isolated monuments, becoming 
attached to the principal pile, formed 
at length one immense whole, con- 
nected either by great avenues of 
sphinxes, or by crude-brick enclosures. 

The principal edifices united to the 
main temple by the successors of the 
2nd Rameses are the three chambers 
below the front propylon, and the 
small but complete temple (l) on the 
W. side of the large area ; the latter by 
Rameses III., the former by his second 
predecessor, Sethi, or Osirei,II. Several 
sculptures were added, during the 
XXIInd dynasty, at the western cor- 
ner of the same area. The columns 
in this court, one alone of which is 
now standing, bear the name of Tir- 
hakah, Psammetichus II., and of 
Ptolemy Philopator ; and the gateway 
between them and the grand hall 
having been altered by Ptolemy Phys- 
con, additional sculptures, bearing his 
name, were inserted amidst those of 
the 2nd Rameses. On the left, as 
you enter, he wears a Greek helmet. 

It will be seen from the above 
account that the earliest name found 
on any of the buildings of the Great 
Temple is that of Osirtasen I., and ' 
the latest that of Alexander II., whose ■ 



name appears in one of the small 
chambers belonging to the columnar 
edifice of Thothmes IH. 

Historical Sculptures of the Great 
Temple. — The principal historical 
sculptures are on the exterior of the 
Great Hall. 

They were commenced by Sethi I., 
and finished by his son Rameses the 
Great, the supposed Sesostris. Those 
on the N. side are of Sethi I., and 
relate to his campaigns in the East. 

To commence with the western ex- 
tremity (a) : the upper compartment 
represents the king attacking a forti- 
fied town situated on a rock, which is 
surrounded by a wood, and lies in the 
immediate vicinity of the mountains, 
whither the flying enemy drive off 
their herds on the approach of the 
Egyptian army. The suite of it is 
entirely lost. 

In the first compartment of the 
second line, the king engages the 
enemy's infantry in the open field, and, 
having wounded their chief with a 
lance, entangles him with his bow- 
string and slays him with his sword. 
The drawing in these figures is remark- 
ably spirited ; and, allowance being 
made for the conventional style of the 
Egyptians, it must be admitted that the 
principal groups in all these subjects 
are admirably designed. In the second 
compartment (following the same line) 
the Egyptian hero, having alighted 
from his car, fights hand-in-hand with 
the chiefs of the hostile army : one has 
already fallen beneath his spear, and, 
trampling on the prostrate foe, he 
seizes his companion, who is also des- 
tined to fall by his powerful hand. 
Returning in triumph, he leads before 
his car the fettered captives, whom he 
offers, with the spoil of the cities he 
has taken, to Amunre, the god of 
Thebes. This consists of vases, silver, 
gold, and other precious things, and 
whatever the monarch has been ena- 
bled to collect from the plunder of the 
conquered country. 

The lowest line commences with 
an encounter between the Egyptians 
and the chariots and infantry of the 
Rotennoo. Their chief is wounded by 



444 



KAKSfAK : THE GREAT TEMPLE AND 



Sect. IV, 



the arrows of the Egyptian monarch, 
who closely pursues him, and disables 
one of his horses with a spear. He 
then attempts to quit his car, as his 
companion falls by his side covered 
with wounds. The rout of the hostile 
army is complete, and they fly in the 
utmost consternation. One is on horse- 
back. The victorious return of King 
Sethi is the next subject ; and, alight- 
ing from his chariot, he enters the 
temple of Amunre, to present his cap- 
tives and booty to the protecting deity 
of Thebes. He then slays with a club 
the prisoners of the two conquered na- 
tions, in the presence of Amunre, the 
names of whose towns and districts are 
attached to other figures on the lower 
part of the wall. 

The order of the other historical 
subject commences at the S.E. angle. 
In the lower line the Egyptians 
attack the infantry of an Asiatic 
enemy in the open field, — the Eoten- 
noo, whose dress and colour, if they 
are the same as those represented 
in the Theban tombs, prove them to 
have inhabited a country very far to 
the N. of Egypt. The Egyptians sub- 
due them and make them captives ; 
and their march, perhaps during their 
return, is directed through a series of 
districts, some of which are at peace 
with, others tributary to, them. The 
inhabitants of one of these fortified 
cities come out to meet them, bringing 
presents of vases and bags of gold, 
which, with every demonstration of 
respect, they lay before the monarch, 
as he advances through their country. 
He afterwards meets with opposition, 
and is obliged to attack a hostile 
army, and a strongly fortified town, 
situated on a high rock, and sur- 
rounded by water, with the exception 
of that part which is rendered inacces- 
sible by the steepness of the cliff on 
whose verge it is built. It seems to 
defy the Egyptian army, but the 
enemy are routed and sue for peace. 
(This is at the angle of the wall.) 

Their arms are a spear and battle- 
axe, and they are clad in a coat of 
mail, with a short and close dress. 
The name of the town Kanana (or 
Kanaan), and the early date of the first 



year of the king's reign, leave little 
room to doubt that the defeat of the 
Canaanites is here represented. 

In the other compartments is repre- 
sented the return of the Pharaoh to 
Thebes, leading in triumph the cap- 
tives he has taken in the war, followed 
by his son and a " royal scribe," with 
a body of Egyptian soldiers, " the royal 
attendants, who have accompanied him 
to the foreign land of the Kotennoo." 

The succession of countries and dis- 
tricts he passes through on his return 
is singularly but ingeniously detailed : 
a woody and well-watered country is 
indicated by trees and lakes, and the 
consequence of each town by the size 
of the fort that represents it ; bearing 
a slight analogy to the simple style of 
description in Xenophon's retreat. 

The Nile is designated by the cro- 
codiles and fish peculiar to that river : 
and a bridge serves as a communica- 
tion witb the opposite bank. This is 
very remarkable, as it shows they had 
bridges over the Nile at that early 
period ; but being drawn as seen from 
above, we cannot decide whether it 
was made with arches or rafters. A 
concourse of the priests and distin- 
guished inhabitants of a large city 
comes forth to greet his arrival ; and 
he then proceeds on foot to offer the 
spoil and captives he has taken to 
the deity. Though probable, it is by 
no means certain, that Thebes is here 
represented, especially as the name of 
that city does not occur in the hiero- 
glyphics. The deputation consists of 
the " priests and the chief men of the 
upper and lower countries ; " it should 
therefore rather refer to his entrance 
into Egypt; and Tanis would agree 
better with the hieroglyphics. But 
Thebes is more likely to be repre- 
sented in Theban sculptures. The 
battlemented edifices on the road, 
bearing the name of the king, appear 
to be out of Egypt ; and may either 
point out the places where he had a 
palace, or signify that they were tribu- 
tary to him. 

In the compartments of the upper 
line the Egyptians attack the enemy 
in the open field, and oblige them to 
take shelter in a fortified town, situ- 



Egypt. 



OTHER BUILDINGS AND REMAINS. 



445 



ated on a lofty hill flanked by a lake 
of water. Near its banks and on 
the acclivity of the mountain, are 
several trees and caverns; amongst 
which some lie concealed, while 
others, alarmed. for the fate of their 
city, throw dust on their heads, and 
endeavour to deprecate the wrath of 
the victor. The chariots are routed, 
and the king, having seized the hostile 
chief, smites off his head, which he 
holds by the beard. The pursuit of the 
enemy continues, and they take re- 
fuge amidst the lofty trees that crown 
the heights of their mountainous 
country. The Egyptians follow them 
to the woods, and heralds are sent by 
the king to offer them their lives, on 
condition of their future obedience to 
his will, and the payment of an annual 
tribute. The name of the place, called 
in the hieroglyphics Lemanon, is pro- 
bably Mount Lebanon (m and b being 
transmutable letters), though, from its 
being mentioned with the Kotennoo, 
it should be farther to the northward ; 
unless the Eotennoo were a Syrian 
people. Alighting from his car, he 
awaits their answer, which is brought 
by an Egyptian officer, who on his 
return salutes his sovereign, and re- 
lates the success of his mission. In 
the third compartment, the hero, who 
in the heat of the fight had alighted 
from his chariot, gives proofs of his 
physical powers as well as his 
courage, and grasps beneath each 
arm two captive chiefs ; while others, 
bound with ropes, follow to adorn his 
triumph, and grace the offerings of 
his victory to the god of Thebes. 

At the western end of the S. wall of 
the Great Hall are some very interest- 
ing sculptures (6). They are near the 
gateway leading into the open area. 
They commemorate a victorious cam- 
paign undertaken by the 1st king of 
the XXIInd Dynasty, Sheshonk L, 
the Shishak of the Bible, against 
Palestine. To the right Shishak is 
represented with upraised arm in the 
act of striking a group of captives at 
his feet. To the left, the god Ammon 
of Thebes, and the Thebaid, personified 
under the form of a woman holding a 
quiver, a box, and a mace, present 



themselves before him. Behind them 
are 150 persons whose heads alone are 
visible, their bodies being hidden by 
a sort of battlemented shield, on which 
is figured the plan of a fortified town. 
These 150 heads and shields, as we 
learn from the hieroglyphics, represent 
the towns taken by Shishak in his 
campaign. The name of Judah Melek 
on the 29th shield led Champollion to 
suppose that the head surmounting it 
was that of the Xing of Judah, Jero- 
boam, vanquished by Shishak. But M. 
Brugsh has shown that Judah Melek 
can only be considered, like the others, 
as the name of some place in Pales- 
tine. Indeed all the faces are of 
one type, intended no doubt to sym- 
bolise the general cast of features of 
the conquered people ; though that, 
perhaps, can be found more distinctly 
traced in the physiognomies of the 
prisoners whom the conqueror is about 
to strike. 

Continuing eastwards along this 
same S. wall, we reach a wall jutting 
out from it at right angles, on the west 
face of which is a stela, containing the 
treaty of peace concluded between 
Kameses II. and Khetasar, king of the 
Khetas, in the 21st year of the reign of 
the former prince. The incidents pro- 
bably of the war which preceded this 
peace are sculptured on the main wall 
to the west of this side wall (c). And 
to the east of it, on the main wall, is a 
long list of hieroglyphics containing 
the famous poem of Pentaoor, recount- 
ing the famous feats of arms accom- 
plished by Barneses II. There are a 
variety of other warlike scenes, all 
more or less like those already de- 
scribed. 

Other Buildings and Remains. — Be- 
ginning on the N. side of the Great 
Temple, the most important is the 
temple of Amunoph III. It was once 
adorned with elegant sculptures and 
two granite obelisks, but is now a 
confused heap of ruins, whose plan is 
with difficulty traced beneath its 
fallen walls. 

In front of it stands a well-pro- 
portioned pylon, bearing the names 
and sculptures of Ptolemy Euergetes 



446 



KARNAK 



LAKES. 



Sect. IV. 



with Berenice, and of Philopator; 
beyond which an avenue of sphinxes 
extends to a raised platform at its 
N.E. extremity. The pylon, which 
was of a much earlier date than the 
sculptures it bears, having attached 
to it the statues of Barneses II., is .the 
only portion of this building which 
has remained uninjured ; and, though 
we may with reason attribute much 
of the ruinous condition of Thebes to 
the Persians, the names on this pylon, 
and many Ptolemaic additions to the 
temple of Amun, fully prove that its 
capture by Lathyrus was far more 
detrimental to this city than the pre- 
vious invasion of Cambyses. 

On the E. of the Great Temple is a 
magnificent pylon, the sculptures of 
which have never been completed. 
In the doorway is the name of Nec- 
tanebo, and on the upper part of the 
S.E. side those of Ptolemy Phila- 
delphus, and of Arsinoe, his sister and 
second wife. 

In the area within this gateway are 
a few other remains of the time of 
Sethi L, Barneses II.,Tirhakah, Ptolemy 
Physcon, Dionysus, and Tiberius. 
All the ground to the N.E. is covered 
with mounds and crude-brick remains. 

To the S. of the Great Temple, op- 
posite the end of the Osiride hall, 
with which it communicated, is a 
long avenue marked at certain dis- 
tances by four pylons, resembling so 
many triumphal gates, and which was 
adorned by a row of colossal statues. 
All these pylons are more or less 
ruined, the first and fourth almost en- 
tirely so ; and only two of the statues 
remain in front of the second from the 
Great Temple. They all bear the 
names of the Thothmes' and other 
kings of the XVIIIth dynasty. The 
third has the name of Horus cut over 
that of Amunoph IV. or Khoo-en-aten, 
the monarch represented in the grot- 
toes of Tel el Amarna. 

Beyond these pylons, to the S.E., is a 
lake or spacious reservoir, lined with 
masonry, which still receives the 
water of the rising Nile as it oozes 
through the ground ; and on its banks 
are a few small ruins of the late epoch 



of Psammouthis, of the XXIXth 
dynasty. 

The small edifice attached to the 
front area is of the 2nd Amunoph, 
but the name on the neighbouring 
outer propyla is of the successor of 
Amunoph III., and the androsphinxes 
before them bear that of Sethi II. In 
a small isolated edifice are the ovals 
of Thothmes I. and the 3rd Amunoph, 
whose statues of black granite adorn 
the inner doorway. 

The ruins within the crude-brick 
enclosure of the other, or western lake, 
are of various epochs ; and among 
the sculptures are observed the names 
of Thothmes III., Amunoph III., 
Sheshonk I., and Ptolemy Dionysus. 
The temple and statues which once 
stood before it are of Eameses II. ; 
and that on the western corner of 
the lake, also adorned with two 
granite statues, is of Eameses III. 
Numerous figures of black granite, 
representing the lion-headed goddess, 
are deposited in the precincts of the 
inner enclosure ; and on the back of 
one of them is an inscription with 
the names of king Pisham and a 
queen of the XXIst dynasty. Some 
elegant androsphinxes on the left of the 
front door are also worthy of notice. 

The water of this lake also receives 
an annual supply, through the soil, 
from the Nile ; but being strongly im- 
pregnated with nitre and other salts, 
and stagnant during the heat of the 
summer, it is no longer drinkable. 

The temple of Eameses III., pre- 
ceded by the pylon of Ptolemy Euer- 
getes by which we approached Karnak, 
and the other temple of the same 
monarch attached to the wall of the 
area preceding the Great Hall, have 
been already mentioned. 

The above is a brief and imperfect 
attempt to give some idea of the most 
marvellous mass of ruins in the world. 
" Travel and opportunity have their 
duties," and the unantiquarian tra- 
veller feels it incumbent on him to try 
and make something out of the various 
remains of Karnak. It is hoped that 
this short sketch may help him to do 
so. But it is almost a hopeless task 
even for the learned archaeologist to 



Egypt. route 19. — thebes, and keneh, to kosseir. 



447 



unravel any complete and satisfactory 
plan from such a mass of ruin. Per- 
haps the best way of viewing Karnak 
is to regard it simply as the most 
wonderful thing of its kind in the 
world, alike for its size, its grandeur, 
and the incredible mass of ruins it 
presents. 

It remains, perhaps, to say a few 
words on the causes which have 
brought about the destruction of Kar- 
nak. It has been variously attributed 
to the effects of an earthquake, to the 
religious animosity of Cambyses and 
the Persians, and to the fury of 
Ptolemy Lathyrus, who was exas- 
perated against his revolted Theban 
subjects for having stood a protracted 
siege of several months. One or all of 
these causes may have contributed 
towards the general destruction ; but 
it is possible that there is a another 
reason for it, which has been pointed 
out by M. Mariette. " Is it not pro- 
bable," he says, " that it (the destruc- 
tion of the Great Temple of Karnak) 
is the effect of the faults in its con- 
struction, and of its position with 
regard to the Nile and the surround- 
ing plain, the pavement being some 
7 ft. below the soil ? The Pharaonic 
temples are indeed generally very 
carelessly built. The west pylon, for 
example, has settled down simply be- 
cause it was hollow; and, therefore, 
the inclination of its walls, instead of 
being a means of strengthening it, has 
merely helped its fall. It must be 
noted, besides, that Karnak, more than 
any other Egyptian temple, has for a 
long time suffered from infiltrations 
from the Nile, whose waters saturated 
with nitre eat into the sandstone. 
The temple of Karnak has thus 
suffered more than any other from the 
negligence of its builders, and more 
especially from its position with regard 
to the Nile : and as the same causes 
produce the same effects, the time 
may be foreseen when, with crash 
after crash, the columns of the magni- 
ficent hypostyle hall, whose bases are 
already three parts eaten through, 
will fall, as have fallen the columns 
in the great court preceding it." 



KOUTE 19. 

THEBES, AND KENEH, TO KOSSEIR ON THE 
BED SEA. 

Two principal roads lead from 
Keneh, and one from Thebes, to 
Kosseir. The following are the dis- 
tances : — 

Miles 

a. By the Moileh road : 

Keneh to Beer Amber .. .. llf 
Wells of El Egayta (Eghayta) 21| 
The 1st Wells to W. of Moileh 

(Moayleh) 38£ 

2nd Wells to W. of Moileh . . 3 

Wells of Moileh 4 

Beer il Ingleez (near El Bayda) 29J 
Springs of El Ambagee . . . . 5£ 
Kosseir (fort) 6 

119| 

b. By the Bussafa road : 

Keneh to Beer Amber .. .. llf 

Wells of Egayta 21| 

Wells of Hammamat 24 J 

Well called Moie-t (or Sayal-t) 

Hagee Soolayman . . . . 33 

Beer el Ingleez . . . . . . . . 15 

Ambagee 5| 

Kosseir 6 

H7| 

Thebes (Karnak) to Medamot, 

(E. bank) 5 

Coptos(E.).. 37A 

Wells of El Egayta 27' 

El Egayta to Kosseir 83| 

(Kte. 7) .'. 86| 

155J 



448 



ROUTE 19. THEBES, AND KENEH, TO KOSSEIR. Sect. IV. 



The roads from Thebes and from 
Keneh unite at the wells of El Egay ta, 
and are thence the same to Kosseir. 
The Moileh, or Moayleh road, and 
the Derb El Kussafa are the most 
frequented. They both meet at El 
Egay ta, where they diverge, and unite 
again at El Bayda " the white " (hills), 
so called from the colour of the rocks ; 
where there is a well, called Beer el 
Ingleez, from having been dug by our 
Indian army on its way to the Nile. 
The water is brackish; and that at 
El Ambagee is bad. At the others 
the water is good. 

Arabs with their camels for the 
journey had perhaps better be en- 
gaged at Keneh. 

There is nothing worthy of remark 
on the Moayleh road. There are 
some Ababdeh Arabs settled near this 
and the Derb Er Bussafa, from whom 
milk may sometimes be obtained ; 
and camels, laden with corn for Arabia 
are occasionally met on their way to 
Kosseir. 

* The most interesting road is the 
Derb Er Bussafa ; from the ancient 
Boman stations met with at intervals, 
and from its having been the old road 
from Coptos to Bhiloteras - Portus. 
There are eight of these stations, or 
Hydreumas, some of which are distant 
from each other only 6, others from 
8 to 12 m. ; besides the wells of El 
Egayta, which were also known to 
the ancients. The first station, whose 
site and plan is less easily traced than 
the others, was distant from Coptos 
only 9 m., and was probably common 
to the Philoteras P. and Berenice 
roads, though not given in the lists of 
Pliny or the Itinerary of Antoninus. 

Breccia Quarries. — Near the large 
well of Hammamat, on this road, are 
the quarries of Breccia Verde, from 
which so many sarcophagi, fonts, 
tazze, and other ornamental objects 
made of this beautiful stone, were 
cut by the ancients, both in Phara- 
onic and Boman times. The valley 
of the quarries is called Wadee Foak- 
heer, from the quantity of pottery 
(fokhdr) found there. It is also re- 
markable for the number of hiero- 



glyphic inscriptions on the rocks, of 
very early time, for the numerous 
huts of workmen who lived there, 
and for the remains of a small Egyp- 
tian temple of the time of Ptolemy 
Euergetes I. The inscriptions on the 
rocks are interesting from their anti- 
quity, some being of very ancient 
Pharaohs. 

The principal names are of Papa, 
or Papi; — of Bemeren; — and three 
very early Pharaohs, two of which 
occur in the chamber of kings at 
Karnak ; — of Mantoftep, or Man- 
dothph ; — Osirtasen I. and III. ; 
Amenem-ha I. and II. ; — Thothmes 
III. ; Sethi I. and II. ; — Barneses IV. 
and VIII. ; — Sabaco, and the Princess 
Amunatis ; — Psammetichus I. and II. ; 
— Amasis ; — Cambyses ; — Darius ; — 
Xerxes ; and Artaxerxes ; — Amyr- 
tseus (?) ; and Nectanebo. 

There are many hieroglyphic and 
Greek exvotos. In one of the latter 
the writer is said to be a native of 
Alabastron ; and in one of the former 
Amun-re is styled " Lord of the re- 
gions of the world," and Neph (Nou ? 
or Kneph) is called " the Lord of the 
foreign land of the Elephant," or the 
island of Elephantine. Khem or Pan 
is the deity of the place. .He was 
supposed to be the particular " guar- 
dian of the roads ; " and until the wor- 
ship of Serapis was introduced by the 
Greeks and Bomans, he seems to have 
been the principal god to whom tem- 
ples were built and prayers made in the 
Egyptian deserts. The triad of this 
valley consisted of Khem, the infant 
Horus, and " Isis, the beautiful Mother 
of the gods, queen of Heaven." 

(For Kosseir, see Bte. 7, d.) 

The Ababdeh Desert. — The principal 
roads made by the ancients across 
this desert were those from Coptos to 
Berenice, and to Philoteras-Portus, 
just mentioned; one from Contra- 
Apollinopolis (opposite Edfoo) to the 
emerald-mines of Gebel Zabara ; and 
another from Philoteras-Portus, along 
the sea-coast, to the Leucos-Portus, 
Nechesia, and Berenice, which con- 
tinued thence southwards in the direc- 
tion of Sowakin. There was also one 



Egypt. eoute 19. — ababdeh 

which left the Nile near Contra- 
Apollinopolis, and, taking a southerly 
direction, ran probably to the gold- 
mines (of Gebel Ollagee) mentioned 
by Agatharcides and other authors, 
and subsequently by the Shereef 
Edrisi and Aboolfeda. The roads were 
generally furnished with stations, 
built at short intervals, where water 
could always be obtained by means of 
large wells sunk within them to a 
great depth, and by supplies preserved 
in cisterns, frequently in the solid 
rock. The cisterns were spacious and 
covered by awnings supported on 
poles, or pillars of masonry, and were 
filled as occasion required, for the use 
of the soldiers quartered there, as well 
well as of those who passed ; and hence 
the name of " Fons" or " Hydreuma." 

The gold-mines lie some distance to 
the S. of the Ababdeh desert, in the 
territory of the Bishareeyah. They are, 
as Edrisi and Aboolfeda observe, " in 
the land of Begga," the Bisharee coun- 
try ; and, as appears from two of the 
Arabic funeral inscriptions found by 
Mr. Bonomi and Linant-Bey, were 
worked in the years 339 a.h. (951 
a.d.) and 378 a.h. (989 a.d.), the 
former being the 5th year of the Ca- 
liph El Motee al Illah, a short time 
before the arrival of the Fatemites in 
Egypt ; and the other in the 14th year 
of El Azeez, the second king of the 
Fatemite dynasty. Certain it is, how- 
ever, that they were also mined pre- 
vious to and after that period, though 
there are no other epitaphs with dates. 

The stations on the road from Cop- 
tos to Berenice have a peculiar inte- 
rest, from being mentioned by Pliny, 
and the Itinerary of Antoninus. 

According to Pliny. 

M.P. 

First Hydreuma, from Coptos .. 32 

Second Hydreuma 63 

Apollinis 89 

Novum Hydreuma 49 

(the Hyreuma Vetus being 4 
miles off, out of the road) 

Berenice 25 

Total in Roman miles 258 



desert: gold-mines. 449 

Itinerary. 

M.P. 

Phoenicon, or) r. n i. on 

Peniconon ) f ™* Coptos 27 

Didyme 24 

Afrodito 20 

Compasi 22 

Jovis 33 

Aristonis 25 

Phalacro 25 

Apollonos 23 

Cabalsi 27 

Csenon Hydreuma 27 

Berenice 18 



Total 271 

Besides all those stations men- 
tioned in the Itinerary, an inter- 
mediate one between Didyme and 
Afrodito is met with, on the direct 
road from Coptos to Berenice, about 
4J m. to the northward of the latter. 
The Novum and Vetus Hydreuma are 
the last stations before reaching Bere- 
nice, the latter being out of the road, 
about 4 m. up a valley. 

(For Berenice, see Rte. 7, d.~) 

The road now usually taken from 
the Nile to Berenice lies through the 
Wady Sakayt ; the ancient road from 
Coptos to that port passed through 
Wady Matoolee, and other valleys 
that succeed it to the southward. 

The modern name of Berenice is 
Sakayt el Kublee, or " the Southern 
Sakayt." 

A road leads from Berenice to the 
basanite mountain, now Om Kerrebeh, 
passing by some ruined stations, and 
an ancient village of considerable ex- 
tent; and some distance to the east- 
ward of those quarries is the Mons 
Pentedactylus, now Gebel Feraid, 
whose five cones are still more re- 
markable when seen from Berenice. 
At Om Kerrebeh are considerable 
workings of what the ancients called 
basanite. 

Emerald Mines. — The emerald-mines 
are far less interesting than might be 
supposed. Some are at the Gebel 
Zabara, and others in that neighbour- 
hood, about the Wady Sakayt. They 
have been successively worked by 



450 



ROUTE 19. THEBES, AND KENEH, TO KOSSEIR. Sect. IV. 



the ancient Egyptians, the caliphs, 
the Memlooks, and Mohammed Ali, 
but are now abandoned. They lie in 
micaceous schist ; and numerous shafts 
of considerable depth have been ex- 
cavated at the base of the mountain. 
The largest is at Gebel Zabara, ex- 
tending downwards, at an angle of 37°, 
to the distance of about 360 feet, being 
318 in horizontal length, and 215 in 
perpendicular depth. 

To the south of Gebel Zabara is 
the extensive village of Sakayt, con- 
sisting of numerous miners' huts and 
houses ; and independent of its mines, 
a temple excavated in its rock, and 
some Greek inscriptions, render it pe- 
culiarly interesting to the antiquary. 
The name of Sakayt is evidently de- 
rived from that given to the town in 
old times. A Greek inscription there 
speaks of the god Serapis and the lady 
Isis of Senskis, or Senskete. 

In the adjoining valley, called Wady 
Nogrus, which is only separated from 
Wady Sakayt by a ridge of hills, is 
another similar village, whose houses 
are better built and on a larger scale, 
with the advantage of a natural reser- 
voir, under the neighbouring cliffs, of 
excellent water. 

It is through this Wady Sakayt 
that the road goes from the Nile to 
Berenice. 

Ancient Boad from Contra-Apolli- 
nopolis to the Emerald Mines. — On 
the road from Contra-Apollinopolis 
to the emerald-mines are three sta- 
tions. The first is small, and presents 
nothing interesting except the name of 
one of the alien kings of the XVIIIth 
dynasty; but close to the second 
is a temple cut in the rock, founded, 
and dedicated to Amun, by King 
Sethi I., the father of Kameses the 
Great. Though small, its sculptures 
are of a very good style; and in the 
hall is a curious tablet of hieroglyphics 
bearing the date of the ninth year of 
this Pharaoh. 

The temple consists of a portico 
supported by four columns, and a hall, 
with four pillars in the centre, at the 
end of which are three small cham- 
bers, or rather niches, each contain- 



ing three statues. Many visitors have 
written Greek inscriptions on its walls, 
most of which are ex-votos to Pan ; 
but one is remarkable as being of 
the soldiers quartered in the fortified 
station, whose thirteen names are in- 
scribed on one of the columns of the 
portico. 

In a chamber of the station is a 
block of stone, bearing an ex-voto to 
" Arsinoe Philadelphe," the wife of 
Ptolemy Philadelphus, who founded 
the town of Berenice, to which this 
road also led from the upper part of 
the Thebaic!. The third station pre- 
sents nothing of interest; and be- 
tween it and the emerald-mines no 
other ruins occur, though several 
wells once afforded a supply of water 
to those who passed on the road. 
This road, which leaves the Nile 
nearly opposite Edfoo, is perhaps the 
best for a visit to the emerald-mines 
and Berenice, especially as the Abab- 
deh Arabs live there, who are not to 
be engaged at Thebes, and other places 
to the north. 

The Bishareeyah Tribe of Arabs. — 
To the south of the Ababdeh Arabs 
are the Bishareeyah, who, like the 
Ababdeh, wear long hair, and have 
the same wild appearance as the 
Nubians and many other people of 
Ethiopia. They have a peculiar lan- 
guage, and call themselves de- 
scendants of Kooka, who was both 
their god and their ancestor ; but 
they are now Moslems. The Abab- 
deh also had at one time a peculiar 
language, but they now speak Arabic. 

The arms of both these tribes are 
the spear, knife, and .sometimes the 
shield ; which they prefer to fire-arms. 
They are frequently at war with each 
other; and it is therefore necessary 
in going into their desert, to apply to 
some of their sheykhs for protection. 
But there is little there worthy of a 
visit ; the gold-mines are of no great 
interest, and it is difficult to obtain 
permission to see their stronghold, 
the isolated mountain, called Gebel el 
Elbeh. 



Egypt. route 20. — ltjxor to 



EOUTE 20. 

LUXOR (THEBES) TO ASSOOAN, THE FIEST 
CATARACT, AND VBILM. 



Miles. 

Luxor to Erment ... .. .. 8| 

Esneh 26 

El Kab (Eileithyias) .. .. 17* 

Edfoo 13* 

Hagar Silsileh 26 - 

Kom Ombo 15 

Assooan 26J 

133 

Philaa 5 



There is nothing of any interest be- 
tween Luxor and Erment. 

(W.) Erment (8J m.) The ruins of 
Erment, the ancient Hermonthis, lie at 
some distance from the river. The boat 
usually stops close to a large sugar- 
factory on the W. bank, picturesquely 
surrounded by trees and gardens, and 
with a small village attached to it. 
The whole aspect of the country here 
is very pretty. On the left bank are 
fine avenues of sycamore-figs, running 
alongside the river and inland; on 
the right are some picturesque villages 
with groups of trees, and bright 
patches of cultivation, while, as a 
background to the whole, rises the 
yellow desert and a splendid range of 
mountains. 

The ruins of Erment are hardly 
worth a visit, except for the purpose 
of seeing what is supposed to be an 
authentic portrait of Cleopatra. Ex- 
tensive mounds mark th e site of the old 
town, which was of very early origin. 
The large temple has been long de- 



ASSOOAN AND PHILJE. 451 

stroyed, and its materials probably 
used in the construction of the Chris- 
tian church whose remains can still be 
traced. The few ruins still standing 
are those of the mammeisi, or " lying- 
in-house," where Eeto, the second 
member of the triad of the place, gave 
birth to Horpi-re, the infant child of 
that goddess and of Mandoo. It was 
built by the celebrated Cleopatra, who 
is there accompanied by Neocsesar, or 
Csesarion, her son by Julius Caesar, 
and consisted of an exterior court, 
formed by two rows of columns con- 
nected by intercolumnar screens, a 
small transverse colonnade, serving as 
a portico, at right angles with the 
former, and the naos, which is divided 
into two chambers. Ptolemy Neocaesar 
and his mother have both the titles 
gods Philometores, Philopatores ; but 
the offerings are mostly made by the 
queen Cleopatra, who is also repre- 
sented adoring Basis, the bull of Her- 
monthis. This sacred animal is found 
on the reverse of the coins of the Her- 
monthite nome. Its head is depressed, 
while that of Apis on the Memphite 
coins is raised, which may serve as a 
distinguishing mark when the legend 
containing the name of the nome has 
disappeared. 

There is also a reservoir cased with 
hewn stone, appertaining to the temple, 
the water of which, Wansleb says, was 
used in his time for bleaching linen. 
The same traveller mentions a tra- 
dition of the people claiming for their 
town the honour of having been the 
birthplace of Moses, with the same 
gravity as the natives of Bornoo pre- 
tend that their country received its 
name (Bur-nod h) from being " the 
country of Noah." 

The Christian church dates in the 
time of the lower empire. It was 
evidently of considerable size, measur 
ing 75 paces by 33 (about 190 ft. by 
85); and from the style of the small 
portion of the outer wall that still 
remains, and its granite columns, there 
is little doubt that it was erected after 
Christianity had become the estab- 
lished religion of the country. 

(E.) Tuot, in Coptic Thouot, the 
ancient Tujphium, lies on the opposite 



452 



ROUTE 20. LUXOR TO ASSOOAN AND PHILiE. Sect. IV. 



bank, in the district of Selemeeah, and 
is easily distinguished by its lofty 
minaret. The only ruins consist of 
a small temple, probably also a mam- 
meisi, now nearly concealed by the 
hovels of the villagers who inhabit the 
few chambers that remain. On one 
of the blackened walls is the name of 
Ptolemy Physcon. It presents little 
worthy of a visit, and will not repay 
the traveller for the trouble of an ex- 
cursion from the river, unless he is 
very much interested in Egyptian re- 
searches. 

The river above Erment is inter- 
sected by numerous sandbanks, and 
the navigation, unless the wind is 
favourable, is very tedious. 

(W.) Gebelayn, "the two hills," is 
a curious detached ridge of rocks. 
There are vestiges of an ancient town 
on the hill nearest the river, and some 
grottoes. It may have been the site 
of Crocodilopolis, the next town on 
the W. bank mentioned by Strabo 
after Hermonthis. 

(W.) A few miles above Gebelayn 
the river makes a very sharp bend, 
and at the corner on the W. bank is 
the newly sprung up village of Mu- 
taneh, with a large pumping-engine 
establishment for sending water along 
an aqueduct to the inland town of 
Wady Geen, some distance from the 
river. 

(If.) Tofne'es is on the site of an 
ancient town, perhaps Aphroditopolis ; 
as Asfoon of Asphinis : and in the 
plain, about 2f m. to the N.W. of 
Esneh, was the small temple of Ed 
Dayr (" the Convent "), which marked, 
perhaps, the position of Chnoubis ; 
though Ptolemy seems to place it on 
the E. bank, 20' S. of Tuphium, and 
15' N. of Eileithyias. Chnoubis and 
Chnumis were the same place; as 
Chnouphis, Noub, or Noum, were the 
same god. 

(IF.) Esneh (26 miles), in Coptic 
Sne, was known to the Greeks and 
Eomans by the name of Latopolis, 
from the worship of the Latus fish, 
which, according to Strabo, shared 
with Minerva the honours of the 
sanctuary. It is the capital of 



the province of the same name, and 
residence of the governor ; and pos- 
sesses a population of from 6000 to 
7000 inhabitants. It carries on a con- 
siderable trade in cereals with the 
Soodan in exchange for the products 
of that country. Esneh is a good 
place for laying in live stock for the 
remainder of the voyage up to the 
2nd Cataract, as, though they are not 
much dearer at Assooan, the supply of 
sheep, turkeys, and chickens is more 
limited, and in Nubia everything is 
very dear. 

The usual mooring-place at Esneh 
is at the upper end of the town, close 
under the numerous coffee- shops ad- 
joining the separate hamlet inhabited 
by the Ghawazee or dancing-girls, 
who have a numerous colony here. 
Those, however, who prefer quiet to 
noise should moor below the town, 
under the garden of the pasha's palace. 
They will, no doubt, find various ob- 
jections started to this proposal, as the 
crew naturally prefer society and the 
coffee- shops. 

Esneh has the reputation of being 
the healthiest place in Egypt. Its air 
and that of the immediate neighbour- 
hood is considered particularly good 
for invalids, who are constantly sent 
by the native doctors for the benefit 
of the change from Cairo and Alex- 
andria. The temperature is more even 
than either at Thebes or Assooan — 
the nights being fresh without being 
cold, and the day's warmth nearly 
always tempered by a breeze from 
the N. 

The temple of Esneh is in the 
middle of the town. The portico, 
which was cleared out to the floor by 
order of Mohammed Ali, during his 
visit to Esneh in 1842, is the only part 
visible. The remainder is buried be- 
neath the houses of the modern town. 

"Whatever may have been the date 
of the inner portion of this temple, the 
portico merely presents the names of 
some of the early Caesars : those of 
Tiberius Claudius Csesar, Germanicus, 
and Autocrator Csesar Vespasianus, 
occurring in the dedication over the 
entrance ; and those of Trajan, Adrian, 
and Antoninus in the interior. Men- 



Egypt. 



KOUTE 20. ESNEH HIEEACONPOLIS. 



453 



tion is also made of Thothmes III., by 
whom the original temple was perhaps 
founded. 

On the ceiling is a zodiac, similar 
to that of Denderah : and upon the pi- 
lasters, on either side of the front row 
of columns are several lines of hiero- 
glyphics, which are interesting from 
their containing the names of the 
Egyptian months. 

The sculptures in this temple are 
very inferior, and furnish another ex- 
ample of the decline in the arts of 
engraving and sculpture which took 
place in Egypt under the Ptolemies 
and the Caesars. 

Extensive mounds sufficiently prove 
the size and consequence of ancient 
Latopolis ; but no remains are now 
visible, except the portico of the 
temple and the remains of a stone 
quay on the E. side. That the latter 
is of Eoman date may be inferred 
from the style of the building. 

Wansleb mentions the tombs of 
Christian martyrs, who were buried 
near Esneh, and are believed to have 
been put to death during the perse- 
cutions of Diocletian. But report also 
states that the Christians who fled 
from Medeenet Haboo at the time of 
the Arab invasion, and were overtaken 
and slain at Esneh, were buried in the 
same spot. Of all the convents in the 
valley of the Nile that of Ammonius 
at Esneh, said to have been erected by 
the Empress Helena, in honour of the 
martyrs killed by Diocletian, is reputed 
the most ancient. 

(E.) Near the village of El Uelleh, 
on the opposite bank, stood the small 
town of Contra-Laton. 

The subcarbonate of soda, natron, is 
found in the vicinity of El Helleh. 
The Ababdeh also bring from the 
eastern desert a talcose stone, called 
hamr, for which there is a great de- 
mand throughout Upper Egypt, being 
peculiarly adapted to the manufacture 
of the birdm, or earthen vessels for 
cooking, which have the power of re- 
sisting a great degree of heat, and are 
universally used by the peasants. It 
is the lapis ollaris of the Eomans. 
The hamr is first pounded and sifted ; 
and, after being moistened and mixed 



with brickdust, is fashioned with the 
hand, and baked in a kiln heated to a 
proper temperature. But they have 
not yet become acquainted with the 
process of vitrifying their pottery, for 
which the Arabs were once so famous; 
and the glazed earthenware now used 
in Egypt is imported from foreign 
countries. 

(IT.) Seven miles above Esneh are 
mounds of an old town, now called 
Kom Ayr. A short distance above 
El Kenan, and about 14 m. from 
Esneh, is an ancient quay of hewn 
stone. Some suppose it to mark the 
site of Chnoubis. 

(W.) Three miles beyond this, and 
a short distance from the river is a 
ruined pyramid, called El Kodla. It 
is built in degrees (as were probably 
all other pyramids), and is composed 
of limestone blocks, from the rock on 
which it stands, of irregular form, and 
hewn with little care. Though in a 
dilapidated state, 25 tiers still remain, 
and its total height, now reduced to 
about 35 ft., may perhaps originally 
have exceeded 50 ; the base being 
about 60 ft. square. 

(IT.) Four miles farther to the 
southward is El Kom el ahmar, or 
" the Bed Mound." It marks the site 
of Hieraconpolis, which, as Strabo in- 
forms us, was opposite Eileithyias ; 
and though little now exists of the 
ancient buildings that once adorned 
the " City of the Hawks," the name of 
the first Osirtasen suffices to establish 
their claim to a very remote antiquity. 
About half a mile to the eastward of 
them is an Egyptian fortress of crude 
brick, with the usual double wall, 
the inner one being of considerable 
height. It has one entrance between 
two towers. 

In the hills about two-thirds of a 
mile to the S.W. of it are some rock- 
tombs, with hieroglyphics, mentioning 
" the land of the Hawks," of which 
one person is said to be the " High- 
priest." The name of Thothmes III. 
also occurs there. One of the stones 
that covered the pit in this priest's 
tomb still remains in sitv, and on the 



454 



ROUTE 20. LUXOR TO 



ASSOOAN AND PHIL^J. Sect. IV. 



outer wall are traces of dancing figures 
painted on the stucco. The small 
tombs here were perhaps intended for 
the sacred hawks. In some mounds 
to the E. of the fortress are two small 
brick arches, 2 ft. 7 in. broad, which 
appear to be very old ; and a quarter 
of a mile to E. of these are the mounds 
of the town (with the remains of poly- 
gonal columns of Osirtasen) already 
mentioned. 

Opposite El Kenan commences the 
region of sandstone, whose compact 
and even grain induced the ancient 
Egyptians to employ it in the erection 
of most of the large buildings in Upper 
Egypt. 

(E.) A short distance from El Ma- 
hamid is an isolated rock, which was 
quarried at an early period, and on 
whose southern side the workmen 
have sculptured a few rude triglyphs. 

(E.) Between this and El Kab 
stood a small peripteral temple, which 
has suffered the fate of all the inter- 
esting ruins of Eileithyias. 

(E.) El Kab (17J m.) is the modern 
name of Eileithyias, or Ei\ei6vLas 
Trokis, "the City of Lucina." The 
town was surrounded by a large crude- 
brick wall; and on the S. side was 
another enclosure, furnished with 
doorways of masonry, which contained 
the temples, and a reservoir cased 
with hewn stone. On the E. is an 
open space of considerable extent, also 
within the walls, which have several 
spacious staircases, or inclined planes, 
leading to the parapet, as usual in the 
fortified towns of ancient Egypt. 

The temples were on a small scale, 
but in their sculptures were the names 
of Amunoph II., of Kameses the Great, 
and Phtahmen, as well as of Hakoris 
of the XXIXth dynasty ; though, from 
the manner in which the inscriptions 
had been cut upon the stone, this last 
name appeared to be older than that of 
Kameses. Eileithyias was a very old 
city ; the tombs are of the beginning 
of the XVIIIth dynasty ; and a tablet 
was found there by Mr. Stodart of the 
4th year of Amenem-ha III. (or Mceris) 
of the Xllth dynasty. The names of 



Tata and Papi, of the Vlth dynasty, 
are also found on a rock in the valley. 

Ee shared with Lucina the worship 
of the city; but most of the dedi- 
cations, in the sacred buildings that 
remain, only present the name of the 
goddess. The principal ruins now 
consist of a small isolated chapel or 
naos, a short distance up the valley to 
the eastward, dedicated by Eameses II. 
to Re; a Ptolemaic temple, partly 
built and partly excavated in the 
sandstone rock ; and about a mile 
further to the eastward another iso- 
lated ruin, bearing the name and 
sculptures of Amunoph III. The di- 
mensions of the chapel of Ee are only 
20 ft. by 16, and it consists of but one 
chamber. Ee is of course the principal 
divinity ; and the Goddess of Justice 
holds the most conspicuous place among 
the contemplar deities. 

The excavated temple was conse- 
crated to Lucina by Physcon or Euer- 
gates II., the courts in front having 
been built at a later period by Ptolemy 
Alexander I. ; who, with his mother 
Cleopatra, added some of the sculp- 
tures on the exterior of the subter- 
ranean chamber. The front court is 
composed of columns united by inter- 
columnar screens, and opens by a 
pylon on. a staircase of considerable 
length, having on each side a solid 
balustrade of masonry; and on the 
face of the rock, to the E. of the inner 
court, is a tablet of the" time of the 
second Eameses, who presents an offer- 
ing to Ee and Lucina. 

On the isolated rock beyond these 
two temples are the names of Tata 
and Papi (A pap or A pappus) already 
mentioned. 

The temple of Amunoph III. stands 
about a mile from that of Physcon to 
the eastward, in the same valley ; be- 
tween two and three miles from the 
river. And, from the circumstance of 
these ruins being but little known to 
travellers who visit El Kab, it may 
not be amiss to observe that this build- 
ing bears about 70° east of north from 
the ruined town of Eileithyias, and 
that the two above mentioned, lying 
close to the 1. of the road, may be 
! visited on the way. 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 20. EL KAB. 



455 



This temple was also dedicated to 
the goddess of Eileithyias. It consists 
of a single chamber supported by four 
columns, measuring 11 paces by 9, 
with a payed platform on three sides, 
and an open area in front, 8 paces 
by 17, formed by columns and inter- 
columnar screens ; to which the pylon, 
connected with the body of the temple 
by a double row of columns, forms the 
entrance. 

The subjects of the interior are 
mostly offerings made by king Aniu- 
noph to the contemplar deities ; and 
near the door are represented this 
Pharaoh and his father Thothmes IV. 
On- one of the jambs of the door the 
name of king Sethi I. has usurped the 
place of his ancestor's prenomen ; and 
beyond, on the outside wall, is a tablet 
of the 41st year of Kameses II., in 
which the fourth son of that Pharaoh, 
a priest of Phtah, is attending his 
father in the capacity of fan-bearer. 

The drawing and painting in this 
little temple are very good, and in 
some places the colour is well preserved. 

On returning from this ruin, and 
following the bed of the valley, nearly 
opposite the naos of Eameses, the geo- 
logist may examine the numerous 
ponds, on whose brink is found natron, 
or subcarbonate of soda. Or he may 
continue a little beyond the temple of 
Amunoph III., and then turn to the 1. 
down a broad valley, also filled with 
numerous natron ponds, and which 
will bring him to the river near the 
isolated rock above mentioned, about 
2 m. below the crude-brick fortress 
near which he landed. 

The most interesting objects at 
Eileithyias are the. grottoes in the 
mountain to the N. of the ancient 
town. 

The third sculptured tomb to the 
eastward is the most curious as a chro- 
nological monument, since it relates 
to a captain of the fleet who served 
under Amosis, the first king of the 
XVlIIth dynasty, and his successors 
— Amunoph L, the three Thothmes, 
and Amun-noo-het. 

Above it is a large grotto, still in 
good preservation, containing coloured 
drawings relating to agricultural and 



other occupations of the early Egyp- 
tians. The outlines of the figures and 
the subjects here detailed, though of 
inferior style, are interesting. 

In the first line of the agricultural 
scene, on the western wall, the pea- 
sants are employed in ploughing and 
sowing ; and from the car which is 
seen in the field, we are to infer that 
the owner of the land (who is also the 
individual of the tomb) has come to 
overlook them at their work. In the 
second line they reap wheat and doora; 
the distinction being pointed out by 
their respective heights. In the third 
is the carrying, and tritura, or tread- 
ing-out the ear, which was generally 
performed throughout Egypt by means 
of oxen ; and the winnowing, measur- 
ing, and housing the grain. The 
doora or sorghum was not submitted 
to the same process as the wheat, nor 
was it reaped, by the sickle ; but after 
having been plucked up by the roots, 
was bound in sheaves, and' carried to 
the threshing-floor, where, by means of 
a wooden beam, whose upper extremity 
was furnished with three or four 
prongs, the grain was stripped from 
the stalks, which were forcibly drawn 
through them. 

The text accompanying these scenes 
gives the song sung by the labourers 
as they drive the oxen. The hiero- 
glyphics have been differently deci- 
phered and differently translated, but 
the following paraphrastic rendering 
by Mr. Gliddon aptly gives the sense : 

" Hie along, oxen ! tread the corn faster; 
The straw tor yourselves, the corn for your, 
master." 

Below are the cattle, asses, pigs, 
and goats belonging to the deceased, 
which are brought to be numbered 
and registered by his scribes. In 
another part they weigh the gold, his 
property ; and fowling and fishing 
scenes, the occupation of salting fish 
and geese, the wine-press, boats, a 
party of guests, the procession of the 
bier, and some sacred subjects occupy 
the remainder of the wall. 

From these, and other paintings, we 
find that the Egyptian boats we^e 
richly coloured and of considerable 



456 



EOUTE 20. LUXOR TO ASSOOlN AND PHIL^J. Sect. IV. 



size. They were furnished with at 
least twelve or fourteen oars, and, be- 
sides a spacious cabin, there was suffi- 
cient room to take on board a chariot 
and pair of horses, which we see here 
represented. Such were the painted 
boats that surprised the Arabs when 
they invaded the country. 

On the opposite side, the individual 
of the tomb, seated with his wife on a ■ 
handsome fauteuil, to which a favour- 
ite monkey is tied, entertains a party 
of his friends; the men and women 
seated apart. Music is introduced, as 
was customary at all Egyptian enter- 
tainments, but the only instruments 
here are the double pipe, clappers, 
and harp. 

The greater part of the remaining 
tombs are very imperfectly preserved ; 
but some of them still present a few 
useful hints for the study of Egyptian 
chronology. 

Those behind the hill are not worthy 
of a visit. 

To the S. of the ruins, near the river, 
are the remains of a stone quay. 

Some time before reaching Edfoo 
the propylon of its magnificent temple 
can be seen towering up on the'W. 
bank. 

(TT.) Edfoo (13i m.), in Coptic, 
Phboou, or Atbo, is the ancient Apol- 
linopolis Magna. The village is about 
half a mile from the river-bank. 

In the middle of it stands the 
temple, entirely surrounded by mud- 
huts and heaps of rubbish. It is only 
since 1864 that anything but the pro- 
pylon has been visible. Up to that 
time its terraces and roofs were covered 
with the mud-huts of the villagers, 
and the inside filled with debris of all 
kinds up to the roof. To clear it out 
was one of the first works undertaken 
by M. Mariette, after his appointment 
by the present Khedive as conservator 
of the monuments of old Egypt, and 
director of the excavations and re- 
searches in connection with them. 
As a perfect specimen of an Egyptian 
temple, complete in all its parts, that 
of Edfoo stands unrivalled ; for, though 
Denderah is as complete, so far as the 
actual temple is concerned, the mag- 



nificent propylon towers at Edfoo, and 
the wall of enclosure, are quite unique. 
The temple was founded by Ptolemy 
Philopator, who built the sanctuary and 
the chambers round it, and, indeed, 
all the back part of the temple. The 
name of Ptolemy Philometer is found 
in the centre halls, and their decora- 
tion is probably due to him. The 
y portico was constructed by Ptolemy 
Philometer and Euergetes II. ; the 
latter of whom also built part of the 
wall of enclosure, the other part being 
the work of Ptolemy Alexander I. 
The pylon, or propylon, was either 
built or decorated by Ptolemy Dio- 
nysus. 

The plan of the temple of Edfoo 
resembles in its general features that 
of Denderah, and the same religious 
ideas and feelings which have been 
alluded to in the description of that 
temple are evident here. The inscrip- 
tions on the walls show that, as at 
Denderah, the small chambers were 
used for the storing of religious uten- 
sils, offerings, &c. Processions, headed 
by the king, assembled in the first 
hall; the little chapel on the N. 
side was specially appropriated to 
the ceremonies in connection with 
the New Year. The sanctum sanc- 
torum, however, is not, as at Den- 
derah, a niche in the wall of the 
innermost chamber. Here it is repre- 
sented by a magnificent monolith of 
grey granite, which now lies in the 
corner of the sanctuary. From the 
inscription on it we learn that it was 
made by Nectanebo I., of the XXXth 
dynasty, to serve as a naos to the 
old temple subsequently destroyed, 
and replaced by the actual one. In 
this species of cage was kept the 
hawk, the emblem of the god Hor- 
Hat, who was the principal divinity 
of the temple. 

The sculptures with which every 
part of this temple is covered are, 
many of them, extremely interesting. 
Some of them contain valuable in- 
formation respecting the ancient geo- 
graphy of Egypt. Others give the 
names of the several chambers of the 
temple, and their dimensions in cubits 
and parts of cubits, so that the ancient 



Egypt. 



EOTJTE 20. TEMPLE OF EDFOO. 



457 



Egyptian measurements can be com- 
pared with the modern ones. 

The whole length of the temple, in- 
cluding the propylon and the wall of 
circuit, is about 450 ft. The breadth 
of the propylon is about 250 ft. and 
its height 115 ft. The hollows in 
its outside facade were for holding 
the huge fiagstaffs with which it was 
decorated. 

The view from the summit of the 
temple of Edfoo is very fine. 

Close to the large temple is a small 
one erected by Ptolemy Physcon and 
Lathyrus, but it is much damaged 
and defaced. 

During the winter months numerous 
geese, teal, and other wildfowl fre- 
quent a sort of marsh or lake to the 
westward of Edfoo ; and the sandbanks 
in the river are covered with aquatic 
birds. Unless the traveller has a 
boat, the only way of getting at the 
geese is to go out before daybreak, 
and crouch under the lee of the large 
embankment running inland. As soon 
as day dawns, the geese will begin 
flying inland to feed, from the sand- 
banks where they have slept, and a 
good many shots may be had at them 
as they come flying low over the em- 
bankment. 

(E.) Halfway from Edfoo to Gelbel 
Silsileh is a ruined town on the E. 
bank, called Booayb, once fortified 
with a wall flanked by round towers, 
not of very ancient date, and appa- 
rently throughout of Arab construc- 
tion. It may have been the site of 
Pithom or Toum, the ancient Thmuis ; 
though this should be halfway between 
Edfoo and Ombos. Thmuis is evi- 
dently the Tooum of Ptolemy, who 
places it inland, 14' N. of Ombos, and 
25' S. of Eileithyias. Some suppose 
Thmuis to be the same as Silsilis. 
Halfway between this fortified place 
and Tonab is a grotto in the rock. 

(W.) On the W. bank, opposite Sil- 
weh, in a ravine called Shut el Kagel, 
Mr. Harris discovered a tablet con- 
taining the names of some kings of 
the Xlth dynasty. He also found 
the names of Amunoph I. and the 1st 
and 2nd Thothmes; with others of 
much older date, but much defaced; 

[Egypt] 



and at El Hosh an inscription begin 
ning with the year 17 of Amenemha II- 
There are said to be other stelse in the 
neighbourhood, with the names of 
some old kings. 

(W.) About 3 m. below Silsilis the 
hills come down to the bank and form 
a sort of bluff. Sharp gusts of wind 
often render the navigation under 
these hills rather dangerous. They 
are called Gebel Aboo Ghabah. 

At Heshan to the N. of Silsilis are 
a stone quay and some quarries ; and 
almost at the N. end of the hills of 
Silsilis Mr. Harris found several Greek 
inscriptions of the time of the Empire. 

(E. and W.) Hdgar Silsileh ; Silsilis 
(26 miles).— At Hdgar (or Gehel) Sil- 
sileh — the " stone " (or " mountain ") 
" of the chain " — are extensive quarries 
of sandstone, from which the blocks 
used in the greater part of the Egyp- 
tian temples were taken. The Arabs 
account for the modern name by pre- 
tending that a tradition records the 
stoppage of the navigation of the river 
at this spot by a chain, which the 
jealousy of a king of the country or- 
dered to be fastened across it. The 
narrowness of the river, and the ap- 
pearance of a rock resembling a pillar, 
to which the chain was thought to 
have been attached, and the ancient 
name Silsilis, so similar to the Arabic 
Silsileh, doubtless gave rise to the tra- 
dition; and the Greek Silsilis was 
itself a corruption of the old Egyptian 
name, preserved in the Coptic Golgl. 

The breadth of the Nile here is only 
1095 ft. at the narrowest part. 

(E.) On the eastern side of the 
Nile, and near the commencement of 
the quarries, stood the ancient town 
of Silsilis, of which nothing now re- 
mains but the substructions of a stone 
building, probably a temple. On this 
bank the quarries are very extensive, 
but less interesting to the antiquary 
than those on the W. ; where, in addi- 
tion to the quarries themselves, are 
several curious grottoes and tablets of 
hieroglyphics, executed in the early 
time of the Pharaohs of the XVIIIth 
and XlXth dynasties. 



458 



ASSOOAN AND PHILJE. Sect. IV. 



It is not by the size and extent of 
the monuments of Upper Egypt alone 
that we are enabled to judge of the 
stupendous works executed by the 
ancient Egyptians : these quarries 
would suffice to prove the character 
they bore, were the gigantic ruins of 
Thebes and other cities no longer in 
existence ; and safely may we apply 
the expression used by Pliny, in speak- 
ing of the porphyry quarries, to those 
of Silsilis : " quantislibet molibus cse- 
dendis sufficiunt lapidicinse." 

(W.) The first grotto to the N. con- 
sists of a long corridor, supported by 
four pillars, cut in the face of the 
rock, on which, as well as on the 
interior wall, are sculptured several 
tablets of hieroglyphics, bearing the 
names of different kings. It was com- 
menced by Horus, the successor of the 
third Amunoph, and the last Pharaoh 
of the XVIIlth dynasty, who has here 
commemorated his defeat of the Kush 
(Cush), or Ethiopians. He is repre- 
sented in a car, pursuing with bended 
bow the flying enemy, who, being 
completely routed, sue for peace. He 
is then borne in a splendid shrine by 
the Egyptian chiefs, preceded by his 
troops, and by captives of the conquered 
nation ; a trumpeter having given the 
signal for the procession to march. 
Other soldiers are employed in bring- 
ing the prisoners they have captured ; 
and in another part the monarch is 
seen receiving the emblem of life from 
the god Amun-re. 

One of the most perfect specimens 
of Egyptian sculpture during its best 
period is seen in the tableau repre- 
senting Horus as an infant suckled by 
a goddess. Unfortunately the paint- 
ings in this grotto are much injured 
by the smoke of torches, and by the 
fires often lighted by the sailors. 

There are other tablets of the time 
of Kameses II., of his son Menephtah, 
and other kings of the XlXth dynasty. 
In an historical point of view they are 
exceedingly interesting; particularly 
from the mention of assemblies held 
in the 30th, 34th, 37th, and 44th years 
of Eameses the Great ; from the pre- 
sence of the name of Isinofri, the queen 



of Menephtah, being the same as that 
of his mother the second wife of 
Eameses; and from their relating to 
other sons of that conqueror. 

These tablets, like similar ones at 
Assooan, show that the stones used 
in different Egyptian buildings were 
taken from the quarries in their vi- 
cinity; but it must be observed that 
various other parts of the same sand- 
stone strata afforded their share of 
materials ; as may be seen from the 
numerous quarries about El Hellal, 
and on the way to Silsilis, though but 
trifling when compared with the ex- 
tensive ones of this mountain. 

The earliest Egyptian edifices were 
principally erected of limestone, which 
continued in use occasionally, even in 
Upper Egypt, till the commencement 
of the X\IIIth dynasty, though the 
Pharaohs of the Xllth had already 
introduced the sandstone of Silsilis to 
build the walls and colonnades of some 
of the larger temples ; and its fitness 
for masonry, its durability, and the 
evenness of its grain became so tho- 
roughly appreciated by their archi- 
tects, during the XVIIlth and suc- 
ceeding dynasties, that it was from 
that time almost exclusively used in 
building the monuments of the The- 
ba'id. But as its texture was less 
suited for the reception of colour than 
the smoother limestone, they prepared 
its surface with a coat of calcareous 
composition which, while it prevented 
the stone from imbibing an unneces- 
sary quantity of colour, afforded greater 
facility for the execution of the out- 
lines. The subjects, when sculptured, 
either in relief or intaglio, were again 
coated with the same substance, to 
receive the final colouring; and the 
details of the figures and of the other 
objects could thereby be finished with - 
a precision and delicacy in vain to be 
expected on the rough and absorbent i 
surface of the sandstone. i \ 

Their paints were mixed with water, \ 
and in some cases they can be washed 1 
off by a wet cloth, as in Belzoni's tomb 5 
, at Thebes ; but in other tombs they 
! are often fixed, and sometimes have a 1 q 
j varnish over the surface. There is, \ 
1 however, no evidence of any colour I 



Egypt. route 20. — silsilis : grottoes and quarries. 



459 



being mixed with oil, as some have 
imagined. The reds and yellows were 
ochre, but the greens and blues were 
extracted from copper, and though of 
a most beautifid hue, the quality was 
much coarser than either of the former, 
or their ivory black. The white is a 
very pure chalk, reduced to an impal- 
pable powder ; and the brown, orange, 
and other compound colours, were sim- 
ply formed by the combination of some 
of the above. Owing to their being 
mixed with water, they necessarily re- 
quired some protection, even in the dry 
climate of Egypt, against the contact 
of rain ; and so attentive were the 
builders to this point, that the inter- 
stices of the blocks which form the 
roofs of the temples, independent of 
their being well fitted together and 
cemented with a tenacious and com- 
pact mortar, were covered by an addi- 
tional piece of stone, let into a groove 
of about 8 in. in breadth, extending 
equally on either side of the line of 
their junction. 

However, the partial showers and 
occasional storms in Upper Egypt 
might affect the state of their painted 
walls, it was not sufficient to injure 
the stone itself, which still remains 
in its original state, even after so long 
a period, except where the damp, 
arising from earth impregnated with 
nitre, has penetrated through its gra- 
nular texture, as is here and there 
observable near the ground at Me- 
deenet Haboo, and in other ruins of 
the Thebaid. But exposure to the 
external atmosphere, which here ge- 
nerally affects calcareous substances, 
was found not to be injurious to the 
sandstone of Silsilis; and, like its 
neighbour the granite, it was only 
inferior to limestone in one respect, 
that the latter might remain buried 
for ages without being corroded by 
the salts of the earth; a fact with 
which the Egyptians, from having 
used it in the substructions of obe- 
lisks and other granitic monuments, 
were evidently well acquainted. 

Beyond the grotto above mentioned 
are others of smaller dimensions, which 
have served for sepulchres, and bear 
the names of the first monarchs of the 



XVIIIth dynasty: among which are 
those of the first and third Thothmes, 
and of Queen Amun-noo-het, who erect- 
ed the great obelisks of Karnak. The 
few sculptures found in them relate to 
offerings to the deceased, and some of 
the usual subjects of tombs ; and on a 
rock in the vicinity is the name of 
Mai-re, or Eemai, the prenomen of 
Papi, of the Vlth dynasty. 

To the S. of these again are other 
tablets and open chapels, of very ele- 
gant form. They aie ornamented with 
columns, having capitals resembling 
the bud of the water-plant, surmounted 
by an elegant Egyptian cornice, and 
in general style and design they very 
much resemble one another. The first, 
which is much destroyed, was executed 
during the reign of Sethi I., father of 
the second Barneses ; the next by his 
son ; and the third, which is the most 
northerly, by Menephtah, the son and 
successor of the same Barneses. The 
subjects of the two last are very similar, 
and their tablets date in the first year 
of either monarch. In the chapel of 
Barneses, the king makes offerings to 
Amunre, Maut, and Khonso (Khons), 
the Theban triad ; and to Be, Phtah, 
the Hapimuo (the god Nilus); the other 
contemplar deities being Savak, Man- 
doo, Osiris, Moui, Justice, Tafne, Seb, 
Atmoo or Atum, Khem, Athor, Thoth, 
Anouke, and a few others, whose name 
and character are less certain. The 
headdress of the last-mentioned god- 
dess resembles that of one of the 
Mexican deities, projectingandcui'ving 
over at the top like an inverted bell. 
It is supposed to represent a mass of 
hemp ; which was probably an emblem 
of the Egyptian Vesta. 

In the principal picture Barneses 
presents an offering of incense to the 
Theban triad, and two vases of wine to 
Be, Phtah, and the god Nile, who is 
here treated as the other divinities of 
Egypt. Indeed it is remarkable that 
he is only represented in this manner 
at Silsilis. He usually bears lotus- 
plants and water-jars, or the various 
I productions of Egypt, among the orna- 
I mented devises at the bases of the walls 
» in certain parts of the temples, or on 
x 2 



460 



EOUTE 20. LTJXOR TO 



ASSOOAN AND PHILiE. Sect. I\ T . 



the thrones of statues; and he fre- 
quently carries the emblems of the dif- 
ferent nomes and toparchies of Egypt. 

Isinofri, the queen of Eameses II., 
also holds forth twosistra before a curi- 
ous triad of deities ; and at the base of 
the side walls the god Nilus is again 
introduced, carrying water-plants and 
various offerings, the produce of the 
irrigated land of Egypt. Some small 
tablets occur at the side of these 
chapels ; one of them of the time of 
Amunoph I., second monarch of the 
XVIIIth dynasty; others of Mene- 
phtah; and a larger one of Eameses 
III. offering to Ee and Nilus. 

There is also a tablet of Sheshonk 
(Skishak), who is introduced by the 
goddess Maut to Amun, Ee, and Phtah, 
followed by his second son, the high- 
priest of Amun, who was also a mili- 
tary chief. 

Savak, the deity of Ombos, with the 
head of a crocodile, is the presiding 
god of Silsilis, and his titles of Lord of 
Ombos, and Lord of Silsilis, are fre- 
quently found alternating in the stelse 
of these quarries. 

The blocks cut from the quarries 
were conveyed on rafts, or boats, to 
their place of destination, for the erec- 
tion of the temples. But the large 
masses of granite, for obelisks and 
colossi, were not sent by water from 
Syene ; these seem to have been taken 
by land ; and Herodotus, in mention- 
ing one of the largest blocks ever cut 
by the Egyptians, says it was con- 
veyed from Elephantine (or rather 
Syene) by land, during the reign of 
Amasis, to the vicinity of Sa'is, and 
that it employed 2000 men for three 
years. 

The particular honour paid to the 
god Nilus at Silsilis was perhaps con- 
nected with the transmission of the 
blocks by water, which were there com- 
mitted to the charge of the river god ; 
but it may have originated in the 
peculiar character of the river itself 
in that part before the rocks of Silsilis 
gave way, and transferred the first 
cataract from Silsilis to Syene. Then 
indeed the great difference of elevation 
above and below Silsilis made a far 
more marked distinction between the 



Egyptian part of the river and that to 
the S. than at the present day between 
the Nile below Assooan and in Nubia ; 
and though this fact was unknown 
to Champollion, he with his usual 
sagacity gave a very similar reason, 
that the river at Silsilis " seems to 
make a second entrance into Egypt 
after having burst through the moun- 
tains that here oppose its passage, as 
it forced its way through the granite 
rocks at the cataract." In reality the 
analogy was stronger, as here was ori- 
ginally its great cataract, and its first 
entrance into Egypt ; and there is rea- 
son to believe that the most southerly 
nome of Egypt was originally that of 
Apollinopolis. {See Mr. Harris's Stan- 
dards.) If any early records of the 
rise of the Nile could be found at 
Silsilis, they might point out the exact 
period when the rocks gave way ; and 
it would be interesting to find any 
evidences of the former level of the 
river immediately above Silsilis. 

Between Silsilis and Kom Ombo are 
a succession of sandbanks on which 
crocodiles may frequently be seen. 
The valley of the Nile now assumes 
quite a different aspect; indeed the 
change may be said to begin after 
leaving Edfoo. The two mountain 
chains which border the river draw 
closer together, and the cultivated land 
is reduced in many parts to a mere 
strip: indeed, here and there the 
desert comes down to the water's 
edge. 

At Fares, to the S. of Silsilis, are 
said to be the vestiges of a small temple, 
with the name of Antoninus ; and at 
this place some coffins of burnt clay 
have been found similar to a few met 
with at Thebes, made in the form of 
the body, in two parts, laced together 
with thongs or string. Farther on to 
the S., a little before the river turns 
eastward towards Ombos, on the W. 
bank and nearly opposite Mane'eha, is 
a mass of alluvial deposit ; and" about 
1 m. below Ombos is a bed of Egyptian 
pebbles, with a few fossils, and a curi- 
ous sandstone concretion. 

(E.) Kom Ombo (15 miles) marks 
the site of the ancient Ombos, in Coptic 



Egypt 



HOTJTE 20. ROM 05IBO. 



461 



Mbo. The ancient town and the more 
modern village which succeeded it, 
have both been buried beneath the 
sand. All that remains are some ruins 
of two temples that stood partly on 
raised ground, and partly on an arti- 
ficial platform high above the river. 
They are not probably destined to re- 
main there very long, as, slowly but 
surely, the river is undermining the 
bank, and will carry them away. One, 
founded in the reign of Ptolemy Phi- 
lometer, continued by his brother 
Physcon (who is introduced as usual 
with his queens, the two Cleopatras), 
and finished by Auletes, or Neus Dio- 
nysus, has the peculiarity of possessing 
two entrances, and two parallel sanc- 
tuaries. It is, in fact a double temple, 
dedicated to the two hostile principles 
of Light, adored under the form of 
Horus, and Darkness, under that of 
the crocodile-headed god, Savak. The 
appearance of the two winged globes 
over the ^entrance rather adds to the 
general effect. 

On the under surface of some of the 
architraves of the portico the figures 
have been left unfinished, and present 
a satisfactory specimen of the Egyp- 
tian mode of drawing them in squares, 
when the art : sts began their pictures. 
A similar arrangement is met with in 
some of the tombs at Thebes, of the 
time of the XYIIIth and XlXth dy- 
nasties ; from which it appears that 
the proportions of the human figure 
differed at various periods. In these 
last the lower leg, from the plant of 
the foot to the centre of the knee, 
occupied six squares in height, and 
and the whole figure to the top of the 
head 19 squares. At Ombos and in 
other Ptolemaic buildings the pro- 
portions are somewhat different, and 
the figm-e (as in the earliest, or Pyra- 
mid, period) is less elongated than in 
the XVIDIth and XlXth dynasties. 
The difference in the character of the 
human figure during the early Pyra- 
mid age is rather in its breadth com- 
pared to its height ; and it is re- 
markable that statues were then less 
conventional, and bore a closer resem- 
blance to nature, than in later times. 

The other ruin, which stands on an 



artificial platform towering above the 
river, appears to have been dedicated 
to the crocodile-headed god, Savak, 
by Ptolemy Physcon ; but the sculp- 
tures rather require it to have been, 
as M. Champollion supposes, an edifice 
" typifying the birthplace of the young 
god of the local triad." The grand 
gateway at the eastern extremity, for 
it stood' at right angles with the other 
temple, bears the name of Auletes, by 
whom it was completed. It is, how- 
ever, now in so ruinous a state, that 
little can be traced of its original 
plan; but the pavement is seen in 
many places, laid upon stone substruc- 
tions, which extend considerably below 
it ; and some of the walls of the cham- 
bers composing the interior of the naos 
are partially preserved. From the frag- 
ments of columns, whose capitals re- 
sembled those of the portico of Den- 
derah, we are also enabled to ascertain 
the site of a grand hall which formed 
part of the building. 

The sacred precincts of the temples 
were surrounded by a strong crude- 
brick enclosure, much of which still 
remains ; but from its crumbling ma- 
terials, and the quantity of sand that 
has accumulated about it, the build- 
ings now appear to stand in a hollow ; 
though, on examination, the level of 
the area is found not to extend below 
the base of the wall. 

On the eastern face of this enclosure 
is a stone gateway, dedicated to Savak, 
the Lord of Ombos, which bears the 
name of the 3rd Thothmes, and of 
Amun-noo-het. This satisfactorily 
proves that, though the ruins only date 
after the accession of the Ptolemies, or 
from about the year B.C. 173 to 60, there 
had previously existed a temple at 
Ombos, of the early epoch of the 
Pharaohs of the XYIIIth dynasty. 

The upper part of this gateway has 
been added by a late Ptolemy, or by 
one of the Csesars. From the site of 
it, belonging as it did to the original 
temple, we derive one of several proofs 
that the lowering of the Nile above 
Silsilis had taken place before the 
reign of Thothmes ; Ombos being built 
on the old alluvial deposit, which was 
then annually covered by the imm- 



462 



EOUTE 20. LUXOR TO ASSOOAN AND PHIL^J. Sect. IY. 



dation ; while the river, since that 
time, has never reached the summit 
of its banks. 

The mounds of the town and re- 
mains of houses extend considerably 
to the E. of this enclosure ; and, to 
judge from their appearance, Ombos 
must have suffered by fire, like many 
other cities of Upper Egypt. 

Opposite Kom Umbo is a large island 
called MansooreeaJi. Sandgrouse and 
quail are often to be found in large 
numbers there. 

Soon after passing Edfoo the valley 
of the Nile is confined within very 
narrow limits, and, though slightly 
enlarged in the vicinity of Ombos, the 
mountains again approach the Nile a 
little farther to the S. The general 
features of. the country begin to re- 
semble Nubia, and this peculiarity of 
character is increased by the appear- 
ance of the water-wheels which occur 
at short intervals, instead of the pole 
and bucket. And, being generally 
protected from the sun by mats, they 
remind the traveller that he has al- 
ready reached a warmer climate. 

On several of the heights are small 
towers, particularly on the W. bank ; 
and here and there are quarries of 
sandstone once worked by the ancient 
Egyptians. 

The junction of the sandstone and 
granite is observed about two -thirds of 
the way from Ombos to Assooan, in 
the vicinity of El Khattara; from 
which point the former continues at 
intervals to present itself over the 
syenite, and other primitive beds, as 
at Assooan and in Nubia. 

The W. bank of the river has but a 
a very narrow strip of cultivation, but 
the E. bank presents, in one or two 
spots, a wider expanse of land covered 
with palm-groves. The whole district 
is called Akaba. 

The approach to Assooan is very 
picturesque. Keeping to the channel 
E. of the island of Elephantine, the 
boat runs up between islets of polished 
black rock, and passing the town, 
moors to a sloping bank of sand just 
above it. At very low Nile the effect 
is marred by the large sand-banks at 



| the mouth of the E. channel ; and so 
rapidly are these increasing, that they 
threaten to block the way altogether 
before long. Even now, large boats 
are obliged, when the river is low, to 
go by the channel W. of Elephantine, 
; and come round by the top of the 
island. 

" For two or three miles below the 
town the banks are unusually fertile ; 
but Assooan itself is set in a frame of 
more than ordinary barrenness and 
desolation. Immediately before it lies 
the island of Elephantine, a mosaic of 
vivid green, golden sand, and black 
syenite ; but on the 1. bank opposite 
rises a high hill or mountain of sand, 
and on the rt. the town is shut in by 
confused heaps or small hills of syenite 
and granite, tossed about in all direc- 
tions, as if marking some fearful con- 
vulsion of primeval nature. The toe 
of the island comes below the town. . . 
When almost level with its foot, the 
boat is steered to the left, and enters 
the deep but comparatively narrow 
channel on which Assooan stands. 
But even this is so cabined, cribbed, 
and confined by rocks, that the view 
does not extend 2< yards upwards 
from the mooring-ground of daha- 
beahs, and as his boat is made fast, it 
requires neither guide book nor drago- 
man to announce that the cataract of 
the Nile is reached." — F. Eden. 

(E.) Assooan or Aswan (26 \ miles). 
The frontier town of Egypt proper, 
containing a population of about 4000 
inhabitants. It is situated in lat. 
24° 5' 25", on the rt. bank of the Nile, 
at the N. end of the 1st Cataract, and 
is distant about 580 miles from Cairo, 
and 780 from the Mediterranean. It 
occupies the site of the ancient Syene, 
in Coptic Sonan, which signifies " the 
opening." The Arabs, as usual, have 
added an initial alef, and made the 
' name Assooan. The town is well built, 
and some of the houses have a pic- 
turesque aspect not often seen in Upper 
Egypt. There is a good deal of move- 
ment in the bazaars, owing to the con- 
stant passage of merchandise to and 
from the Soodan and Central Africa. 
The produce of these countries, such 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 20. ASSOOAN. 



463 



as ivory, gum arabic, ostrich fea- 
thers, skins, &c, which has been 
brought across the desert and down 
the Nile, is unshipped above the 1st 
Cataract, and brought on camels to 
Assooan, where it is reshipped for 
transport to Cairo, &c. This gives the 
river bank at Assooan a very lively 
and busy aspect, covered as it often is 
with these articles of merchandise, 
guarded by various specimens of the 
African race, whom the traveller now 
sees for the first time. Indeed, the 
population of Assooan is more mixed, 
perhaps, than that of any other town 
in Egypt. Nubians or Barabras, 
Ababdeh and Bisharee Bedaween, 
Negroes of all sorts, together with 
Fellaheen, Greeks, Turks, and a few 
Copts, all may be seen on the bank at 
Assooan. It is a great place for the 
sale, not of antiquities, but of ostrich 
feathers, ebony ■ clubs, shields, silver 
rings, lances, arrows, said by the vend- 
ors to be poisoned, wicker baskets, 
Nubian ladies' costumes, and their 
articles of toilette, &c. 

Assooan contains but few mementos 
of its former history. Of the time 
when it supplied Egypt with the ma- 
terial for so many magnificent monu- 
ments, and its granite quarries must 
have swarmed with an army of work- 
men, no trace is left, except the names 
of one or two kings of the Xllth dy- 
nasty on the rocks in the neighbour- 
hood. In the time of the Ptolemies, 
Syene became famous from being con- 
sidered by the astronomers of Alex- 
andria as lying immediately under 
the tropic ; a belief which arose from 
the circumstance that during the sum- 
mer solstice the rays of the sun fell 
vertically to the bottom of a well in 
the town. It was on the knowledge 
that the sun cast no shadow at Assooan, 
combined with the measurement of the 
sun's shadow at Alexandria on the 
longest day, and the distance between 
the two places, that Eratosthenes based 
his calculations for the measurement 
of the earth. Later discoveries soon 
proved the tropic of Cancer to be S. of 
Syene ; and it is curious that Strabo, 
Seneca, Lucan, Pliny and others, 
should have thought Syene to be in 



the tropics, though it is very possible 
they may have seen the sun shining 
at the bottom of a well. Search has 
been made for this well, but with- 
out success. A small Ptolemaic tem- 
ple has lately been discovered ; it is 
situated at the bottom of a pit to the 
S. of the town. Under the Komans, 
Syene was an important frontier town. 
Juvenal was banished there by Domi- 
tian, and revenged himself for being 
obliged to exchange the society of 
Eome for the command of a cohort at 
the extremity of Egypt, by satirising 
with equal impartiality the Roman 
soldiers and the Egyptians. 

In the first ages of Christianity, 
Syene was the seat of a bishopric. 
Arab writers describe Assooan as a 
fiom'ishing town, and the story, if it 
be true, that, in consequence of a pest 
which destroyed more than 20,000 of 
the inhabitants, a part of the old town 
was abandoned for the neighbouring 
hills, on which the Saracens had set- 
tled, shows it to have been a place of 
great size. But in the latter half of 
the 12th centy., it suffered so severely 
from the depredations of the Nubians 
on the S., and the Bedaween on the 
N., that it was almost com; letely re- 
duced to ruins; and though it rose 
again a little when Sultan Selim placed 
a Turkish garrison in it, it never be- 
came of more importance than it is at 
present. Many of the inhabitants of 
Assooan are descended from these 
Turkish soldiers. 

The wall projecting into the river, 
opposite the S. end of the modern 
town, is not, as has been supposed, of 
Roman, but of Arab construction, and 
has apparently formed part of a bath. 
In one of the arches, on the N. side, is 
a Greek inscription relating to the 
rise of the Nile, brought from some 
other building. There is also a stone 
built into the wall to the S. of this, 
which belonged to a nilometer, being 
part of a scale with 11 lines, or 10 
divisions, which measure 1 ft. 3 in. 
They are double digits ; and as the 
cubit consisted of 28 digits, this frag- 
ment wants four divisions, or eight 
digits, of a whole cubit. At the upper 



464 



ROUTE 20. LUXOR TO ASSOOAN AND PHIL^I. Sect. IV. 



end (but the lower, as it stands upside 
down in the wall) is X, the number 
of the cubit. This differs from the 
cubit of the nilometer at Elephantine, 
which measures 1 ft. 8 '625 in., while 
this is 1 ft. 9 in. ; but the divisions 
are very irregular. 

The Saracenic wall, whose founda- 
tion dates at the epoch of the Arab 
invasion by Amer, the lieutenant of 
the caliph Omar, still remains on the 
S. side of the old town, beyond which 
are the numerous tombs, mostly ceno- 
taphs, of the different sheykhs and 
saints of Egypt. On the tombstones 
which stand towards the southern ex- 
tremity of this cemetery are Cufic in- 
scriptions. 

The epitaphs are of the earlier in- 
habitants of Assooan, and bear different 
dates, from about the commencement 
of the 3rd to that of the 15th century 
of the Hegira. They begin — " In the 
name of God, the clement and merci- 
ful," and mention the name and pa- 
rentage of the deceased, who is said 
to have died in the true faith ; saying, 
" I bear witness that there is no cleity 
but God alone; he has no partner; 
and that Mohammed is the servant 
and apostle of God." Some end with 
the date, but in others, particularly 
those of the earliest epochs, it occurs 
about the centre of the inscription. 
This is supposed to be the place of 
martyrs mentioned by Aboolfeda. 

Here, as at Fostat (Old Cairo), is a 
mosk of Amer. It only presents round 
arches, in imitation of the ordinary 
Byzantine-Greek, or the Koman, style 
of building, in vogue at the period of 
the Arab invasion ; but it is not alto- 
gether improbable that an attentive 
examination of the ancient Saracenic 
remains around this cemetery might 
lead to the discovery of some early 
specimens of the pointed arch. 

The mosk called Gamat (Jamat) 
Belad has pointed arches, but it ap- 
pears not to be older than 1077 a.d. ; 
those buildings with the date 400 a.h. 
or 1010 a.d. have round arches, but j 
one of 420 a.h. or 1080 a.d. has both 
pointed and round. The corbelling of ; 
the domes is very simple. | 

A short distance from the cemetery 



of Assooan is a small bank of that 
alluvial deposit so frequently seen on 
the road to Philaa. In some places 
small blocks of granite are lying upon 
its upper surface. 

The site of the town of Assooan,- con- 
nected as it is with one end of the 
cluster of rocks through which the 
road leads to Philse, and in which the 
principal granite-quarries are situated 
(bounded on the W. and S. by the 
cataracts and the channel of Philae, 
on the E. by an open plain separating 
it from the range of mountains on that 
side), may have given rise to the fol- 
lowing passage of Pliny, which at first 
sight appears so singular : " Syene, 
ita vocatur peninsula ; " since we find 
that ancient authors frequently used 
peninsula and insula in the same sense 
as our word isolated ; and they even 
applied the term insula to a detached 
house. But the original site of Syene 
may really have been on an island, 
when the Nile during the inundation 
ran also to the E. of it. 

The most interesting objects in the 
neighbourhood of Assooan are the 
granite quarries ; and in one, that lies 
towards the S E. of the Arab ceme- 
tery, is an obelisk, which, having 
never been entirely detached from the 
rock, remains in situ in the quarry. 
The fissure, which gives it the appear- 
ance of being broken, was made in it 
at a later period. It would have been 
more than 95 ft. in height, and 11 ft. 
1| in. in breadth in the largest part ; 
but this last was to have been reduced 
when finished. An inclined road leads 
to the summit of the hill to the S.E., 
and on the descent at the other side 
was a fallen pillar (now taken away), 
with a Latin inscription, stating that 
" new quarries had been discovered in 
the vicinity of Philse ; that many large 
pilasters and columns had been hewn 
from them during the reigns of Severus 
and Antoninus (Caracalla), and his 
mother Julia Domna ; " and that " this 
hill was under the tutelary protection 
of Jupiter - Hammon - Cenubis (or 
Kneph), and Juno" (or Sate'), the 
deities of Elephantine. In its original 
site, on the very hill it mentions, it 



Egypt. route 20 — assooan — island of elephantine. 



465 



was an interesting inscription ; removed 
to an European museum, how much of 
that interest is lost ! but often does 
the love of acquisition disregard the 
satisfaction that others might feel in 
visiting a local monument. 

Between this and the river is a 
large sarcophagus, which, having been 
broken, was left in the quarry. 

Besides these, several of the rocks 
about Assooan bear the evident ap- 
pearance of having been quarried; 
and the marks of wedges, and the 
numerous tablets about this town, 
Elephantine, Pkike, and Biggeh, an- 
nounce the removal of the blocks, and 
the reign of the Pharaoh by whose orders 
they were hewn. Many of them are 
of a date previous to and after the 
accession of the XVII Ith dynasty, 
while others bear the names of later 
monarchs of the XXVIth, immediately 
before the invasion of Carnbyses ; but 
•some merely record the victories of 
kings over the enemies of Egypt, or 
ihe ex-votos of pious visitors. 

It is curious to observe in these 
quarries the method adopted for cut- 
ting off the blocks. In some instances 
they appear to have used wooden 
wedges, as in India, which, being 
firmly driven into holes cut to receive 
them, along the whole line of the 
stone, and saturated with water, broke 
it off by their equal pressure. Indeed, 
a trench seems to have been cut for 
this purpose, and the fact of the wedge- 
holes being frequently seen, where the 
stone is still unbroken, strongly con- 
firms this conjecture. 

The rocks about Syene are not, as 
might be expected, exclusively syenite, 
but, on the contrary, consist mostly 
of granite, with some syenite and a 
little porphyry. The difference be- 
tween the two former is this, that 
syenite is composed of felspar, quartz, 
and hornblende, instead of mica, or 
solely of felspar and quartz ; and 
granite of felspar, quartz, and mica. 
According to some, the ingredients 
of syenite are quartz, felspar, mica, 
and hornblende ; but the syenite of j 
antiquity, used for statues, was really 
granite. Indeed, many of the rocks of 
Syene contain all the four component 



parts ; and, from their differing con- 
siderably in their proportions, afford a 
variety of specimens for the collection 
of a mineralogist. 

The environs of the town are sandy 
and barren, producing little else than 
palms ; grain, and almost every kind 
of provision, being brought, as in 
Aboolfeda's time, from other parts of 
the country. But the dates still re- 
tain the reputation they enjoyed in 
the days of Strabo; and the palm of 
Ibreem is cultivated and thrives in the 
climate of the 1st Cataract. Dates 
are among the principal exports of 
Assooan, and senna, charcoal, henneh, 
wicker baskets, and formerly slaves 
from the interior, from Abyssinia, and 
Upper Ethiopia, were sent from thence 
to different parts of Lower Egypt. 

The Island of Elephantine is imme- 
diately opposite Assooan. It is called 
in Arabic Gezeeret Assooan, and in 
Nubian Sooan-Artiga which both mean 
" the Island of Assooan." It has also 
the name of Gezeeret-ez-Zaher, or 
" the Island of Flowers," from the 
vegetation with which its northern 
end is covered. By ancient authors it 
is always called Elephantine, or Ele- 
phantes. The ruins of the old town 
form a large mound, at the foot of 
which is a modern village ; and there 
is another small village to the N. The 
inhabitants are all Nubians, and the 
traveller has here his first opportunity 
of observing their peculiarities in dress 
and appearance. 

At the beginning of the present 
century there were the remains of two 
temples in Elephantine, one a very in- 
teresting one, built by Amunoph III. 
They were destroyed in 1822 by the 
then governor of Assooan, in order to 
obtain stone for building a palace. The 
greater part of the Nilometer which 
stood at the upper end of the island 
shared the same fate. The only re- 
mains now left are a granite gateway 
bearing the name of Alexander III., 
near which is a badly cut statue with 
the cartouche of Menephtah, the son 
of Barneses II. ; and a quay of Boman 
date, in the construction of which have 
been used many blocks taken from 
more ancient monuments. 

x 3 



466 



ROUTE 20. — LUXOR TO ASSOOAN AND PHIL.3E. Sect. IV. 



Elephantine had a garrison in the 
time of the Konians, as well as in the 
earlier times of the Persians and 
Pharaonic monarchs ; and it was from 
this island that the Ionians and Ca- 
rians, who had accompanied Psam- 
meticus, were sent forward into 
Ethiopia, to endeavour to bring back 
the Egyptian troops who had deserted. 

The south part of the island is 
covered with the ruins of old houses, 
and fragments of pottery, on many of 
which are Greek inscriptions in the 
running hand ; and the peasants who 
live there frequently find small bronzes 
of rams, coins, and other objects of 
antiquity, in removing the nitre of the 
mounds which they use for agricul- 
tural purposes. 

On the W. bank of the river opposite 
Elephantine are a few remains which 
mark the site of Contra -Syene ; and 
about I mile inland up the valley, are 
the remains of an old building often 
frequented by jackals and other beasts 
of prey. 

The Cataracts— called by the Arabs 
esh Shelldh — are really little more than 
a succession of rapids, whirlpools, and 
eddies, caused by the rocks and islets 
which obstruct the course of the river 
between Philse and Assooan. All the 
cataracts along the course of the Nile 
are more or less of the same character. 
Those at Assooan are commonly known 
by the title of the " First Cataract," 
from their being the first reached on 
the way up the Nile. During the 
high Nile, all but the highest rocks 
are covered with water, and then it is 
possible for boats to sail up against 
what is little more than a very power- 
ful stream ; but as the river lowers, it 
becomes divided into numerous narrow 
channels, and the rapids and falls are 
produced which have obtained for it 
the formidable appellation of a cata- 
ract, and make the employment of 
towing-ropes and many hands neces- 
sary for getting a boat up. 

It would be difficult to account for 
the exaggerated report given from 
hearsay by Cicero, Seneca, and others, 
of the astounding noise made by this 
cataract, which was so great that people 



were stunned and deprived of their 
sense of hearing, were it not that, so 
recently as the last century, a traveller, 
Paul Lucas, speaks of the cataract pre- 
cipitating itself from the rocks with 
so much noise as to deafen the in- 
habitants for several leagues round. 
" Travellers' tales " are common to 
all periods of history. Perhaps the 
best known one in connection with 
this cataract is that of Herodotus, in 
which he recounts the story of the 
sources of the Nile told him by the 
treasurer of Minerva at Sais : — how, 
between Syene and Elephantine, there 
were two conical hills, called Crophi 
and Mophi, between which lay un- 
fathomable fountains, whence flowed 
the Nile, southwards to Ethiopia, and 
northwards to the Mediterranean. 

The scenery of the cataracts i? weird 
and desolate, but not without a certain 
beauty and grandeur, and it is worth 
while for those who do not intend to 
make the ascent to row about the 
northern end of it in the sandal. 
There are no rapids before reaching 
the Island of Sehdyl, which is inte- 
resting from the number of hiero- 
glyphic tablets sculptured on the 
rocks, many of which are of a very 
early period, before and after the ac- 
cession of the XVLIIth dynasty. They 
record the passage of kings and others 
on their expeditions to the Soodan, 
and are of great historical value. The 
island was under the special protection 
of Sate, Kneph, and Anouke. 

The traveller whose intention is 
merely to visit Philae, without passing 
the cataract, will save himself some 
time and much trouble by going as 
far as this island in his boat, by which 
the ride to Philse is considerably 
shortened ; nor will he be prevented 
from seeing all that the excursion 
from Assooan presents worthy of 
notice, — which is confined to traces of 
the old road, the crude-brick wall 
that skirted and protected it, and the 
singular forms of the granite rocks, 
with inscriptions similar to those at 
Sehayl, which have struck every tra- 
veller since and previous to the time 
of Strabo. 



Egypt. 



EOUTE 20. THE CATABACTS. 



467 



The Ascent and Descent of the 
Cataract. — These are incidents in the 
Nile voyage more exciting than plea- 
sant. The preliminaries that have to 
be gone through at Assooan previous 
to making the ascent are often tire- 
some and disagreeable. The traveller 
has already been told in the Introduc- 
tory Information at the beginning of 
Sect. ELL that, if he intends to go as 
far as the 2nd Cataract, he must take 
care that the owner of the boat he, 
or his dragoman, hires, guarantees 
the possibility of its going up the 1st 
Cataract, and* undertakes to pay a fine 
should it fail to do so. Sometimes it 
may happen that the Mle is so low 
that a boat, which would go up in an 
ordinary year, might run some risk of 
coming to grief in the more than usu- 
ally sb allow rapids ; but often it is a 
trick of the owner who, not wishing to 
expose his boat to the perils of the 
cataract, has privately instructed his 
reis to bribe tbe sheykhs of the cataract 
to say that the boat is too large to be 
taken up. The traveller thus finds 
himself stopped on his journey, or 
obliged to take a dirty country boat 
from above the cataract. 

Those who have made a contract 
with their dragoman, which is to in- 
clude the cost of going up the cata- 
ract, should leave the matter entirely 
to him, and refuse to have anything to 
do with the discussion as to the price to 
be paid, or the backsheesh. Those who 
have to make their own bargain must 
submit with patience to the inevitable 
wrangling and delay with which all 
such affairs are conducted in Egypt. 
The contract must be made with one 
of the head sheykhs or reises of the 
cataracts, of whom there are three or 
four. In 1871 the price asked was SI. 
for every 100 ardebs' burden. As most 
dahabeeahs are from 200 to 300 ardebs, 
the total amount will be from 61. to 91. ; 
but at least half as much will be asked 
for backsheesh; and from 10Z. to 15Z. 
may be reckoned as the total cost of 
going up the cataracts. 

The annoyances of the traveller are 
not, however, over when the contract 
is made. Vexatious delays in start- 
ing, and detentions in the cataract 



itself, the ascent of which often takes 
three days, when it might easily be 
done in one, try the patience sadly ; 
but the only advice that can be given 
is to take it quietly, and make the 
best of it, and try to derive as much 
amusement as possible from the vari- 
ous scenes and incidents on the road. 
The governor of Assooan may be re- 
sorted to with more or less effect as 
a final court of appeal, in case of 
any very serious difficulty with the 
Shellalee, as the people are called who 
live in the few scattered villages in 
and around the cataracts, and manage 
the passage of boats up and down it. 

It is necessary for the ascent of the 
cataract that the wind should be fair, 
but not too strong. As far as the 
island of Sehayl it is tolerably easy 
sailing against a strong stream. There 
the first of the falls or " gates," as 
they are called (bdb, pi. bibdn), is 
reached, and tow-ropes, punt-poles, 
and scores of human beings are called 
into requisition. It is a scene which 
must be seen to be appreciated, and of 
which no description can give the least 
idea. Perhaps the best commentary 
on it is that no one who has gone 
through it once would willingly do so 
again, though he might often find 
amusement in watching the process 
from a neighbouring rock. And in- 
deed this is a very good way of seeing 
it even the first time, and for ladies 
decidedly the most agreeable for many 
reasons. 

Great amusement in going up the 
cataracts is derived by some travellers 
from the amphibious proceedings of 
the small boys who, seated on a round 
log of wood, launch out into the 
stream, and paddling with either hand, 
traverse the river, or shoot down the 
rapids, in an incredibly short space of 
time. " These logs are the public 
ferry-boats of the locality, and when a 
pedestrian reaches the river-bank, and 
wishes to cross over, he soon divests 
himself of his garments, rolls them 
into a bundle, which he ties above his 
head, and thus launches out on a log,, 
' ripse ulterioris amore,' and strange; 
indeed is the top-heavy figure he pre- 
sents." — A. C. Smith. 



468 



ROUTE 20.— LUXOR TO ASSOOAN- AND PHIL^I. 



Sect. IV. 



The process of fish-catching may j 
also be watched. They have an in- . 
gen ions mode of catching fish in j 
traps : and some of them are of great i 
size. Each of the fishing-places pays a 
tax of 255 piastres. 

There are five or six falls, up which 
the boat is dragged with more or less 
ease, and then, getting rid of her 
cataract crew, she sails on to the village j 
of Mahatta, just below Philge. 

It is at this village that the boat I 
stops again on her way down, to take j 
up the crew necessary for making the j 
descent of the cataract. This is a far i 
shorter process than the ascent. ' 
hour being the time from Mahatta to 
Assooan. The way is a different one to 
that followed in coming up. Passing 
on the right the last gate then ascend- 
ed, the boat glides swiftly on, rowed by 
the cataract people, two to each oar. 
Soon the river narrows, and is lost sight 
of between two high walls of rock. In 
an instant the boat has shot in between 
them, the oars almost touching them 
on either side, and, with a series- of 
plunges and bounds, that make you 
feel as if it were a skiff and not a 
dahabeeah that was under you, the 
unwieldy ship goes rushing on, as 
though it meant to drive its bows hard 
on to the rocks that seem to bar the 
lower end of the fall. Just, however, 
as the crash seems inevitable, an 
opening appears on the right ; and by 
the help of the current, and the right 
turn of the rudder at the right 
moment, the boat goes sharp round, 
and out into smooth water. The height 
of this fall varies with the quantity of 
water in the river, but it is usually 
from 6 to 7 feet. The length of its 
passage between the rocks is about 
200 feet, and the breadth across about 
70 feet. Beyond it the river flows 
swiftly on close to the desert on the 
left bank, and there is only one slight 
rapid more before reaching Assooan. 

With regard to the danger attending 
the ascent and descent of the cataracts, 
it cannot be said that there is none ; 
but at the same time, considering the j 
number of boats that go up and down, j 
and the comparatively few accidents ' 
that happen, the chances are much ' 



against mishap. And even if the 
dahabeeah is wrecked, there is little 
fear of being drowned, as it is always 
possible to get on to the rocks. There is 
no doubt that it is nervous work going 
down the big gate, and the turn al 
the bottom is a place where a boal 
may easily get a hole kuocked into it. 
if nothing worse. Coming up, it is a 
question of enough men and the rope 
not breaking ; and even if anything 
does happen, it is wonderful how the 
helmsman manages so that the boat is 
brought up short in her downward 
course by a cross stream or a back- 
water. Those who want to see their 
boat go down the big fall without 
being on board her, should be rowed 
in the sandal to a point just above it. 
They can then, from the top of the 
rock to the left of the passage, see the 
whole thing capitally. If there are 
things of value on board, such as in- 
struments, collections of skins, &c, the 
most prudent course is to send them 
between Mahatta and Assooan over- 
land. 

Those who are detained in the 
cataract may find some coots and teal 
to shoot ; and patient search will occa- 
sionally be rewarded with the sight of a 
crocodile, a war ran or water-lizard, and 
a species of leathery turtle (Trionyx 
Niloticus). 

(E.) Mahatta. A small village, of 
which mention has already been made, 
situated just above the cataracts. Like 
Assooan,it is the place for the embarking 
and disembarking of the cargoes that 
are transhipped from the different 
boats above and below the cataract. 
There are always a number of Nubian 
boats there employed in the trade 
between the 1st and 2nd Cataracts, 
They are a very inferior class of boat 
to the smart modern Egyptian daha- 
beeah ; but there are a few big ones, 
not very clean, and with hardly any 
furniture, which can be hired for the 
voyage to the 2nd Cataract and back, 
with an allowance of four days' stop- 
pages, for 12Z., and a small backsheesh 
to the reis and crew. The pilot who 
always accompanies the dahabeeah in 
its voyage between the 1st and 2nd 
Cataracts generally comes from this 



Egypt. 



ROUTE 20. — ISLAND OF PHIL.E. 



469 



pillage, and is taken on board in 
passing. His fee, which is included 
in a dragoman's contract, is, with back- 
sheesh, from 21. 10s. to 31. 

Island of Pliilx (5 m.). — Those who 
pisit Philse from Assooan can either 
take a boat from Mahatta, or from a 
point some way further up the bank, 
just opposite the island. The approach 
10 the island by water is very striking. 
The river winds in and out among 
gigantic black rocks of most fantastic 
ibrm and shape, and then suddenly, 
after a sharp turn or two, Philse comes 
suddenly in sight. "Beautiful" is 
the epithet commonly applied to this 
spot, justly considered to present the 
finest bit of scenery on the Nile ; but 
the beauty, or rather grandeur, is 
more in the framework of the picture 
than in the picture itself. The view 
from the top of the propylon tower at 
Philse, of all beyond the island, is far 
finer than the view of Philse itself 
from any point. 

In Egyptian the island was called 
Pilak, or Ailak, and Ma-n-lek, " the 
Place of the Frontier." Its Greek ap- 
pelation Philte is a strange misnomer. 
The Arabs call it Anas el Wogdod, or 
more generally Gezeeret et Beerbeh. 
The ruins in it are all of comparatively 
modern date, Nectanebo II. of the 
XXXth dynasty (361 B.C.) being the 
earliest name found. 

The principal building is the temple 
of Isis, commenced by Ptolemy Phi- 
ladelphia and Arsinoii, and completed 
by succeeding monarchs; among whom 
are Euer getes I., Philometor , his brother 
Euergetes II., with the two Cleopatras, 
and Ptolemy the elder son of Auletes, 
whose name is found in the area and 
on the pylon. Many of the sculptures 
on the exterior are of the later epoch 
of the Eoman emperors, Augustus, 
Tiberius, Claudius, Domitian, Nerva, 
and Trajan. 

Nowhere has the mania of the 
Egyptians for irregularity been carried 
to such an extent as here. " No 
Gothic architect in his wildest mo- 
ments ever played so freely with his 
lines and dimensions, and none, it 
must be added, ever produced anything 



so beautifully picturesque as this. It 
contains all the play of light and 
shade, all the variety of Gothic art, 
with the massiveness and grandeur of 
the Egyptian style ; and as it is still 
tolerably entire, and retains much of 
its colour, there is no building out of 
Thebes that gives so favourable an 
impression of Egyptian art as this. It 
is true it is far less sublime than many, 
but hardly one can be quoted as more 
beautiful." — Fergusson. 

The colonnade to the S. formed the 
approach to the temple. It was pro- 
bably preceded by obelisks, and the 
principal landing-place of the island 
led up to it. A massive propylon suc- 
ceeds, about 60 feet in height and more 
than 120 in breadth. On its exterior 
face, near the bottom, are a series of 
figures, representing the god Nilus, 
carrying various emblems on which 
are the names of different towns and 
districts in Egypt. A staircase, entered 
by a low doorway on the left inside 
face, leads to the top of the propylon. 
The view from this point is very beau- 
tiful. 

Passing through the gate of the pro- 
pylon, you enter a peristyle court, the 
uniformity of which is broken on the 
left by a small chapel. On the outer 
wall of this chapel, in the court, is a 
copy of the inscription contained on 
the famous Rosetta Stone ; but here 
only the hieroglyphic and demotic text 
are given, without the Greek. Another 
propylon, of smaller dimensions than 
the first, succeeds. Its eastern tower 
stands on a granite rock, whose face 
has been cut into the form of a tablet, 
and bears an inscription in which are 
mentioned the grants of land made to 
the temple by Ptolemy Philometor and 
Ptolemy Euergetes II. 

The gate of this propylon leads into 
a portico, followed by several cham- 
bers, and a sanctuary in which is a 
monolithic shrine. The colours in this 
part of the building are wonderfully 
preserved. From one of the lateral 
chambers near the adytum a staircase 
leads up to a terrace. On the left, at 
the top of the staircase, is a small 
room covered with interesting sculp- 
tures relating to the death and resur- 



470 KOUTE 20. LUXOR TO 



assooan and phil^. Sect. IV. 



rection of Osiris. In the eastern wall, 
near the adytum, are some dark pas- 
sages similar to those at Denderah. 

Among the many other objects of 
interest at Philse, the following prin- 
cipal ones may be noticed. The small 
chapel of Esculapius, near the com- 
mencement of the eastern corridor, in 
front of the great temple, satisfactorily 
decides by its Greek dedication the 
hieroglyphic name of Ptolemy Epi- 
phanes; and that of Athor, which 
stands on the east side, nearly in a 
line with the front propylon, acquaints 
us with the fact that this small 
building was consecrated to the Egyp- 
tian Aphrodite, by Physcon or the 
second Euergetes. 

At the southern extremity of the 
corridor is another small chapel, de- 
dicated to Athor by Nectanebo II. 
And, from the principal pylon of the 
great temple bearing the name of this 
Pharaoh, it is evident that an ancient 
edifice formerly stood on the site of 
the present one, which, having been 
destroyed by the Persians at the time 
of the invasion of Ochus, was rebuilt 
after the accession of the Ptolemies. 

The hypsethral building on the E. 
of the island, commonly called " Pha- 
raoh's bed," is of the time of the Ptole- 
mies and Caesars ; and from the elon- 
gated style of its proportions it appears 
that the architect had intended to 
add to its effect when seen from the 
river. Below it is a quay, which ex- 
tended nearly round the island, whose 
principal landing-place was at the 
staircase leading to the arched gate on 
the E. bank. A short distance behind 
the gate stands a ruined wall, orna- 
mented with triglyphs and the usual 
mouldings of the Doric order, evidently 
of Roman construction. 

Other detached ruins and traces of 
buildings are met with amidst the 
mounds that encumber them ; and on 
the W. side of the temple is a chapel, 
in which are some interesting sculp- 
tures relating to the Nile, and other 
subjects ; with a series of ovals in 
the cornice, containing the name of 
Lucius, Verus, Antoninus, Sebastos, 
Autocrator, Caesar. There are also 
some Greek and Ethiopian inscrip- 



tions. The ruin of the temple of Isis 
is attributed to Justinian. 

Numerous Greek exvotos are in- 
scribed on the walls of the pylon and 
other parts of the great temple, mostly 
of the time of the Csesars, with a few 
of a Ptolemaic epoch. From some of 
these, as well as from one in the 
chamber of Osiris on the terrace, we 
learn the interesting fact that the 
worship of Isis and Osiris was still 
carried on in Philse in the year a.t>. 
453, more than 70 years after the 
famous Edict of Theodosius abolishing 
the Egyptian religion. 

The crude-brick ruins are mostly of 
Christian time ; and among them may 
be seen some small pointed arches ; 
similar to those at Medeenet Haboo 
in Thebes, and in other early Christian 
villages, which probably date about 
the time of the Arab invasion in the 
7th century a.d. 

Island of Biggeh. — In the island of 
Biggeh is a small Ptolemaic temple 
dedicated to Athor. But, from the 
presence of a red granite statue behind 
it, with the oval of Amunoph II., there 
is reason to believe that an older 
edifice had previously existed here. 
Among the mounds is a stela of red 
granite, bearing the name of Amasis, 
surnamed Neitsi, "the son of Neit" or 
Minerva. 

The arch, inserted at a late period 
in the centre of the building, is of 
Christian date ; and it is evident that 
the early Christians occupied both this 
island and Philee, and converted the 
temples into churches, concealing with 
a coat of clay or mortar the objects of 
worship of their pagan predecessors. 

An inscription at Biggeh, mentioning 
"the gods in Abaton and in Philse," 
shows that the name Abaton belonged 
to Biggeh ; though it has, at least in 
one sense, been applied to Philse by 
Plutarch, who says " it is inaccessible 
and unapproachable . . . except when 
the priests go to crown the tomb of 
Osiris." 

There is a capital view of the temple 
of Philse from the high rocks at the 
southern end of Biggeh. At the far 
northern end of the island, which at 
high water is separated from the other 



Egypt 



EOUTE 20. ISLAisT) OF BIGGEH. 



471 



part, and has the name of Konosso, is 
a high ridge of rocks, from which there 
is a magnificent view over the upper 
end of the cataract and the village of 
Mahatta. The rocks at Biggeh are 
well worth clambering over, for the 
sake of the pretty views which can be 
obtained. 

On the rocks here, as on the road 
from Assooan to Philse, are numerous 
inscriptions, mostly of the Pharaohs 
of the Xllth, XYIIIth, and XlXth 
dynasties. 

On the eastern shore, opposite 
Philse, are some mounds, and the 
remains of a stela and monolith of 
granite ; the former bearing the name 
of the 2nd Psammetichus, and conse- 
crated to Kneph and Sate. 

A little distance to the S. of this are 
masses of old alluvium deposited there 
by the Nile before its level was lowered 
by the fall of the rocks at Silsilis. 
From its irregularity, and the sudden 
depressions in it, the accident probably 
happened while the river was high; 
and it has also the appearance of 
having been hollowed out by a sudden 
rush of water from the surface. Its 
general level is about 28 ft. above the 
greatest inundation of these days, and 
that of the highest masses is about 10 
ft. more. Standing here, you at once 
perceive that when the river was at 
that height it ran straight forward 
over the plain between the eastern 
mountains and Assooan. Other re- 
mains of this alluvium are found on 



the road from Assooan to Philse. The 
river at that time may also have 
flowed by the other channel through 
the Cataracts ; and the two streams 
joined each other some way lower 
down, near Esh Shaymeh, where the 
eastern mountains approach the Nile, 
opposite the Sheykh's tomb on the 
western bill, called Kobbet El Hdwa. 
The old alluvial deposit may be traced 
throughout Ethiopia, high above the 
reach of the present inundation. 

There is a rock opposite the N. end 
of Philse, remarkable for its elevated 
appearance and general form ; but 
there is no reason to suppose that any 
religious idea was attached to it. as 
some have imagined, and much less 
that it was Abaton. 

On the E. bank, a little to the S.E. 
of Philse, is a ruined fortress on the 
crest and. slope of the rocks, with 
square and round towers ; and on the 
S. side is a doorway having a round 
arch of brick between two round 
towers, and leading into a court. It 
is probably of Christian time. The 
entrance is on the side towards 
Ethiopia. 

Here, too, are the ruins of two large 
mosks : the southernmost one is built 
in great part of stones from some 
temple, many of them being covered 
witii hieroglyphics ; the superstructure 
is chiefly bricks baked and crude. On 
the hill above is a santon's tomb, from 
which there is a fine view of Philse 
and Biggeh. 




Pbilae, approaching it from the Cataracts. 



( 472 ) 



SECTION V. 
NUBIA. 



a. Preliminary Observations. 



-b. Ancient History and Geography.- 
Inhabitants. 



Modern 



BOUTTC 

21. Philse to Wady Half ah. Ka- 

labshee — Korosko — J) err — 
Aboo Simbel 

22. "Wady Halfah, by Dongola, 



475 



EOUTK PAGE 

Meroe, and Berber, to 
Khartoom, and thence, by 
Berber, to Sowakini on the 
Eed Sea 490 



a. Preliminary Observations. 

"Were it not for the trouble of passing the Cataract, there could be no 
hesitation in advising every one who gets as far as Assooan, to continue 
the voyage at any rate to Aboo Simbel, if not to Wady Halfah. And, the 
Cataract notwithstanding, it is well worth the while of those who have the 
time to spare, to push on into Nubia. The scenery is far more beautiful 
than in Egypt, the climate if anything more perfect (except perhaps between 
Aboo Simbel and "Wady Halfah, where a strong cold north wind is often very 
disagreeable), and the giant statues of Aboo Simbel certainly rank next in 
antiquarian interest to the Pyramids and the ruins of Thebes, besides being 
in themselves something quite unique. On the other hand, it may be said 
that of antiquities there is little worth seeing in Nubia by the ordinary 
traveller but Aboo Simbel, and there is a general absence of animal life which 
some might find wearisome. The inhabitants are few, and, with the exception 
of crocodiles and an occasional duck, the sandbanks and borders of the river 
are untenanted. The desert hare may occasionally be met with, and patience 
and the assistance of a native hunter may succeed in procuring the chance 
of a shot at a gazelle. All information with regard to the passing of the 
Cataract, hire of native boats at Mahatta, pilot, &c, has been given at the end 
of the preceding Section, p. 467 et seq. It will take from a fortnight to three 
weeks to go from Philse to "Wady Halfah and back. 



b Ancient History and Geography. 

The countries bordering the Nile south of Egypt were known to the old 
Egyptians by the name of Koo*h (Cush). The name Kens is also found 
applied to that part nearest the Egyptian frontier. The Nubians which now 
inhabit it are still called the Kendos or Kensee tribe. 

The first Pharaoh of whom there is any record as having conquered the 
Kooshites, is Osirtasen III , of the XHth dynasty, who built a temple at 
Semneh above the 2nd Cataract, and fixed the Egyptian frontier there. 
Thothmes I., of the XVIIlth dynasty, has left a record of his triumphs 
over the Kooshites on a rock opposite Tombos. Thothmes III. built temples 
at Arnada, at Semneh, and at Soleb. Amunoph III. also built at Soleb, and 



Nuhia. 



ANCIENT HISTORY, &C— MODERN INHABITANTS. 



473 



at Gebel Barkal near Aboo Hamed. Barneses II. of the XlXth dynasty 
added to this temple at Gebel Barkal, and besides the smaller rock-cut 
temples of Derr and Bayt Welly, the grand monument at Aboo Simbel dates 
from his reign. 

At the epoch of the XXIIIrd dynasty we find Egypt and Koosh have 
greatly changed places, Egypt, or at any rate the southern portion of it, 
having become a province of Ethiopia, a general name by which the coun- 
tries on the Xile south of Egypt became afterwards generally known. This 
change reached its heigbt under the XXYth dynasty, which was composed 
entirely of Ethiopian sovereigns, the last of them being Tirhakah. This 
Ethiopian domination over Egypt is satisfactorily proved by the historical 
stela lately discovered by M. Mariette at Xapata or Gebel Barkal. The 
pyramids at Meroe' may be probably referred to the Tirhakah period. In 
the time of Psammettchus, Elephantine was the border of Egypt. Under the 
Ptolemies the frontier was fixed at Hierasycaminon, about SO miles S. of Syene, 
and the district was called Dodecashamus from that distance equalling 12 Egyp- 
tian schames. Many temples, Kalabsheh, Dakkek, &c, belong to this period: 

Under the government of Petronius, the 2nd Eoman prefect of Egypt, an 
expedition was undertaken against the Ethiopians in consequence of an 
attack made by them on the Eoman garrison of Syene, the then frontier 
town. Petronius penetrated to and destroyed Xapata, the capital of Candace, 
the queen of the Ethiopians. Xapata, according to Pliny, was 870 Eoman 
miles above the Cataracts, and is supposed to be El Barkal of the present day, 
where pyramids and extensive ruins denote the former existence of an import- 
ant city. Gebel Barkal was called in hieroglyphics " the Sacred Mountain." 

In Strabo's time, who visited Egypt during the government of iElius Gallus, 
Petronius's successor, Syene was again the frontier, the Eomans having, as he 
observes, " confined the province of Egypt within its former limits." Philse 
then belonged " in common to the Egyptians and Ethiopians." This did not, 
however, prevent the Caesars from considering Lower Ethiopia as belonging to 
them, or from adding to the temples already erected there. 

Strabo says the Ethiopians above Syene consisted of the Troglodytse, 
Blemmyes. Xubse, and Megabari. The Megabari and Blemmyes inhabited 
the eastern desert, X. of Meroe to the frontiers of Egypt, and were under the 
dominion of the Ethiopians. The Icthyophagi lived on the shore of the Eed 
Sea ; the Troglodyte from Berenice southwards, between it and the Xile ; 
and the Xubse, an African nation, were on the left bank, and independent 
of Ethiopia. 

From Procopius we learn that in the year a.d. 296, in the reign of Dio- 
cletian, these Xubse, or Nobatse, as he calls them, were given the country 
above Syene on condition of their protecting Egypt against the incursions 
of the Blemmyes. This state of things appears to have continued, for we 
find at Kalabsheh a Greek inscription, dating from the end of the 6th century, 
in which ;i Silco, king of the Xubadse and of all the Ethiopians," records his 
triumph over the Blemmyes. Half a century afterwards the country was 
conquered by the Arabs, by whose writers it has always been called Noba. 

c. Modekn Inhabitants. 

Philse and the Cataracts are, as of old, the boundary of Egypt and Xubia 
Here commences the country of the Barabra, which extends thence to the 
2nd Cataract at Wady Halfah, and is divided into two districts ; that to 
the X. inhabited by the Kenous or Kensee tribe, the southern portion by the 
JSooba. They have each their own language ; but it is a singular fact that 
the Kensee, which ceases to be spoken about Derr and throughout the whole 
of the Xooba district, is found again above the 2nd Cataract. It is now 



474 



MODERN INHABITANTS. 



Sect. Y. 



customary for us to call them Nubians, as the Arabs comprehend them under 
the general name of Barabra, and as the Greeks denominated the whole 
country Ethiopia. 

The character of the country above Philse differs very much from Egypt, 
particularly from that part below Esneh. The hills are mostly sandstone and 
granite, and, from their coming very near the river, frequently leave only a 
narrow strip of soil at the immediate bank, on which the people depend 
for the scanty supply of corn or other produce grown in the country. It is 
not therefore surprising that the Nubians are poor ; though, from their limited 
wants and thrifty habits, they do no not suffer from the miseries of poverty. 
The palm-tree, which there produces dates of very superior quality, is to 
them a great resource, both in the plentiful supply it affords for their own 
use, and in the profitable exportation of its fruit to Egypt, where it is highly 
prized, especially that of the Ibre'emee kind, the fruit of which is much larger 
and of better flavour than that of other palms, and the tree differs in the 
appearance of its leaves, which are of a finer and softer texture. The Sont, 
or Mimosa Nilotica, also furnishes articles for export, of great importance to 
the Nubian, in its gum, pods for tanning, and charcoal ; and henneh, senna, 
baskets, mats, and a few other things produced or made in Nubia, return a 
good profit in sending them to Egypt. Nubia justly boasts of one blessing, 
which is that fleas and bugs will not live there : and the Berberis in Cairo 
are loud in their complaints against these plagues of Egypt. It is not, how- 
ever, to be supposed that a boat hired at the Cataracts would necessarily be 
free from these plagues, or that they cannot be kept alive in a boat during 
the cold weather ; but the fact is not the less certain that Nubia is free from 
them, and no boat, however dirty, or however careless its inmates, would 
retain them long during the summer weather. 

When the Nile is low, the land is irrigated by water-wheels, which are the 
pride of the Nubian peasant. Even the endless and melancholy creaking of 
these clumsy machines is a delight to him, which no grease is permitted to 
diminish, all that he can get being devoted to the shaggy hair of his untur- 
baned head. For the Nubians, in general, allow the hair of the head to grow 
long ; and seldom shave, or wear a cap, except in the Nooba district, as at 
Derr, and a few other places ; and though less attentive to his toilette than 
the long-haired Ababa" eh, a well-greased Nubian does not fail to rejoice in 
his shining shoulders. Nor are the means for keeping up the constant 
unction often wanting, as the castor-oil plant is much cultivated in Nubia ; 
and though the oil, as extracted by the natives, can hardly be called " fine- 
drawn," it answers the Nubians' purpose well enough, the women especially 
soaking their wonderfully plaited tresses in it constantly. Prior's epigram- 
matic lines on the ladies of another African race might well be applied to 
the Nubian dames and damsels — 

" Beforeyou see, you smell your toast, 
And sweetest she, who stinks the most." 

A certain portion of land is irrigated by each water-wheel, and the wealth 
of an individual is estimated by the number of these machines, as in other 
countries by farms or acres of land; and, as is reasonable to suppose, in a 
hot climate like Nubia, they prefer the employment of oxen for the arduous 
duty of raising water, to drawing it, like the Egyptian fellah, by the pole and 
bucket of the sliadoof. The consequence of this is, that the tax on water- 
wheels falls very heavily on the Nubian, who also feels that on date-trees 
much more than the Egyptian peasant. Hence arises the increased migration 
of Barabras to Cairo ; whither, in spite of a government prohibition, they fly 
from the severely taxed labour of tilling the ground to the more profitable 
occupation of servants, particularly in the Frank quarter, where higher wages 



Nubia. 



ROUTE 21. — PHIL2E TO WADY HALF AH. 



475 



are paid, and where the Nubian is preferred to the Egyptian for his greater 
honesty. 

For many years the Nubians have been very generally employed in places 
of trust about the houses of the rich, like the Gallegos in Lisbon ; they were 
always engaged as porters, and the name of " Berberee " answered to " Le 
Suisse" in a Parisian mansion. But of late they have greatly increased in 
numbers, and are taken as house-servants, and even as grooms, an office to 
which the Egyptian syee of old would have thought it impossible for a 
Berberee to aspire. That they are more honest than the Egyptians is certain ; 
that they speak the truth more frequently is equally so ; but they are some- 
times less clean and less acute ; though their mental slowness does not seem 
to interfere with their physical quickness, and their power of running is not 
surpassed by the most active fellah. Devotedly attached to their country and 
their countrymen, like the Swiss and other inhabitants.^ poor districts who 
seek their fortunes abroad, they always herd together in foreign towns ; and 
one Nubian servant never fails to bring a daily levee of Ethiopians to a 
Cairene house, pouring forth an unceasing stream of unintelligible words, in 
a jargon which has obtained for them the name of Bardbra, applied by the 
Arabs much in the same sense as " Barbaroi " by the Greeks. Brave and 
independent in character, they differ also in these respects from the Egyp- 
tians ; and in some parts of Nubia, particularly in the Kensee or Kenoos district, 
their constant feuds keep up a warlike spirit, in which their habit of going 
about armed enables them frequently to indulge. Those who know how to 
read and write are in a far greater proportion than in Egypt among the 
same class ; for, with the exception of their chiefs, they have no wealthy 
or upper orders. But their studies do not seem to induce sobriety, and, like 
the blacks, they are fond of intoxicating liquors. They extract a brandy 
and a sort of wine from the date-fruit, as well as soobieh, and booza, a 
fermented drink made from barley, bread, and many other things, which are 
found to furnish this imperfect kind of beer ; and rum or brandy is a very 
acceptable present to the Nubian, even more so than the three they so often 
ask for — soap, oil, and gunpowder. 



EOUTE 21. 

TB1LM TO WADY HALFAH. 



Miles. 

Philse to Dabod 10± 

Gertassee 15 

Tafah 7 

Kalabsheh 6f 

Danddor 13 

Gerf Hossayn 9 

Dakkeh 10J 

Koortee 3| 

Maharraka 3| 

Sabodah 20 

Korosko 12J 

Amada 7£ 

Derr 4 

Ibreem 13 

Aboo Simbel 34 

Wady Halfah 40 



210 



(E.) About 13 miles above Philse, 
near the E. bank, is an eddy, called 
by the natives Shaym-t-el-Wah, " the 
Eddy of the Wah," and believed by 
them to communicate underground 
with the Oasis of the Wah. 

(W.) Dabod (10 J m.) is supposed 
to be the Parembole of Antoninus. 
The ruins there consist of a temple, 
founded apparently by Ashar-Amun, 
or Atar-Amun, a monarch of Ethiopia, 
who was probably the immediate suc- 
cessor of Ergamun, the contemporary 
of Ptolemy Philadelphus. 

Over the central pylon, in front of 
it, are the remains of a Greek inscrip- 
tion, bearing the name of Ptolemy 
Philometor with that of his queen 
Cleopatra. The temple was dedicated 
to Isis, who, as well as Osiris and her 
son Horus, were principally worshipped 
here; Amun being one of the chief 



476 



EOTJTE 21. PHILZE 



TO WADY HALFAH. 



Sect. Y. 



contemplar deities. Augustus and Ti- 
berius added most of the sculptures, 
but they were left unfinished, as was 
usually the case in the temples of 
Nubia. The main building commences 
with a portico or area, having four 
columns in front, connected by inter- 
columnar screens ; a central and two 
lateral chambers with a staircase lead- 
ing to the upper rooms ; to which 
succeed another central apartment im- 
mediately before the adytum, and two 
side-chambers. On one side of the 
portico a wing has been added at a 
later period. The three pylons before 
the temple follow each other in suc- 
cession, but not at equal distances ; 
and the whole is enclosed by a wall 
of circuit, of which the front pylon 
forms the entrance. 

The adytum is unsculptured, but 
two monoliths within it bear the name 
of Physcon and Cleopatra ; and in the 
front chamber of the naos is that of 
the Ethiopian king " Ashar-(Atar)- 
Amun, the ever-living," who in some 
of his nomens is called " the beloved 
of Isis." Among the few subjects 
sculptured in the portico are Thoth 
and Hor-Hat engaged in pouring al- 
ternate emblems of life and purity 
over Tiberius ; alluding to the cere- 
mony of anointing him king. Some 
distance before the temple is a stone 
quay, which had a staircase leading 
from the river. 

Two daysW. of Dabod, and about the 
same distance from Assooan and from 
Kalabsheh, is a small uninhabited 
Oasis, called Wall Koorkoo. It abounds 
in dates, and has some wells, but no 
ruins. 

Between Dabod and Gertassee the 
only remains are a wall projecting 
into the river, marking perhaps the 
site of Tzitzi ; a single column ; and 
on the opposite bank, at Gamille, the 
ruined wall of a temple. On the 
island Morgdse are some crude-brick 
ruins. 

One of the most beautiful bits of 
river-scenery on the Nile begins about 
this point. A wide reach opens out 
for many miles, bordered on either 
side with a sloping bank of bright | 
green, whose uniformity is sometimes | 



broken by masses of huge granite 
boulders. Here and there is a vil- 
lage with its grove of palms: and 
clear against the sky stands out the 
small ruined temple of Gertassee, per- 
haps the most picturesque bit of ruin 
in Egypt, and certainly the only one, 
with the exception of Kom Ombo, 
which owes anything to its position. 
The temples are all too much on a 
dead level to add to the beauty of the 
landscape. 

(W.) Gertassee (15 m.). The temple 
is a short distance N. of the village. 
Only a few columns are standing. 
What interest it has is derived from its 
picturesque position. A short distance 
8. of the temple is a sandstone quarry, 
in which are one enchorial, and up- 
wards of 50 Greek ex-votos. They are 
mostly of the time of Antoninus Pius, 
M. Aurelius, and Severus, in honour 
of Isis, to whom the neighbouring 
temple was probably dedicated. Some 
refer to the works in the quarry, and 
one of them mentions the number of 
stones cut by the writer for the great 
temple of the same goddess at Philse. 
In the centre is a square niche, which 
may once have contained a statue of 
the goddess; and on either side are 
busts in high relief, placed within re- 
cesses, and evidently, from their style, 
of Eoman workmanship. The road by 
which the stones were taken from the 
quarry is still discernible. 

At the village are the remains of a 
large enclosure of stone, on whose N. 
side is a pylon, having a few hiero- 
glyphics, and the figure of a goddess, 
probably Isis, with a head-dress sur- 
mounted by the horns and globe. 

(TF.) Tdfah, or Wddy Tdfah (7 m.), 
a prettily situated village among 
groves of palms. Here are some more 
stone enclosures, but on a smaller 
scale than that of Gertassee, being 
about 22 paces by 18. The position of 
the stones is singular, each row pre- 
senting a crescent or concave surface 
to the one above it, the stones at the 
centre bemg lower than at the angles. 
In a length of 50 ft. the depression 
below the horizontal line is 1 ft. 3 in. 



Nubia. 



ROUTE 21. KALABSHEH. 



477 



In one are several rooms communicat- 
ing with each other by doorways ; but 
the enclosures themselves are quite 
unconnected, and some at a consider- 
able distance from the rest. They are 
of Eoman date, as the mouldings of 
the doorway show : but it is difficult 
to ascertain the use for which they 
were intended. The stones are rusti- 
cated (or rough) in the centre, and 
smooth at the edges, as in many Eoman 
buildings. 

There are the remains of two temples 
at Tafah. One, quite ruined, is close 
to the river, with a flight of steps lead- 
ing down between two walls to a quay. 
The other is inside the village, and 
is in fact used by the natives as a 
dwelling house. It was converted 
into a church by the early Christians. 

. On one of the walls is an almanack, 
supposed to be of the 4th or 5th cen- 
tury. Christianity, introduced in the 
age of Justinian, was the religion of 
Ethiopia till a late period (though 

lEdrisi considered it extinct in 1154 
except in the desert), since in Wans- 
leb's time, 1673, the churches were 

[still entire, and only closed for want 
of pastors. Two of the columns of the 
portico are still standing, and on the 
adjoining wall are some Greek inscrip- 
tions and the figures of saints. Be- 
hind the portico is a chamber, which 
may have been the adytum. 

The inhabitants of Tafah and the 
neighbourhood have the character of 
being independent and quarrelsome. 
Some of the wadies which here come 
down from the desert to the river are 
said to be frequented occasionally by 
gazelle. 

Soon after passing Tafah the gra- 
nite begins to reappear, and the sce- 
nery reminds us of Philse and the 
Cataracts. Boulders of basalt appear 
here and there in the stream, which 
flows with great rapidity, and is di- 
vided into several channels by islands, 
not utterly barren, however, but covered 
in many places with signs of cultiva- 
tion. This part of the river extends 
for two or three miles, and is called 
M Bab, " the Gate," it being in fact I 
a series of rapids on a small scale. 

( W.) Kaldbsheh (6f miles), a village | 



lying just above the rapids. It is the 
Talmis of the Itinerary, and possesses 
ruins of the largest temple in Nubia. 
It appears to have been built in the 
reign of Augustus ; and though othe* 
Csesars, particularly Caligula, Trajan, 
and Severus, made considerable addi- 
tions to the sculptures, it was left un- 
finished. The stones employed in its 
construction had belonged to an older 
edifice, to which it succeeded ; and it 
is highly probable that the original 
temple was of the early epoch of the 
third Thothmes, whose name is still 
traced on a granite statue lying near 
the quay before the entrance. 

This extensive building consists of 
a naos, portico, and area. The naos 
is divided into three successive cham- 
bers, — the adytum, a hall supported 
by two columns, and a third room 
opening on the portico, which has 
twelve columns, three in depth and 
four in breadth, the front row united 
by screens on either side of the en- 
trance. The area is terminated by 
the pyramidal towers of the propylon, 
beyond which is a pavement, and a 
staircase leading to the platform of 
the quay that sustains the bank of 
the river. The temple is surrounded 
by two walls of circuit, both of which 
are joined to the propylon. The space 
between them is occupied by several 
chambers, and at the upper extremity 
is a small building with columns, 
forming the area to a chapel hewn 
in the rock. At the N.E. corner is 
also a small chapel, which belonged to 
the original temple, and is anterior 
to the buildings about it ; and to the 
N. is another enclosure of consider- 
able extent, connected with the outer 
wall, and two detached doorways. In 
some parts of the temple the colours 
are still exceedingly bright, which is 
probably due to the Christians, who, 
by covering over the sculptures, paint- 
ings, and hieroylyphics with plaster, 
were the unintentional means of pre- 
serving much that is interesting. But 
the sculptures throughout the temple 
are of very inferior style ; nor could 
the richness of gilding that once co- 
vered those at the entrances of the 
first chambers of the naos have com- 



478 



EOTJTE 21. PHIL.2E 



TO WADY HALFAH. 



Sect. V. 



pensated for the deficiency of their 
execution. Its extent, however, claims 
for it a conspicuous place among the 
largest monuments dedicated to the 
deities of Egypt. 

Mandouli, or, according to the an- 
cient Egyptians, Malouli, or Merouli, 
was the deity of Talmis, and it is in 
his honour that the greater part of 
the numerous ex-votos in the area are 
inscribed by their pious writers. 

The most interesting of these in- 
scriptions is that of " Silco, king of the 
Nubadse and of all the Ethiopians," 
which records his several defeats of 
the Blemmyes ; and, to judge from his 
own account, he neither spared the 
vanquished, nor was scrupulous in 
celebrating his exploits. 

Perhaps the most remarkable thing 
about the temple of Kalabsheh is the 
extraordinary mass of ruins it pre- 
sents. It appears to have been thrown 
down almost before it was completed, 
and by what agency it is impossible 
to conjecture. 

A short distance from the temple, 
towards the N.W., are the sandstone 
quarries, from which the stone used 
in budding its walls was taken ; and 
on the hill behind it are found the 
scattered bones of mummies. In the 
village are the remains of walls. 

The ancient town stood on the N. 
and S. of the temple, and extended 
along the hill towards the Bayt el 
Welly, which is strewed with bricks 
and broken pottery. 

(W.) Bayt elWelly.—lt isnot without 
considerable satisfaction that the Egyp- 
tian antiquary turns from the coarse 
sculprures of the Eoman era to the 
chaste and elegant designs of a Pha- 
raonic age which are met with in the 
sculptures of Barneses II. at the Bayt 
el Welly, " the House of the Saint," a 
small but interesting temple excavated 
in the rock, and dedicated to Amunre, 
with Kneph, and Anouke. It consists 
of a small inner chamber or adytum ; 
a hall supported by two polygonal 
columns of very ancient style, which 
call to mind the simplicity of the Greek 
Doric ; and an area in front. At the 
upper end of the hall are two niches, 



each containing three sitting figures 
in high relief; and on the walls of the 
area, outside the hall, are sculptured 
the victories of Eameses ; casts of 
which are in the British Museum. 

The sculptures relate to the wars 
of this Pharaoh against the Cush 
or Ethiopians, and the Shori, who, 
having been previously reduced by 
the Egyptian monarch s, and made 
tributary to them, rebelled about this 
period and were reconquered by 
Sethi I. and the second Eameses. 
On the rt.-hand wall the monarch, 
seated on a throne under a canopy or 
shrine, receives the offerings brought 
by the conquered Ethiopians, preceded 
by the Prince of Cush, Amunma- 
tape, who is attended by his two 
children, and is introduced by the 
eldest son of the conqueror. Eings 
and bags of gold, leopard-skins, rich 
thrones, flabella, elephants' teeth, 
ostrich-eggs, and other objects, are 
among the presents placed before him ; 
and a deputation of Ethiopians ad- 
vances, bringing a lion, oryx, oxen, 
and gazelles. The lower line com- 
mences with some Egyptian chiefs, 
who are followed by the prince of 
Cush and other Ethiopians, bringing 
plants of their country, skins, apes, a 
camelopard, and other animals. Be- 
yond this is represented the battle and 
defeat of the enemy. Eameses, mount- 
ed in his car, is attended by his two 
sons, also in chariots, each with his 
charioteer, who urges the horses to 
their full speed. The king discharges 
his arrows on the disorderly troops of 
the enemy, who betake themselves 
to the woods. At the upper end of 
the picture a wounded chief is taken 
home by his companions. One of his 
children throws dust on its head in 
token of sorrow, and another runs to 

J announce the sad news to its mother, 
who is employed in cooking at a fire 
lighted on the ground. 

On the opposite wall is the war 
against the Shori. At the upper end, 
which is in reality the termination of 
the picture, Eameses is seated on a 
throne, at whose base is crouched a 
lion, his companion in battle. His 

I eldest son brings into his presence a 



Nubia. koute 21. — batt el welly — gekf hossayn. 



479 



group of prisoners of that nation ; j 
and in the lower compartment is a ; 
deputation of Egyptian chiefs. Be- j 
yond this, the conqueror engages in j 
single combat with one of the enemy's \ 
generals, and slays him with his sword, j 
in the presence of his son and other 
Egyptian officers ; and the next com- 
partment represents him in his car, in | 
the heat of the action, overtaking the 
leader of the hostile army, whom he • 
also despatches with his sword. The 
enemy then fly in all directions to j 
their fortified town, which the king 
advances to besiege. Some sue for | 
peace ; while his son, forcing the ! 
gates, strikes terror into the few who 
resist. Then trampling on the pros- 
trate foe, Barneses seizes and slays 
their chiefs ; and several others are 
brought in fetters before him by his 
son. 

Such are the principal subjects in 
the area of this temple, which, next 
to Aboo Simbel, is the most interesting 
monument in Nubia. 

Much henneh is grown here. The 
pounded leaves are exported to Egypt, 
and are used for dyeing the nails and 
fingers of women red. It is the Kvirpos 
of the Greeks ; and the " cluster of 
camphire " (kuphr) in Solomon's 
Song, i. 13, is translated in the LXX. 
" fiorpvs Kv-n-pov" It is, perhaps, al- 
luded to in Deut. xxi. 12, though our 
translation has " pare her nails." It 
is the Lawsonia spinosa et inermis of 
Linnaeus. 

The people of Kalabsheh are a 
noisy, troublesome lot, very eager to 
dispose of the usual Nubian curi- 
osities. 

After passing Kalabsheh, the hills 
shut the river closely in on both sides, 
and hardly a strip of cultivation re- 
lieves the bare and arid monotony of 
the scene. Here and there are to be 
seen jetties of loose stones, intended 
to turn the force of the cut rent, 
and prevent it washing away what 
little soil there is. At Aboo Hor is 
a sort of rapid, and at low water there 
is only a narrow passage left between 
the breakers and the E. bank. A short 
distance further on the hills recede, 
and the scenery is less drear. 



(W.) Dendodr (13 m.).— The temple 
of Dendodr stands just within the 
tropic. It consists of a portico with two 
columns in front, two inner chambers, 
and the adytum : at the end of which is 
a tablet, with the figure of a goddess, 
apparently Isis. In front of the por- 
tico is a pylon, opening on an area 
enclosed by a low wall, and facing to- 
wards the river ; and behind the temple 
is a small grotto excavated in the 
sandstone rock. It has the Egyptian 
cornice over the door, and before it is 
an entrance-passage built of stone. 

The sculptures of Dendoor are of 
the time of Augustus, in whose reign 
it appears to have been founded. The 
chief deities were Osiris, Isis, and 
Horus. 

The ruined town of Sabagdora, 
nearly opposite Gerf Hossayn, occu- 
pies the summit and slope of a hill, 
near the river, and is famous for the 
resistance made there by a desperate 
Nubian chief against the troops of 
Ibrahim Basha. Near it is the vil- 
lage of Kirsheh. 

(W.) Gerf Hossayn (9 m.).—Gerf 
(or Jerf) Hossayn is the ancient Tut- 
zis ; in Coptic, Thosh; but from being 
under the special protection of Bhtah, 
the deity of the place, it was called by 
the Egyptians Bhtah-ei, or "the Abode 
of Bhtah." The resemblance of the 
Coptic name Thosh with Ethaush, 
signifying, in the same dialect, Ethio- 
pia, is rendered peculiarly striking, 
from the word Kush (Cu&h), in the 
old Egyptian language " Ethiopia," 
being retained in the modern name of 
this place, which in Nubian is called 
Kish. 

The temple is of the time of Ba- 
rneses ihe Great, entirely excavated 
in the rock, except the portico or area 
in front. At the upper end of the 
adytum are several sitting figures in 
high relief. Other similar statues 
occur in the eight niches of the great 
hall, and in the two others within the 
area. This area had a row of four 
Osiride figures on either side, and 
four columns in front, but little now 
remains of the wall that enclosed it ; 
and the total depth of the excavated 



480 



route 21. — PHmas 



TO WADY HALF AH. 



Sect. V. 



part does not exceed 180 ft. The 
Osiride figures in the hall are very 
badly executed, ill according with the 
sculpture of the second Eameses ; nor 
are the statues of the sanctuary of a 
style worthy of that era. The deity 
of the town was Phtah, the creator 
and " Lord of Truth ;" to whom the 
dedications of the temple were in- 
scribed; and Athor, Pasht (the com- 
panion and " beloved of Phtah "), and 
Anouke, each held a conspicuous place 
among the contemplar deities. 

(W.) At Kostarnneh is a doorway, 
with the agathodEemon over it ; and I 
the remains of masonry near the bank. 
Here the Nile is said to be fordable 
in May. 

Here are some more of the large 
stone piers before referred to, evident- 
ly built with far more care than any 
works of the modern inhabitants. 

(W.) Dakkeh (10J m.). Dahheh is 
the Pselcis of the Itinerary, of Pliny, 
and of Ptolemy. Strabo, who calls it 
Pselche, says it was an Ethiopian city 
in his time ; the Komans having given 
up all the places south of Philte and 
the Cataracts, the natural frontier of 
Egypt. It was here that Petronius 
defeated the generals of Candace, and 
then, having taken the city, advanced 
to Primis (Premnis) and to Napata, 
the capital of the Ethiopian queen. 
Strabo mentions an island at this spot, 
in which many of the routed enemy, 
swimming across the river, took refuge, 
until they were made prisoners by the 
Komans, who crossed over in boats and 
rafts. 

Dakkeh has a temple of the time 
of Ergamun, an Ethiopian 
king, and of the Ptolemies 
and Csesars ; but apparently 
built, as well as sculptured, 
during different reigns. The 
oldest part is the central 
chamber (with the doorway 
in front of it), which bears 
the name of the Ethiopian 
monarch, and was the ori- 
ginal adytum. 

This Ergamun or Erga- 
menes, according to Diodorus, was a 
contemporary of Ptolemy Philadelphus, 



15 



Ik 



and was remarkable for having been 
the first Ethiopian prince who broke 
through the rules imposed upon his 
countryman by the artifices of the 
priesthood. After speaking of the 
blind obedience paid by the Ethio- 
pians to their laws, the historian 
says, " The most extraordinary thing 
is what relates to the death of their 
kings. The priests, who superintend 
the worship of the gods and the cere- 
monies of religion in Meroe, enjoy 
such unlimited power that, whenever 
they choose, they send a message to 
the king, ordering him to die, for that 
the gods had given this command, 
and no mortal could oppose their will 
without being guilty of a crime. They 
also add other reasons, which would 
influence a man of weak mind, accus- 
tomed to give way to old custom and 
prejudice, and without sufficient sense 
to oppose such unreasonable com- 
mands. In former times the kings 
had obeyed the priests, not by com- 
pulsion, but out of mere superstition, 
until Ergamenes, who ascended the 
throne of Ethiopia in the time of the 
second Ptolemy, a man instructed in 
the sciences and philosophy o| Greece, 
was bold enough to defy their orders. 
And having made a resolution worthy 
of a prince, he repaired with his 
troops to a fortress (or high place, 
afZarov), where a golden temple of the 
Ethiopians stood, and there, having 
slain all the priests, he abolished the 
ancient custom, and substituted other 
institutions according to his own will." 

Ergamenes was not a man who 
mistook the priests for religion, or 
supposed that belief in the priests 
signified belief in the gods. These 
he failed not to honour with due re- 
spect. He is seen at Dakkeh pre- 
senting offerings to the different deities 
of the temple, and over one of the 
side doors he is styled " son of Neph, 
born of Isis, nursed by Anouke ;" 
and on the other side, " son of Osiris, 
born of Sate, nursed by Nephthys." 
His royal title and ovals read " king 
of men [(1) the hand of Amun, the 
living, chosen of Ee], son of the sun 
[(2) Ergamun, everliving, the beloved 
of Isis]." 



Nubia. 



ROUTE 21. DAKKEH MAHARRAKER. 



481 



Ptolemy Philopator added to the 
sculptures at Dakkeh ; and his oval 
occurs with that of his wife and sister 
Arsinoe' — his father, Ptolemy Euer- 
getes — and his mother, Berenice 
Euergetes ; and on the corresponding 
side are those of Ptolemy Philadelphus 
and Arsinoe Philadelphe. Physcon 
or Euergetes II. afterwards built the 
portico, as we learn from a mutilated 
Greek inscription on the architrave, 
accompanied by the hieroglyphic name 
*of that monarch ; and by him the 
present adytum was probably added. 
The oval of Augustus likewise occurs 
in the portico, but a great part of this 
building was left unfinished, as is 
generally found to be the case with 
the Roman and Ptolemaic monuments 
in Nubia. 

In the temple of Dakkeh is one of 
the many instances of an Egyptian 
portico, in antis, which was a mode of 
building frequently used in Egypt as 
well as in Greece. 

Within the sanctuary lies a large 
broken block of red granite, polished, 
which may have been a part of the 
original shrine. And in one of the 
side chambers are some curious sculp- 
tures, in which figure a monkey and 
lion. 

The deity of Pselcis was Hermes 
Trismegistus, to whom a considerable 
number of Greek exvotos have been 
inscribed on the pylon and other parts 
of the temple, by officers stationed 
about Elephantine and Philae, and 
others who visited Pselcis. principally 
in the time of the Caesars. He is 
styled the very great Hermes Paut- 
nouphis. But the name was probably 
Taut-nouphis, which may be traced, j 
in the hieroglyphics over this deity, 
Taut-5-pnubs, or Taut-n-pnubsho, the 
" Thoth of Pnubs " or " Pnubsho," the 
Egyptian name of Pselcis. He is called 
in Arabic Hormos el Moselles, from his 
" triple " office of " king, prophet, and 
physician." 

(E.) Opposite Dalcheh, on the E. 
bank, is a large crude -brick fortress, 
which has some of the chief features 
of the Egyptian system of fortifica- 
tion. A lofty wall, about 15 ft. thick, 

[Egypt.] 



and more than 30 ft. high, encloses 
a rectangular space, surrounded by a 
ditch, with a scarp on one side, and 
a counterscarp on the other. The wall 
has square towers at intervals, but, 
instead of being as high as the wall, 
they only reach to a certain height, 
like buttresses ; those too of the angles 
are placed not on the corner of the 
wall, but one on each side of it. This 
last was usual even in forts with large 
towers. There are also the low wall 
in the ditch, parallel to the main wall ; 
and the long wall running across the 
ditch at right angles with the main 
wall to enable the besieged to rake its 
fiice. This last is on the E. side. The 
principal entrance was on the N., and 
from this a movable bridge was laid 
over the ditch, resting halfway on the 
low wall, which is of stone. At the 
S.W. corner is the water-gate, pro- 
tected and approached by a oovert way 
of stone, and flanked by a projecting 
wall. Less than Jm. to the S. are 
the ruins of a small sandstone temple, 
with clustered columns; and on the 
way, near the village, you pass a stone 
stela of Amenemha III., ment oning 
his 11th year. On other blocks are 
the names of Thothmes III. and a 
Rameses, and on a lion-headed statue 
is that of Horus. These doubtless mark 
tne site of Metacompso, which, if Pto- 
lemy is correct in placing it opposite 
Pselcis, must be the same as Contra- 
Pselcis. 

(Tf.) At Eoortee (3 J m.), the ancient 
Corte, there are a few ruins. 

(W.) Mctharrdker (3-f) marks the 
site of Hierasycaminon, the limit of 
the Dodecaschsenus. The remains are 
uninteresting. On a wall is a rude 
representation of Isis seated under the 
sacred fig-tree, and some other figures 
of a Roman epoch. Near it is an 
hypsethral building, apparently of the 
time of the Caesars, unfinished as 
usual ; and, as we learn from a Greek 
exvoto on one of the columns, dedi- 
cated to Isis and Serapis. Like most 
of the edifices in Nubia, it has been 
used as a place of worship by the 
early Christians, and is the last that 
we find of the time of the Ptolemies 

Y 



482 



ROUTE 21. FEILM TO WADY HALFAH. 



Sect. V. 



or Csesars, with the exception of 
Ibreem or Primis. 

Soon after leaving Maharraker, the 
cultivated soil on the banks again 
narrows, and the desert comes almost 
to the brink of the river. 

(IF".) Wddy Sabodah (20 m.) or the 
" Valley of the Lions," so called by 
the Arabs from the androsphinxes of 
the dromos that led np to the temple. 
This temple is of the early epoch of 
Eameses the Great. It is all built of 
sandstone, with the exception of the 
adytum, which is excavated in the 
rock. The dromos was adorned with 
eight sphinxes on either side, now 
more or less broken and buried, and 
terminated by two statues with 
sculptured stelae at their back, still 
standing ; to this succeed the two 
pyramidal towers of the propylon; 
the area, with eight Osiride figures 
attached to the pillars, supporting the 
architraves and roofs of the lateral 
corridors : and the interior chambers, 
which are generally closed by the 
drifted sand. 

These chambers afford some curious 
evidence of having been used as a 
Christian church. Over the god 
whose image was carved in the adytum 
has been plastered a picture of St. 
Peter : the other paintings, however, 
have not been altered, and the result 
is that Eameses II. is now seen making 
offerings to a Christian saint. All 
these rock-hewn chambers have been 
thickly plastered, in order to fill up 
the many holes and cracks that 
occurred owing to the coarseness of 
the grain of the stone, and the hiero- 
glyphics have been impressed in this 
plaster when wet. 

At Sabodah begins the district in 
which Arabic is spoken. 

In respect of climate, the neighbour- 
hood of Sabooah is perhaps the plea- 
santest in Nubia. The air is deli- 
ciously soft and pure. 

Soon after passing Sabooah, the hills 
close in on the E. bank, and at Malkeh 
the river begins to take a considerable 
bend. In the northern angle of this 
bend, where the eastern hills again 
fall back considerably, lies 



(E.) Korosko (12^ m.). From this 
point the direct road lies across the 
desert to Aboo Hamed and the Upper 
Nile, Shendy, Sennaar, Khartoom, &c. 
The village itself, a small one, lies 
back on the edge of the desert ; but the 
bank is generally lined with the tents 
and merchandise of traders waiting for 
camels to Aboo Hamed or boats to 
the 1st Cataract. Any traveller who 
wishes to push on by the shortest 
way to the Upper Nile, should quit 
his boat here, and join some caravan. ' 
It takes from six to nine days to 
reach Aboo Hamed, a drear, -weari- 
some journey across an uninteresting 
desert. 

It is worth while to walk a little way 
inland, and climb one of the highest 
peaks. The view obtained will give a 
vivid impression of the savage sterility 
of this desert : barren hills rising one 
behind the other as far as the eye can 
reach, only separated by as barren val- 
leys. The rock is sandstone, thickly 
covered here and there with volcanic 
remains. 

Numerous rocky shoals obstruct the 
E. bank of the river after leaving 
Korosko ; and there are large sand- 
banks in the centre, on which croco- 
diles may often be seen. The desert 
hare may sometimes be found during 
a stroll into the eastern desert ; and a 
sharp eye will often detect a chame- 
leon on the branch of a tree. Some of 
these curious animals are sure to be 
offered for sale: they occasionally 
thrive well in confinement. 

The bend of the river still continues, 
and to such an extent that its course 
between Korosko and Derr is S.S.E. 
This often detains boats for a consider- 
able time on the way up, as it is im- 
possible to get on if a N. wind is 
blowing. . 

( W.) A'mada (7£ m.). Here, high 
up on the sandy bank, is a small but 
very elegant temple of considerable 
antiquity. The names found on it are 
those of Osirtasen III., probably the 
founder, Thothmes III., Amunoph II., 
and Thothmes IV. It consists of a 
portico, a transverse corridor, and 
three inner chambers, the central one 



Nubia. 



ROUTE 21. A'MADA— DERR. 



483 



of which is the adytum. The sculp- 
tures on the walls are as remarkable 
for the beauty of their style, as for the 
wonderful way in which, in many 
places, the colouring has been pre- 
served. This is no doubt owing to 
the unintentional aid of the early 
Christians, who here, as m many 
other places, covered the sculptures 
with mud and mortar to conceal them 
from sight, and thus protected them 
from the ravages of time. Unfor- 
tunately the temple is so blocked up 
with sand, that it is sometimes diffi- 
cult to get in, and candles are required 
in order to see the sculptures. 

The view from the roof of the 
temple down the reach of the river 
towards Korosko is very beautiful : 
the belt of palms on the right bank, 
backed by a picturesque ridge of black 
hills, with the blue river separating 
them from the golden sands of the 
left bank, form one of the prettiest 
bits of landscape on the Nile. It is a 
spot from which to see to perfection 
one of the splendid sunsets that in 
this part of Nubia excel in softness of 
tone and gorgeousness of colouring 
even those of Egypt, beautiful as they 
nearly always are. 

(2£.) Derr, or Dayr (4 m.). A large 
town, the capital of Nubia, but less 
neat and prepossessing-looking than 
many small villages. Its population, 
' too, excel in the art of pesting the 
traveller for backsheesh. At the back 
of the town, on the edge of the desert, 
is a rock-cut temple, of no great size, 
the total depth being only 110 ft. It 
is of the time of Eameses II., but the 
sculptures are not worthy of that 
epoch. They are now, too, very much 
: mutilated. 

In the area was a battle -scene ; but 
little now remains, except the imper- 
fect traces of chariots and horses, and 
some confused figures. On the wall 
of the temple the king is represented, 
' in the presence of Amun-re, slaying 
' the prisoners he has taken, and ac- 
,. companied by a lion ; ' and on the 
j opposite side the lion seizes one of 
d I the falling captives as he is held by 
the victorious monarch. 



Ke was the chief deity of the sanc- 
tuary, from whom the ancient town 
received the name of Ei-Ke, " the 
Abode of the Sun ; " and we find that 
this " temple of Eameses " was also 
considered under the special protection 
of Amun-re and of Thoth. Phtah like- 
wise held a distinguished place among 
the contemplar gods. 

It is worthy of remark that all the 
temples between the two cataracts, 
except Deil', Ibreem, and Ferayg, are 
situated on the W. side of the Nile ; 
and, instead of lying' on the arable 
land, are all built on the sandy plain, 
or hewn in the rock. This was, doubt- 
less, owing to their keeping the small 
portion of land they possessed for cul- 
tivation, while the towns and temples 
occupied what could be of no utility 
to the inhabitants. 

The name of Derr is derived from 
the " convent " of the old Christian 
inhabitants. It afterwards belonged 
to the Kashefs of Sultan Selim, whose 
descendants ruled the country till its 
reduction by Mohammed Ali, and 
whose family still remains there ; and 
the chief people of Derr pride them- 
selves on their Turkish origin, and 
the fair complexion which distinguishes 
them from the other Nubians. 

The sandbanks in front of Derr are 
much frequented by crocodiles. 

After leaving Derr, the aspect of 
the river-banks is much less bare. The 
strip of soil is broader here than any- 
where in Nubia, and nowhere is it 
cultivated with more care. The salri- 
yahs are innumerable. There is one 
at nearly every ] 00 yards, and where 
the banks are high, there are often 
two or three one above the other. The 
noise made by these machines, which 
go night and day, is something 
astounding. They are never greased, 
and turn round with one constant 
shrill shriek or dull groan, according 
as the wood is new or old. 

(E.) On the road from Derr to 
Ibreem, inland, is a grotto cut in the 
rock, called El Doohnesra, opposite 
Gattey, with sculptures of old time ; 
and on the W. bank, above Gezeeret 
Gattey, is a small tomb, inland in the 
desert, cut in a rock of pyramidal 
y 2 



484 



EOUTE 21. PHIL^J 



TO WADY HALFAH. 



Sect. V. 



form, which hears the name of Ba- 
rneses V. and his queen Nofre-t-aret. 
The Person of the tomb was one 
" Poeri, a royal son of Cush " (Ethiopia), 
who is represented doing homage to 
the Egyptian Pharaoh. 

Before reaching Ibreem the river 
becomes very broad, and enormous 
sandbanks stretch over a large ex- 
panse, dividing the river into many 
narrow channels. 

(E.) Ibreem (13 m.) is situated on a 
lofty cliff, commanding the river, as 
well as the road by land, and is the 
supposed site of Primis Parva. It 
contains no remains of antiquity, ex- 
cept part of the ancient wall on the S. 
side, and a building, apparently also 
of Eoman date, in the interior, towards 
the N. side. The latter is built of 
stone, the lower part of large, the 
upper of small, blocks. Over the door 
is the Egyptian cornice, and a pro- 
jecting slab intended for the globe and 
asps ; and in the face of the front wall 
is a perpendicular recess, similar to 
those in Egyptian temples for fixing 
the flag-staffs on festivals. In front 
of this is a square pit, and at its 
mouth lies the capital of a Corinthian 
column of Eoman time. The blocks 
used in building the outer wall were 
taken from more ancient monuments. 
Some of them bear the name of Tir- 
hakah, the Ethiopian king, who ruled 
Egypt as well as his own country, 690 
b.c, and whose Ethiopian capital was 
Napata, now El Barkal. 

It is probable that the Eoman s, 
finding the position of Ibreem so well 
adapted for the defence of their terri- 
tories, stationed a garrison there as an 
advanced post, and that the wall is a 
part of their fortified works. It was 
in later times fixed upon by Sultan 
Selim as one of the places peculiarly 
adapted for a permanent station of the 
troops left by him to keep the Nubians 
in check ; and the descendants of 
Sultan Selim's Turks remained there 
till expelled from it by the Memlooks 
(or Ghooz), on their way to Shendy, 
in 1811. It is well worth climbing to 
the top of the hill for the sake of the 
view. 



In . the rock beneath Ibreem are 
some small painted grottoes, bearing 
the names of Thothmes I. and III., of 
Amunoph II. and of Rameses II., with 
statues in high relief at their upper 
end. 

About half-way from Ibreem to 
Bostan are a mound and a stel&, about 
6 ft. high, with hieroglyphics. Bostan 
is the Turkish name for " garden," 
and was probably given it by the 
soldiers of Sultan Selim. 

A short way beyond it at Tosh, 
Tushlca or Tosko (the Nubian word 
signifying "three"), are two reefs of 
rocks, stretching across the Nile, and 
nearly closing the passage in the 
month of May, when the river is low. 
They form a complete weir, and would 
be very dangerous to a boat coming 
down the stream without a piJot. 

After passing Tosko the river in 
many places flows literally through 
the desert. There is no cultivation on 
either bank. But the aspect of the 
E. bank is quite different from that of 
the W. : bleak, black, and weird-look- 
insr, the former lacks the golden sands 
which brighten up the Libyan desert, 
and clothe its valleys and hill-sides. 

(W.) Aboo Simbel (34 m.). At Aboo 
Simbel, or, as it is sometimes called, 
Ipsambool, are the most interesting 
remains met with in Nubia, and, ex- 
cepting Thebes and the Pyramids, 
throughout the whole valley of the 
Nile. It has two temples hewn in 
the gritstone rock, both of the time 
of Rameses the Great ; which, besides 
their grandeur, contain highly-finished 
sculptures, and throw great light on 
the history of that conqueror. 

Candles will be necessary for seeing 
the sculptures in these temples : but 
travellers should on no account allow 
torches to be used ; not only do they 
blacken the sculptures, but they render 
the atmosphere inside the temples so 
stifling and offensive, that if three or 
four parties follow one another it be- 
comes barely possible to breathe. Mag- 
nesium wire is the best thing to use in 
all cases where a strong light is re- 
quired for seeing the general effect. 

The small temple was dedicated to 



Nubia. 



ROUTE 21. ABOO SIMBEL : THE GREAT TEMPLE. 



485 



Athor, who is represented in the j 
adytum under the form of the sacred j 
cow, her emblem, which also occurs 
in the pictures on the wall. Her title 
here is " Lady of Aboshek " (Aboccis), 
the ancient name of Aboo Simbel 
which, being in the country of the 
Ethiopians, is followed in the hiero- 
glyphics by the sign signifying " fo- 
reign land/' The facade is adorned 
with several statues in prominent re- 
lief of the king and the deities ; and 
the interior is divided into a hall of 
six square pillars bearing the head of 
Athor, a transverse corridor, with a 
small chamber at each extremity, and 
an adytum. Among the contemplar 
deities are Ee, Amun-re, Isis, and 
Phtah ; and Kneph, Sate, and Anouke, 
the triad of the cataracts. The mon- 
arch is frequently accompanied by his 
queen Nofre-ari. The total depth of 
this excavation is about 90 ft. from 
the door. 

The exterior of the Great Temple is 
remarkable for the most beautiful of 
till Egyptian colossi. They represent 
jRameses II. They are seated on 
thrones attached to the rock, and the 
faces of some of them, which are fortu- 
nately well preserved, evince a beauty 
of expression, the more striking as it 
is unlooked for in statues of such di- 
mensions. Their total height is about 
66 ft. without the pedestal. The ear 
measures 3 ft. 5 in. : forefinger (i.e. to 
the fork of middle finger), 3 ft. ; from 
inner side of elbow-joint to end of 
middle finger, 15 ft., &c. The total 
' height of the facade of the temple 
1 may be between 90 and 100 ft. The 
head of one of the statues is com- 
pletely broken off, but the others are 
: tolerably intact. On the leg of the 
first to the left as you approach the 
1 door of the temple, is the curious 
! Greek inscription of the Ionian and 
1 Carian soldiers of Psammetichus, first 
,] discovered by Mr. Bankes and Mr. 
1 Salt, as well as some interesting hiero- 
' glyphic tablets. 

That inscription is of very great 
1 interest upon several accounts. It 
' appears to have been written by the 
troops sent by the Egyptian king after 
" the deserters, who, to the number of 



240,000, are said by Herodotus to have 
left the service of Psammetichus be- 
cause they had been stationed in gar- 
rison at Syene for three years without 
being relieved, and to have settled in 
Ethiopia. 

The inscription is in a curious style 
of Greek, with a rude indication of 
the long vowels, the more remarkabk 
as it dates more than 100 years before 
Simonides. The i) is 0, and the a is 
0. Col. Leake has given the follow- 
ing version and translation : — 

BacrtAeco? ekOovros e? TLhzfyavrivav ^aixarixo 
(for ou) 

TavTa eypaij/av tol <tvv ~%afx.iAa.TLXf>? to> ©cokA 

[ows] 

eirKeov tjA0ov Se Kep/ao? narvirepOeviso (for ei? 
o) 7roTaf<.o; 

aviy) aAoyAoo-os o rfX^OTaai-ixro Ai-yu^-rios 
Aju.a<rt? 

eypa<f>e Aafieapxov Ajaoi^t^o[u] /ecu IIeA.e$os 
(ileAeOos) OuSa/uojV] 
"King Psamatichus having come to Ele- 
phantine, those who were with Psamatichus, 
the son of Theocles, wrote ttiis. They sailed, 
and came to above Kerkis, to where the river 

rises '. the Egyptian Amasis. The 

writer was Damearchon, the son of Amoebichus, 
and Pelephus (Pelekos), the son of TJdamns." 

From this it appears that the " king 
Psamatichus" only went as far as 
Elephantine, and sent his troops after 
the deserters by the river into Upper 
Ethiopia ; the writer of the first part, 
who had the same name, being doubt- 
less a Greek. 

Besides this inscription are others, 
written by Greeks who probably 
visited the place at a later time ; 
as " Theopompus, the son of Plato ; " 
u Ptolemy, the son of Timostratus ; " 
Ktesibius, Telephus, and others. There 
are also some Phoenician inscriptions 
on the same colossus. 

The grand hall is supported by eight 
Osirifle pillars, and to it succeed a 
second hall of four square pillars, a 
corridor, and the adytum, with two 
side chambers. Eight other rooms 
open on the grand hall, but they are 
very irregularly excavated, and some 
of them have lofty benches projecting 
from the walls. In the centre of the 
adytum is an altar, and at the upper 
end are four statues in relief. The 
dimensions of the colossi attached to 
the pillars in the great hall are — from 



486 



EOUTE 21. PHIL^ 



TO WADY HALFAH. 



Sect. V, 



the shoulder to the elbow, 4 ft. 6 in. ; 
from the elbow to the wrist, 4 ft. 3 in. ; 
from the nose to the chin, 8 in.; the 
ear, 13f in. ; the nose, about 10 in. ; 
the face, nearly 2 ft. ; and the total 
height, without the cap and pedestal, 
17 ft. 8 in. 

The principal objects of the interior 
are the historical subjects relating to 
the conquests of Barneses II., repre- 
sented in the great hall. A large 
tablet, containing the date of his first 
year, extends over great part of the 
N. wall : and another between the two 
last pillars on the opposite side of 
this hall, of his 35th year, has been 
added long after the temple was com- 
pleted. The battle-scenes are very 
interesting. Among the various sub- 
jects are the arks of the Egyptians, 
which they carried with them in their 
foreign expeditions. The subjects on 
the IS. wall are particularly spirited. 
A charioteer, just bending his bow, 
with the reins tied round his waist, 
is full of life. 

Ee (the Sun) was the god of the 
temple and the protector of the place. 
In a niche over the entrance is a 
statue of this deity in relief, to whom 
the king is offering a figure of Truth ; 
and he is one of the four at the end of 
the adytum. The Theban triad also 
holds a conspicuous place here, as well 
as Nou or Kneph, Khem, Osiris, and 
Isis. The total depth of this exca- 
vation, from the door, is about 200 ft., 
without the colossi and slope of the 
facade. A short distance to the S. 
are some hieroglyphic tablets on the 
rock, bearing the date of the 38th year 
of the same Eameses. 

The great temple of Aboo Simbel 
was formerly quite closed by the sand 
that pours down from the hills above. 
The first person who observed these 
two interesting monuments was Burck- 
hardt; and in 1817, Belzoni, Captains 
Irby and Mangles, and Mr. Beechey, 
visited them, and resolved on clearing 
the entrance of the larger temple from 
the sand. After working eight hours 
a day for a whole fortnight, with the 
average heat of the thermometer from 



112° to 116° Fahr. in the shade, they 
succeeded in gaining admittance ; and, 
though the sand closed in again, their 
labours enabled others to penetrate 
into it without much difficulty. It is 
a toilsome climb through the sand to 
the top of the cliff above the statues, 
but the view is a very fine one. 

(E.) Nearly opposite Aboo Simbel 
is Ferdyg, a small excavated temple, 
consisting of a hall, supported by four 
columns, two side chambers or wings, 
and an adytum. It has the name and 
sculptures of the successor of Amunoph 
III., and was dedicated to Amunre 
and Kneph. At a later time it became 
a Christian church, for which its cruci- 
form plan was probably thought par- 
ticularly appropriate. On the ceiling 
are paintings of Our Saviour with a 
glory, and raised hand in act of bless- 
ing St. George, who is spearing the 
dragon. In the sanctuary are two 
sedilia. 

(E.) Close to the S. of Gebel Addeh, 
on a conical hill called Gebel esh 
Shems (" Hill of the Sun"), and a little 
way above Ferayg, are some tablets, 
and a very old tomb in the rock. In 
a niche is the name of a king, pro- 
bably one of the Sabacos of the XII Ith 
dynasty, who is seated with Anubis, 
Savak, and Anouke, receiving the 
adoration of a "royal son of Cush." 
The king's prenomen reads Merkere (?). 
There is also a grotto with an illegible 
name of a king, and another prince of 
Cush, or Ethiopia ; with other hiero- 
glyphics on the rock, having the name 
of an individual called Thothmes. 

(IF.) Faras. or Farras, on the W. 
bank, is supposed to be the Fhthuris 
of Fliny ; and, from the many sculp- 
tured blocks and columns there, it 
is evident that some ancient town 
existed on that spot ; though, judging 
from the style, they appear to belong 
to a Boman'" rather than an Egyptian 
epoch. 

A little to the S. is a small grotto 
with hieroglyphics of the time of 
Barneses II. ; and in the hills to the 
westward are some tombs hewn in 
the rock with several Coptic inscrip- 



Nubia, 



ROUTE 21. WADY HALFAH SECOND CATARACT. 



487 



tions, from one of which, bearing the 
name of Diocletian, it seems that they 
served as places of refuge during some 
of the early persecutions of the Chris- 
tians. They swarm with bats. To 
the S.W. are ruins of baked brick, with 
stone columns, of the low ages. 

At Serra are the remains of what 
was once perhaps a quay; but there 
are no ruins of any ancient town in 
the vicinity, though it also lays claim 
to the site of Phthuris. There are 
some fine reaches in the river between 
Aboo Simbel and Wady Halfah, but 
the banks are tame and uninteresting. 

(IF.) Wady Halfah (40 m.). A 
large village, lying scattered among 
a thick belt of palms. Numerous 
sandbanks intervene between it and 
the deep river-channel, so that daha- 
beeahs have to moor some way from 
the bank. In the plain behind the 
village are some curious wells with 
sakiyahs. 

On the E. bank opposite Wady Hal- 
fah are the vestiges of three buildings. 
One is a simple square of stone, with- 
out sculpture ; another has several 
stone pillars, the walls being of brick ; 
but the third has been ornamented 
with a number of columns, parts of 
which still remain. Sufficient, how- 
ever, still exists to tell us that it was 
an ancient Egyptian building ; and 
that it was, at least originally, com- 
menced by the 3rd and 4th Thothmes, 
and apparently dedicated to Kneph. 

The whole scene at Wady Halfah is 
very drear and desolate, unless en- 
livened, as it sometimes is, by an 
encampment of traders on their way 
to, or returning from, the Soodan. 
Their merchandize is transferred here 
from camels to boats, or vice versa. 
The goods that are waiting for camels 
to take them into the interior are un- 
interesting enongh, consisting almost 
entirely of cotton stuffs, and other Eu- 
ropean manufactured articles ; those 
that have just left the camels' backs 
are more novel and varied, and make 
with their escort a picturesque group 
on the shore. 

The only thing that makes it worth 



while to come the additional 40 miles 
from Aboo Simbel to Wady Halfah, is 
the view of the Second Cataract to be 
obtained from the rock of Abooseer. 
It is situate on the W. bank, about 
5 or 6 miles above Wady Halfah. It 
is rather a fatiguing walk owing to 
the loose sand, but donkeys can be 
procured from the village. The Second 
Cataract is perhaps less interesting 
than the First, but more extensive, 
being a succession of rapids, which 
occupy a space of several miles, called 
Batn el Hagar, " the Belly of Stone." 
On the W. bank, just below this rocky 
bed, is the high cliff of Abooseer, from 
which there is a fine and command- 
ing view of the falls ; and this is the 
ultima Thule of Egyptian travellers. 
Indeed, the 2nd Cataract is im- 
passable except at one season of the 
year, during the high Nile ; and the 
same impediments occur at the various 
rapids above it. 

From this cliff is a grand bird's-eye 
view of the cataract, with its numerous 
black shining rocks dividing the river 
into endless channels, and the Nile 
spreading out to a considerable breadth. 
Southwards the view extends to a con- 
siderable distance, amongst the plains 
of sand and the ranges of hills which 
stretch away into the horizon, while 
here and there the Nile may be seen, 
like a silver thread, running through 
the dreary waste. Two mountains on 
the horizon mark the position of 
Dongola. 

The rock of Abooseer is a veritable 
Livre des Voyageurs, and custom sanc- 
tions here, as innocent and not with- 
out a certain interest of its own, a 
practice which good taste and common 
sense alike condemn most strongly, 
when indulged in to ' the injury of 
priceless monuments of antiquity and 
works of art. 

While the traveller is absent at 
Abooseer, the dahabeeah is prepared 
for its downward journey. The big 
yard and sail (trinkeet) are taken down 
and fastened above the deck, and the 
small yard and sail (balakoon) hoisted 
on the mainmast, the oars are all out 
and tied to the tholes, and many of 
the deck planks taken up to make 



488 



ROUTE 21. PHIL^l TO WADY HALFAH. 



Sect. V. 



room for the rowers' legs. The result 
is that the graceful dahabeeah is turned 
into a junk -like barge. 

Going down the river, the sailors 
row, if it is calm ; if the wind is con- 
trary, the boat is turned broadside to 
the stream, and floats at about the 
rate of a mile or two an hour, ac- 
cording to the respectively opposing 
strengths of wind and water. Some- 
times, of course, the wind is so viole it 
that no progress can be made, and 
there is nothing for it but to go into 
the bank and stop. With a favouring 
S. wind the small sail is made use of. 

Semneli. — About 35 m. beyond Wady 
Halfah are the village and cataract of 
Semneli, where on either bank is a 
small but interesting temple of the 3rd 
Thothmes. Camels for the journey to 
Semneh and back can be hired at 
Wady Halfah, for about .6 dollars each. 
It will require 4 or 5 days, according 
to the rate of going and the stoppages 
made. The E. bank is perhaps the 
best to follow — it is the more pic- 
turesque, and the most interesting re- 
mains at Semneh are on that side. 
The road, which sometimes lies by the 
river and at others crosses the desert, 
is very rough in places, The district 
is called Batn el Hagar, " the Belly of 
Bock." Now and then there are little 
open spaces on the river-bank with a 
hut or two, some palms, and a little 
cultivation. Sedjajeeah, a good half- 
way stopping-place, is one. Semneh 
itself is another similar oasis. 

The temple on the E. bank consists 
of a portico, a hall parallel to it, ex- 
tending across the whole breadth of 
the naos, and one large and three 
small chambers in the back part. It 
stands in an extensive court or enclo- 
sure surrounded by a strong crude - 
brick wall, commanding the river, 
which runs below it to the westward. 
In the portico was the tablet recording 
the conquests of Amunoph III. (given 
by the Duke of Northumberland to 
the British Museum) : and on the front 
of the naos, to which are two entrances, 
Thothmes III. is making offerings to 
Totouon, the god of Semneh, and to 
Kneph, one of the contemplar deities. 



! The name of Thothmes II. also occurs 
in the hieroglyphics ; and those of 
Amunoph II. and of the 3rd Osirtasen 
are introduced in another part of the 
temple. 

That on the western bank, though 
small, is of a more elegant plan, and 
has a peristyle, or corridor, supported 
by pillars on two of its sides : but to 
cross the river it is necessary to put 
up with a ruder raft than the paeton, 
by which Strabo was carried over to 
Philge, this one being merely formed of 
logs of the dom palm, lashed together, 
and pushed forward by men who swim 
behind it. 

The Semneh natives too are very 
exorbitant in their demands for ferry- 
ing you over. Nor is it a pleasant 
method of transit when the N. wind 
is blowing strongly, as the stream 
being very rapid, the waves are rather 
high for crossing in such a fragile 
craft. How prevalent the N. wind is 
in this part of Nubia is proved by the 
fact that the huts of the natives, 
which are built of loose stones and 
dhoora straw, thatched with the same 
straw, or with halfah grass, are always 
placed, so as to be sheltered • by some 
rock on the N. side. 

The temple on the W. bank only 
consists of one chamber, about 30 ft. 
by 11, with an entrance in front, and 
another on the W. side, opposite whose 
northern jamb, instead of a square 
pillar, is a polygonal column, with a 
line of hieroglyphics, as usual, down 
its central face. On the pillars king 
Thothmes III. is represented in com- 
pany with Totouon and other deities 
of the temple ; and, what is very re- 
markable, his ancestor Osirtasen HI. 
is here treated as a god, and is seen 
presenting the king with the emblem 
of life. On the front wall is a tablet 
in relief, with the name of Amosis, and 
of Thothmes II. ; and mention is made 
of the city of Thebes. But this tablet 
has been defaced by the hieroglyphics 
of another cut in intaglio over it, appa- 
rently by a Barneses. 

At the upper end of the naos is a 
sitting statue of gritstone, with the 



Nubia. 



ROUTE 21. SEMNEH. 



489 



emblem of Osiris, intended perhaps to | 
represent the king Osirtasen. 

Each temple stands within the I 
crude-brick walls of a strong fortress, J 
from which we learn many secrets of! 
the Egyptian system of fortification at j 
that early period ; and an inscribed 
tablet at the western fort tells ns that 
this was made the frontier of Egypt j 
in the reign of the third Osirtasen. 
Here the defences are very remark- 
able; and they present not only the 
lofty walls and square towers of Egyp- 
tian fortresses, but the scarp, ditch, 
counterscarp, and glacis, partaking of 
the character of more recent works. 
The traces of a stone causeway show 
that a road led to the summit of the 
hill on which it stands, and the water- 
gate, in this and in the eastern fort, 
proves from its position that these i 
forts were iutended against an enemy ! 
from the south, and not against the 
shepherd invaders of Egypt. 

Below, on the E. side, falls the Nile, 
through a narrow passage between the 
rocks that impede its course ; and just 
below the platform on which the 
eastern temple stands are several early 
hieroglyphic inscriptions, recording the 
rise of the Nile during the reign of 
Amenemha III., of the Xlltk dynasty 
— the supposed founder of the Laby- 
rinth — and the Moeris to whom Egypt 
was indebted for the celebrated lake 
called after him, and other works con- 
nected with the irrigation of Egypt. 
From them, too, and from various indi- 
cations of the former level of the 
Nile, to the S. and N. of Semneh, we 
learn that the inundation rose at that 
period considerably higher throughout 
Ethiopia than at the present day ; and 
the highest record of the inundation 
in the time of Amenemha is 27 ft. 3 in. 
above the greatest rise of the Nile at 
the present time. The appearance of 
the river - deposits from Semneh to 
Gebel Baikal seems to show that the 
inundation in those ages extended 
far over the plains in Ethiopia (which 
are now above the reach of the highest 
rise of the Nile), and that conse- 
quently some barrier had given way 
below Semneh, which had let down 



the Nile and occasioned this great 
change in its level throughout Ethi- 
opia. Supposing that 1°. the river 
had formerly run through the plain 
on the E. of Assooan (where a later 
torrent gives a section of the old de- 
posits of the river) ; 2°. that the temple 
of Ombos stood on a plain of alluvial 
scil; and 3°. that similar remains of 
the Nile deposit are traceable as far 
as Silsilis, but no further, the question 
is decided respecting the position of 
the barrier which once held up the 
Nile to that great height which en- 
abled it annually to flood the plains 
of Ethiopia ; and whose disruption 
left those plains unwatered by the 
inundation. 

The period when this fall of the 
rocks at Silsilis took place may be 
fixed between the beginning of the 
XYIHth dynasty and the reign of 
the fourth king of the XHIth, who 
mentions the rise of the Nile in his 
3rd year at the western fort of Semneh ; 
or rather the reign of the sixth king 
of the XHIth, one of the early Sa- 
bacos. whose statue is found at Argo. 
that island being below the level of 
the old inundation. 

Fatal as this catastrophe was to the 
once rich and well-watered plains of 
Ethiopia, which were thus suddenly 
deprived of the benefits of the annual 
inundation, its effect on Egypt was 
momentary, and was confined to the 
lands immediately below Silsilis, which 
were submerged and torn up by the 
falling mass of water ; and this may 
explain the singular fact of one of the 
most remarkable changes that ever 
took place in so large a river having 
been unnoticed even in the scanty 
annals of Manetho. 

The ruins of Semneh are supposed 
to mark the site of Tasitia, or of 
Acina ; and we may perhaps trace 
in the hieroglyphics the name of the 
ancient town, called in Egyptian To- 
tosha; unless this be a general ap- 
pellation of the country, including 
Semneh, Aboo Simbel, and their vi- 
cinity, and related to the Coptic name 
Ethaush or Ethiopia. If Ptolemy is 
to be trusted, Tasitia was on the W. 



490 RTE. 22. WADY HALF AH TO 

side of the river, and Pnoups oppo- 
site it on the E.. as he places both 
in latitude 22° ; so that Semneh may 
include the sites of both these ancient 
villages. 



EOUTE 22. 

WADY HALFAH, BY DONGOLA, MEROE, 
AND BERBER, TO KHARTOOM, AND 
THENCE, BY BERBER, TO SOWAK.IM 
ON THE RED SEA. 

Wady Halfah is the ordinary turn- 
ing point of Nile travellers. But as 
occasionally some may wish to push 
on further, and see a little more of the 
country, the following information is 
inserted, taken from notes kindly fur- 
nished to the Editor by a friend, who 
followed the above route in 1870. 

It will be recollected that the direct 
caravan route between the Lower Nile 
and Khartoom leaves the river at 
Korosko, and goes straight across the 
desert to Aboo Hamed on the Upper 
Nile, about two-thirds of a degree N. 
of Berber. It is therefore the best 
for those to follow whose object is to 
get to Khartoom quickly, as it will 
only take about a fortnight to get to 
Berber, instead of about 5 weeks as by 
Halfah and Dongola. The interest of 
the route by Halfah, however, lies in 
its passing by Aboo Simbel, the Isle 
of Argo, Meroe, Gebel Barkal, &c. 

Stores for the journey must of course 
be laid in before leaving Cairo. They 
will in a general way be the same as 
those required for that part of the 
Nile voyage already described. The 



KHARTOOM AND SOWAKIM. Sect. V. 

following hints, however, should be 
acted on. As meat of any kind is 
with difficulty found anywhere be- 
tween Wady Halfah and Ordee or 
New Dongola, a supply of preserved 
meats, soups, and Liebig's Extract 
must be taken. There is no bread 
to be got other than the native flat 
cake, therefore plenty of biscuits are 
required, enough to last the whole 
time ; and the coarser, rougher, and 
browner they are, the longer will it be 
before they pall on the taste. They 
can be bought for Is. the oke. Cows' 
milk is to be had nowhere, so take 
plenty of preserved milk. Butter, eggs, 
and onions can only be obtained, and 
then with difficulty, at the large towns. 
Goats' milk and flesh, and mutton can 
be bought between Berber and Khar- 
toom ; a sheep or goat can be had for 
a dollar. Before leaving Berber for 
Sowakim buy some sheep; they can 
travel very well, and keep up with the 
baggage - camels. Charcoal can be 
bought at all the large towns from the 
workers in metal, but it is only wanted 
between Wady Halfah and Meroe, as 
no rain falls there, and there is no 
brushwood. Elsewhere wood is plen- 
tiful. 

For information relative to desert 
travelling the traveller is referred to 
Kte. 14 (a), where full particulars as to 
tents, camel - riding, &c, are given. 
Tents on this journey are not an abso- 
lute necessity, but it is pleasanter to 
have them. Warm clothing is essen- 
tial, the nights of December and Janu- 
ary being intensely cold, and the N. 
wind very cutting. The best form in 
which to take money is in dollars, 
tariff and current piastres, and copper 
10-para pieces. English and French 
gold can sometimes be changed at 
Khartoom. 

The best time for leaving Cairo with 
the intention of penetrating into the 
Soodan is about the 1st of October. 
The time spent will depend on the 
stoppages made, and whether the voy- 
age be at all extended up the White 
or Blue Nile. From Cairo to Khar- 
toom, and thence to the Ked Sea, and 
back to Cairo, will take from 4 to 5 
months, though, of course, more may 



Nubia. 



EOUTE 22. — NEW DONGOLA. 



491 



easily be spent. Eight months would 
allow a visit to the White or Blue 
Nile : the start should then be made 
in Sept., so as to be back at Cairo in 
May. 

It must be understood that the time 
given between plaee and place is 
merely approximative. It is impos- 
sible to obtain any idea of the dis- 
tances from the camel-drivers, their 
only unit of distance is a mahdttah, or 
day's journey, and this varies from 4 
to 12 hours, according to the pasture 
found for the camels. A " short ma- 
hdttah " or a " long mahdttah " is the 
only difference known to a native. 
Then they know none of the names of 
the small villages marked on the map ; 
they only know the districts, such as 
Batn el Hagar, Sukkoot, &c. 

Days. 

Wady Halfah to Semneh 2 

End of Batn el Hagar . . 2 (long) 

Beginning of Sukkoot 

district 1 (long) 

Beginning of Mahass dis- 
trict 2£ 

Third Cataract, or Han- 
nak 2 (long) 

Ordee, or New Dongola 1| 

Camels can be procured from the 
sheykh at Wady Halfah for this part 
of the journey. Not more than 7 
dollars a piece should be paid for them. 
Attention should be given to the 
number required, as the drivers always 
want to force the traveller to take 
more than necessary. A Nubian camel 
can carry 10 kantars (from 8 to 9 
cwt.). It must be distinctly under- 
stood that Semneh is to be taken on 
the way. 

Semneh has been already described. 
Two rather long days bring the tra- 
veller to the end of the Batn el Hagar. 
or " Belly of Stone." The next day's 
journey is a long one inland across the 
desert without water. This is called 
by the Arabs an alcabah. 

At the end of it is the district of Suk- 
koot, which it takes 4 hrs. to traverse ; 
thereby giving time for a rest before 
entering on the long akdbah between 
the districts of Sukkoot and Mahass. 
A night having to be passed in the 



desert, the water-skins and zemzem- 
eeyah must be well filled. Occasional 
signs of vegetation are met with during 
the day in the valleys, down which 
rush the torrents caused by the rare 
but heavy rains swept across by the 
west wind from the Red Sea. On a 
plain covered with food for the camels, 
and surrounded by low hills, the en- 
campment is made. A short day of 
6 or 7 hrs. brings the traveller to the 
district of Mahass, which it takes 10 
or 12 hrs. to traverse. Excellent dates 
may be bought in this district. One 
more akabah, and the road descends 
to a tiuy village just above the 3rd 
Cataract, or the Cataract of Hannah. 

From this point the Nile, which has 
been one series of rapids all the way 
from Wady Halfah, changes its cha- 
racter. The desert too is no longer 
hilly, but a wide sandy plain covered 
with a perpetual mirage. In 7 hrs.' 
ride the Isle of Argo is reached, sepa- 
rated from the eastern bank by a nar- 
row, and (in the winter) shallow chan- 
nel, which can be crossed on camels. 
Here are a few old remains. See Hos- 
kyn's ' Ethiopia,' for the antiquities 
above Semneh. In 6 hrs. more we come 
the ferry by which to cross over to 
Ordee. 

New Dongola, or, as the natives al- 
most invariably call it, Ordee, is the 
capital of Lower Nubia, and^the resi- 
dence of a mudeer. It is, however, 
a poor insignificant place, inhabited 
chiefly by Arabs and Turks, who carry 
on the whole trade, and possess what 
little property there is ; only the very 
lowest orders are Nubians. The lan- 
guage is universally Arabic. The 
town boasts of but one minaret, and 
the houses, shops, bazaars, &c, are 
mean and poor. Indeed it may be 
said of all the towns on the Upper 
Nile, Khartoom included, that they 
are but a copy of a poor quarter of 
Cairo. 

Days. 

Ordee or New Dongola 

to Debbah (by boat . . 5 
Meroe and Gebel Barkal 4 

Aboo Kereet 3 (short) 

Berber 3 (long) 

Khartoom 9-12 



492 RTE. 22. WADY HALF AH TO KHAETOOH AND SOWAEIM. Sect. V, 



Those pressed for time may go direct 
from Ordee to Meroe' across the desert 
in 3 days. The journey by the river, 
however, is more interesting. It is a 
pleasant change to go to Debbah by 
boat. The craft used in this part of 
the river is called a nugga. It is 
manned by 8 or 4 men, and has a 
half-deck, which affords some shelter 
from the sun. The hire of a nugga 
from Ordee to Debbah should not be 
more than 3 or 4 dollars. The dis- 
tance is about 100 miles, and with 
fair winds should not take more than 
5 days. A short stoppage may be made 
at Handak, Old Dongola, and Umgoozali. 
This last town, which is marked in 
the maps Abu Goosa, is the point of 
departure of the large caravans of 
Darfoor and Kordofan. A few days' 
stay here among the slave-traders, 
where they are out of the reach of 
consuls and other troublesome people, 
might be entertaining and instructive. 

Debbah is a small town. There is a 
direct road from it to Khartoom across 
the desert, which takes 10 days. Ex- 
cellent and cheap dates can be bought 
here. Debbah lies just in the great 
bend of the river that runs from Aboo 
Hamed to near Old Dongola. Camels 
to Meroe cost 2^ dollars each. The 
road lies close to the left bank of the 
river, and the distance is done in 3 long, 
or 4 easy days. The villages on the 
road, such as Abudom, Abu-Kol, Korti, 
&c. present nothing worthy of notice, 
Three hours before reaching Meroe 
the striking hill of Gebel Barkal can 
be seen, standing solitary and impos- 
ing, though of no great height. 

Meroe lies on the right bank of the 
Nile, and is reached by a ferry. It is a 
small town of no importance. Donkeys 
can be procured for the excursion to 
Gebel Barkal, 1 hr. Here are two 
temples with an avenue of sphinxes of 
the time of Tirkakah of the XXVth 
or Ethiopian dynasty; as also a group 
of pyramids. There are also other 
groups of pyramids at Dankelah, the 
site of the ancient Meroe, and at 
Nourri, a few miles further up. They 
are all of small size, and badly built. 



Some stelae discovered by M. Mariette 
at Gebel Baikal have thrown great 
light on the obscure period of Egyptian 
history comprised within the period of 
the XXIIIrd, XXIVth, and XXVth 
dynasties. 

At Meroe fresh camels must be 
procured for the journey to Berber. 
They will cost about 5 dollars each. 
As nearly the whole of the journey 
is over the desert, the water-skins 
should be well looked to. Five hrs. 
by the river-side brings you to Nourri, 
where are pyramids, as mentioned 
above. The next day is a short one 
of hrs. through the desert. An- 
other day of 11 hrs. brings the tra- 
veller to Sani, where there is a well 
with dirty water, from which the skins 
may be filled, but it is better to push 
on 5| hrs. further to Aboo Kereet, where 
the water is purer. 

From Aboo Kereet to Berber is 3 
long days without water. Some of the 
scenery on this road is very beautiful. 
Bold and lofty hills surround Aboo Ke- 
reet, and a fine range, called Gebel el 
Azrek (Blue Hills), is skirted about 
12 hrs. before reaching Berber. 

Berber resembles other Nubian towns 
in being insignificant and unattractive. 
It is the point of departure for the Bed 
Sea caravans to Sowakim rid. infra). 
From Berber to Khartoom the journey 
is continued in a nugga, for which not 
more than 9 dollars should be paid for 
the trip of from 9 to 12 days. The dis- 
trict of Berber is the limit (in this lon- 
gitude) of the southward flight of quail, 
which are found here in midwinter. 
Crocodiles and hippopotami abound 
between Berber and Khartoom: and 
there are swarms of aquatic birds on 
the sandbanks. Sand-grouse are also 
plentiful. The mouth of the Atbara 
is about 20 miles above Berber. No 
town of any importance lies between 
Berber and Shendy, a distance of about 
120 miles, and the scenery is flat and 
uninteresting. 

Mitemna lies at the end of a long 
reach after Shendy. Forty miles fur- 
ther on commences the 6th Cataract. 
There is no difficulty in passing it. 



Nubia. 



EOTJTE 22. ] 



KHARTOOM. 



493 



The scenery here is striking, the river 
forcing its way through a range of hills 
called Gebel Gerri.. Another flat and 
monotonous stretch of country presents 
itself, broken at last by the minarets 
of Khartoom. Before reaching the 
town the Nile opens out southwards 
into what appears like a vast sea — the 
shallow and lake-like White Nile — 
while a sudden turn carries the boat 
into the. Blue Nile, on the left bank of 
which stands Khartoom. 

Khartoom lies at the junction of the 
Bahr el Abiad or White Nile, and the 
Bahr el Azrek or Blue Nile, the latter 
of which is probably the true Nile, so 
far as the fertilising deposit which has 
produced Egypt is concerned. It is 
the capital of the province of Soodan, 
and the centre of the trade in the 
products of that country, slaves in- 
cluded. It may have about 20.000 
inhabitants, but it differs little from 
the other towns on the Upper Nile 
except in being of larger size. 

From Khartoom the journey may 
be continued up the White Nile ; or 
up the Blue Nile, either to its sources 
in Abyssinia, or round by Koos Kegeb 
and Kasala to Massowah. The best 
way of getting to the Red Sea, how- 
ever, is to return to Berber, and go 
thence to Sowakim. This journey will 
take about 12 days easy going. Camels 
can be procured at Berber for 6 dollars 
each for the journey, unless it is in- 
tended to stay in the desert for the 
purpose of shooting, and then, of 
course, more will be required. Gazelle 
and ariel are often seen, and some- 
times ostriches. The desert is by no 
means barren, abounding in water, 
brushwood, and food for the camels. 
It is interesting to make this journey 
in company with the pilgrims' caravan 
from Kordofan, composed of Darfoorian 
and Fellatah Moslems, some of whom 
take 3 years to cross from the west of 
Africa. The Bishareen Bedaween form 
the escort. In journeying with a cara- 
van care should be taken to start from 
and arrive at each place before it, so 
as to fill the waterskins before the 
supply is exhausted. 



The following is the direct itine- 



rary :— Hrs. 

Berber to Aboo Salab . . 8 

Oback 17 

Etzoo 4 

Ayamet 8 

Rowik 4 

Kokreb 14£ 

Ahab 10 

Harra Treb 5| 

Ooched 8 

Otan 10 

Hamdoo 3 

Sowakim 4 



The first well is reached after leaving 
Berber in 4 hrs., where the Arabs 
prefer filling their skins to avoid the 
trouble of carrying water from the 
Nile. Four hrs. after, the tents may 
be pitched at Aboo Salab, where there 
is no water, though a plentiful crop 
of dhoora is grown here after the 
autumn torrents. Seventeen hrs. fur- 
ther on is Oback, where pretty good 
water is to be had and (generally) 
milk from the flocks driven down for 
water and pasture by the Arabs. Just 
before reaching Oback a range of sand- 
hills (5 miles wide) is crossed, over 
which the camels flounder and fall. 
Etzoo (4 hrs.) and Ayamet (8 hrs.) have 
pasture for the camels, but no water 
is reached till Rowik (4 hrs. [Some- 
times a different route is taken which 
branches off at Ayamet, passes through 
Ariab, and rejoins the main track near 
Kokreb ; there is not, however, always 
water in the Ariab well.] 

A little before Eowik, glens are 
passed through, in which are seen 
beautiful specimens of petrified wood. 
Trunks of trees, from 5 to 8 ft. high, 
are still standing planted in the 
soil, while others lie strewn about 
as in the petrified forest near Cairo. 
Traces of copper occur here. Kokreb 
is 14 J hrs. from Eowik. After a 
long desert ride, its solitary palm, 
its little gushing spring of water, 
and its thick brushwood and vege 
tation, make it seem a perfect Eden. 
Next day a really beautiful range of 
hills is crossed. Ahab is 10 hrs. from 
Kokreb, and has a deep well with 
poor water. Three and a half hrs. 



494 RTE. 22. WADY HALF AH TO 

further on is Harm Treb (good water), 
and then a mountain-pass is crossed, 
and 8 hrs. from Harra Treb Ooched is 
reached, a charming spot, rich in water 
(which lies some 30 inches below the 
soil) full of trees and bushes in which 
are a variety of birds. Hence to 
Sowakim is a 17 hrs.' ride. Water is 
found on the road at Otan (10 hrs.) 
and Hamdoo (3 hrs.). 



KHARTOOM AND SOWAKIM. Sect. V. 

Shortly after leaving Hamdoo the 
crest of a hill is reached, from which 
is seen the hazy horizon of the Red 
Sea, and jfhe white, island-built town 
of Sowdkim, whence the traveller may 
take boat (dhow) for Jedda, or wait 
patiently till an Egyptian man-of-war 
{i.e. merchant steamer) calls on its way 
from Massowah to Suez. For Coast 
of Eed Sea, see Rte. 7 (</). 




Colossi of the Plain at Thebes, and Luxor beyond, during the inundation. 



( 495 ) 



INDEX. 



AAHOTEP. 



A. 

Aahotep, Queen, jewels of, 150. 

Ababdeh desert, 448. Arabs, 450. 

Abaton, 470, 471. 

Abbasseeyah, 158. 

Abbaside dynasty, 28. 

Abd-el-Atif, 86 et passim. 

Aboo-Azees, mounds at, 348. 

Aboo-Girgeh, ruins near, 347. 

Aboo-Hamed stat., 219. 

Aboo Hommoos stat., 111. 

Aboo-Honnes, old churcb at, 360. 

Aboo Hor, 479. 

Aboo-Kebeer stat., 253. 

Aboo Kereet, 492. 

Aboo Salab, 493. 

Aboo Shekook stat., 253. 

Abookeer, ic2. Battle -of, 102. 

Abookseer, 305. 

Aboolfeda, 165 et passim. 

Aboorodsh, pyramid, 199. 

Abooseer, mounds at, 248. Pyramids of, 200. 

Village, 201. Rock of, 487. 
Aboo Simbel, interesting remains at, 484. Great 

Temple, 485. 
Abooteeg, 371. 
Aboozdbel. 161. 
Abudom, 492. 
Abu-Kol, 492. 

Abydus, road to, from Great Oasis. 315. Town, 

381. Tablet of, 3 31, 281. Road from, to the 

Great Oasis, 382. 
Abyssinian primate sent in chains, 263. 
Acanthus, city of, 215, 342. 
Acanthus grove, near Abydus, 382. Near 

Mudmur, 371. In the neighbourhood of 

Sakkaxab, 215. 
Acoris,' 3 50. 
Agerood, 275. 
Ahab, 493. 

Ai'n Hawa>ah, 280, 282. 
Ain Hudherah, 298. 

Ain Moosa, 226. See Fountains of Moses. 
Ain Moosa to Jebel Moosa (Mt. Sinai) and the 

Convent of St. Catherine, 281. 
Akhsheed dynasty, 31. 
Alabaster quarries, 316, 352, 364. 
Alabastron, 353. 
Alexander, tomb of, 86. 

Alexandria, 69. Landing at, 69. Harbour, 70. 
Custom House, 70. Donkey-boys, &c, 71. 
Hotels, lodgings, cafes, &c, 72. Post-office, 72. 
Bankers, 72. Consulates, 72. Physicians, 
shops, &c, 73. Churches, 73. Conveyances, 



ARABIC. 

Railways, 73. Steamers, 74. Telegraph, 74. 
Servants, 74. Boats for the Nile voyage, 74. 
Ancient and modern history and topography, 
of, 75-82. Plan of, 76. Principal ancient 
buildings, 82. Pharos, Heptastadium, 82. 
Museum, library, 83. Serapeum, 84. Cassa- 
rium, Pannium, 86. Gymnasium, 87. An- 
cient remains, 87. Cleopatra's Needles, 87. 
Pompey's Pillar, 88. Population, ancient 
and modern, 89. Climate, 91. Government, 
91. Commerce and industry, 92. Ports, 
gates, walls, 92. Streets, &c, 93. Canals, 
94. Mosks, churches, convents, 95. Hos- 
pitals, charities, schools, 96. Theatres, 
amusements, &c, 96. Drives, excursions, 97. 
Catacombs, 97. Arsenal, Ras et Teen, 98. 
Ramleh, Ceesar's camp, 98. Plan for seeing 
Alexandria, 100. 

Alexandria to Rosetta, by land, 101. 

to Cairo, by land through the 

Delta, 104. 

to Cairo, by the Western Bank, 104. 

to Atfeh and Cairo, 105. 

to Cairo hy Railway, 1 1 1. 

to Hierasycaminon, by the "West 

Bank, 330 ; by the East Bank, 330. 
Ali Mohammed, n. See Mohammed Ali. 
Alluvial deposit, 461, 464, 471, 489. 
Almanac of the 4th century, 477. 
Amada, 482. 

Amer (Amrou), 27. Mosk of, at old Cairo, 164. 

At Assooan, 464. 
Ammaweeh, house of (Ommiades), 27. 
Ammon, Oasis of, 266-268. 
Amoodayn, 266. 
Amun-Neph, 266. 

Amunoph III., 427. Statues of, at Thebes, 407. 

Temple of, at Luxor, 437. 
Amunoph IV"., 363, 364. 
Anasieh, Hieracleopolis, 301, 345. 
Ancient remains of Alexandria, 87. 
Animals well represented, 436. Names written 

over, 358. 
Animals, domestic, 332. 
, wild, 326. 

Antinoe, ruins of, 359. Ruins and tombs in 

the vicinity, 360. 
Antiquities, Museum of Egyptian, 144. 
Antirhodus, island of, 79. 
Ape mummies, 437. 
Aphroditopolis, Atfeeyah, 343. 
Aphroditopolis, Itfoo, 374. 
Apis Mausoleum, or Serapeum, 207. 
Apollinopolis Parva, site of, 392. 
Arab bridges near the Pyramids, 200. 
Arab tribes, 275, 297, 450. 
Arabat el Matfoon, 381. 
Arabic and English vocabulary, 45-68. 



496 



/ INDEX. 



^ 



ARABIC. 

Arabic character first used, 31, 133. 
Arch, early use of the, 198, 214, 355, 382, 419. 
428. 

, imitation of the, 355. 

, pent-roof, 187, 189 

, pointed, 29, 32, 34, 44, 133, 134, 137, 164, 

171, 464, 470. 

/pointed, with a horseshoe base, 126, 137. 

, round horseshoe, rare in Egypt, 13 2. 

Argo, isle of, 491. 

Arrows tipped with stone for the chase, 356, 
4^6. 

with metal points for war, 456. 

Arsinoe, ancient canal of, 230. Site of, 300. 

Art, Egyptian, 198 et passim. 

Ashmoon, 110, 251. 

Assaseef, tombs of the, 428. 

Assooan, 462. Palms and dates of, 465. 

Astronomical ceilings, 385, 405, 426, 453. 

Asyoot, 368. 

Atfeeyah, Aphroditopolis, 343. 
Atfeh, 104, 106. 
Athanasius, letter of, 432. 
Athribis, ruins of, 113. 
Athribis, or Crocodilopolis, 375. 
Atreeb, Benha el Assal, 248. 
Attar en Nebbee, Mosk of, 339. 
Ayamet, 493. 

B. 

Bab-el-Mandeb, straits of, 227. 
Bab-el-Melook, Tombs, or Gates of the Kings at 

Thebes, 420. 
Babylon, Egyptian, 165. 
Backsheesh, 32; et passim. 
Bagdad founded, 28. 

Baharite Memlooks, Sultans/or Kings of Egypt, 

36. Tombs of, 1 ?8. 
Bahr-bela-me ravine, 339. 
Bahr el Abiad and Bahr el Azrek, 493. 
Bahr el Fargh, or Bahr-bela-ma, 265. 
Bahr el Timsah, 240. 
Bahr es Sogheiyer, 250. 
Bahr Yoosef Canal, 300, 301, 3«5- 
Bajoora, 383- 
Ball, game of, 357- 
Ballah, Lake, 243. 
Ballas, 391. Jars, 391. 
Ballat, 31 1. 
Balsam, 160. 

Barabras, the modern Nubians, 475. 
Baratoon, 265. 
Bardees, 379. 

Barrage of toe Nile, 110, 162. 
Basona, 373. 
Baths at Cairo, 141. 
Baths of Cleopatra, 97. 

Baths, remains of, at El Hammam, in the 

Fyoom. 305. 
Baths, sulphur, at Helwan, 343. 
Batn el Hagar, 487, 491. 
Battle of the Nile, 102. 
Battle of the Pyramids, 104. 
Battle-scenes at the Memnonium, 403, 404.. 

At Medeenet Hdboo, 413. At Luxor, 437. 

At Karnak, 44?. At Bayt el Welly, 478. 

At Derr, 483. At Aboo-Simbel, 486. 
Bayt, el Welly, 478 
Bazaars at Cairo, 141. 



BYADEEYAH. 



Bebayt-el-Hagar, 248. 
Bedreshayn stat., 202, 342. 
Beer el ingleez, 448. 
Beer el Batter, 275. 
Beggars in Egypt, 127, 344- 

, Christian, 349. 

Behnesa, 347. 
Belak, 315. 
Belbeis stat., 218. 
Bellianeh, 379. 

Belzoni's tomb at Thebes, of Sethi I., 421. 
Benha el Assal, 248. 
Benha junct. stat., 113. 
Beni Adee, 368. 

Beni Hassan, grottoes of, 354-359. 

Beni Mohammed el Kofoor, painted grottoes 

near, 368. 
Beni-Wasel, 345. 
Benisooef, 301, 344. 
Benoob, 250. 
Benoot, 391. 
Benoweet, 373. 
Berber, 492. 
Berberee, 473. 
Berenice, 228, 449. 
Berimbal, 251. 

Berkook, mosk of, 137. Tomb of, 138. 
Bers'hoom, 247. 

Beshendy, ruined town of, 312. 

Biahmoo, ruins of, 302. 

Bibbeh, mounds and convent at, 345. 

Biggeh, island of, 470. 

Biggig obelisk, 302. 

Birds of Egypt, 326, 327. 

Birket Akrashar, 161. 

Birket Arashieyab, 267. 

Birket el Hag, 161. 

Birket el Korn, 303. 

Birket-es-Sab stat., 113. 

Birket Ghutta's, 106. 

Birket Haboo, 417. 

Bishareeyah gold-mines, 449. 

Bishareeyah tribe of Arabs, 450. 

Blacks, Oases of the, 3 10. 

Boars, wild, 109, in, 257, 303. 

Boats, ancient Egyptian, described, 455. 

Boats of the Nile, 74, 120. 

Bolbitine branch of the Nile, 103. 

Booayb, 457. 

Book of the Dead, or Ritual, 147, 337. Quota- 
tion from, 145. 
Books, list of, xix. 
Boolak, 110, 174. 
Boosh, 344. 
Bordein stat., 218. 
Borel and Lavalley, Messrs., 233. 
Bostan, 484. 

Boghaz, the, or mouth of the Nile, 252. 
Brangeh, mounds at. 345. 
Breccia Verde quarries, 448. 
Brickmakers, but not Jev\s, 434. 
Broonibel mounds, 34? 

Bruce's, or the Harpers' tomb at Thebes, 424. 

Bubastis, 218. 

Burckhardt, tomb of, 139. 

Burial-place of the Jews, 339; of Apis, 207. 

Burning-Bush, chapel of the, 293. 

Busiris village, 201. 

Bussateen village, 339. 

Byadeeyah village, 360. 



INDEX. 



497 



Cadi's court at Cairo, 126. 

Caesars, names of the, 25, 26. 

Caesar's camp near Alexandria, 98, 99. 

Cairo, founded, 3T. Terminus, 114. Hotels, 
lodging-houses, tt5. Plan of, 116. Cafes, 
restaurants, 117. Post-Office, 117. Bankers, 
Consulates, Physicians, 117. Shops, trades- 
people, 118. Agents for forwarding goods, 118. 
Churches, 118. Conveyances, 118. Railways, 
telegraphs, 119. Servants, 119. Boats for the 
Nile voyage, steamers, 120. History and topo- 
graphy, 121. Copt, Jews, and Frank Quarters, 
122,123. Oriental character of, 123. Climate, 

125. Population, 125. Local government, 

126. Cadi's court, 126. Manufactures and 
Industry, 127. Gates, walls, 127. Canals, 
lakes, 128. Citadel, 128. Mosk of Moham- 
med Ali, 129. Joseph's Well, 130. Mosks, 
churches, 130-138. Tombs, cemeteries, 138. 
Sebeels, or public fountains, 139 Streets, 
public places, 140. Baths, 141. Bazaars, 
141. Palaces, 143. Schools, 143. Libraries, 
144. Museum, 144-15 1. Hospitals and 
Benevolent Societies, 151. Theatres, amuse- 
ments, 152. Festivals and religious cere- 
monies, 152. Modes, of seeing Cairo and 
neighbourhood, 155. Drives, excursions, 
156-215. To Shoobra, 156. To Heliopolis, 
157. To the "Petrified Forest," 161. To 
the Barrage, 162. To Old Cairo, 163. To 
the Pyramids, 173. To Sakkarah, 201. 

Cairo, old, 163. Mosk of Amer, 164. Roman 
fortress of Babylon, 165. Coptic convents 
and churches, 166-170. 

Cairo to the Suez Canal, 215-247. 

to Suez by railway, 216. 

by water to Damietta, 247. 

by rail to Damietta, 253. 

to San and Lake Menzaleh by rail and 

water, 254. 

to the Natron lakes and monasteries, 259 

to the Seewah, or Oasis of Ammon, 265. 

to Syria by the " Short Desert," 268. 

to Mount Sinai, 271. 

to the Fyoom, 298. 

■ to Medeeneh, 299. 

to the Little Oasis, the Great Oasis, and 

the Oasis of Dakhleh, by the Fyoom, 306. 

to the convents of St. Anthony and St. 

Paul in the Eastern desert, 316. ' 

to Thebes, 339. 

Caliphate in Asia, end of, 36. In Egypt, end 
of, 42. 

Caliphs and Sultans, list of the, 27-42. 
Caliphs, tombs of the, 138. 
Camel-riding, 273. 

Canal, ancient, between Mediterranean and Red 
Sea, 229. 

Canal of Cairo, cutting of the, 128, 153. 

Canal of Mahmoodeeah, 94, 105. Of Ismail - 

eeyah, 128. Of Arsinoe, 230. OfMoez, 114, 

248, 253. See Suez. 
Canal, Wady, 229. 
Canopic branch of the Nile, 102, 109. 
Canopus, 101. Decree of, 102, 151. 
Caravans from Darfbor, 314. 



COPTIC. 

Carchemish, and conquests of the Egyptians, 

405. 

Caricature, penchant of the Egyptians for, 43 5. 
Cartouches, or shields with kings' names, 19-26. 

Meaning explained, 327. 
Casal Crendi, xvii. 
i Catacombs at Alexandria, 89, 97. 
Cataract, First, 466. Ascent, and descent of, 

467. Second cataract, 487. Third cataract, 

491. Sixth cataract, 492. 
Cataract of Hannak, 491. 

Catherine, St. convent of, 291. Church, 292. 

Library, 293. Excursions from, 294-297. 
Causeways at the Pyramids, 198. 
Caviglia, 192, 193, 205. 
Ceilings of tombs, painted devices on, 369. 
Chalouf, 223, 2 j 7. 
Chameleon, 482. 

Cheops, or Shoofoo, Pyramid of, 179. 
Chephren, or Shafra, builder of the 2nd Pyramid 

of Geezeh, statue of, 148. His pyramid, 

189. 
Chereu, to6. 

Christian church, old, at Erment, 451. 
martyrs, 453. 

remains, 308, 314,315. 353, J 54, 360, 

361, 363, 366, 367, 370, r,3, 4°9, 432, 477, 
482. 483, 487. 

Christians formerly in Egypt and Nubia, 3^7, 

477,483.487- 
Chronological Table of Egyptian dynasties and 

kings, 12-18. 
Church, very early, in a quarry near Aboo 

Honnes, 360. 
Churches, 73, 95, 118, 166, 287, 292, 345, 360, 



375, 39i,393,4°9. 4i7> 45i- 
-, position of early, 376. 



Of 



1 Circles, stone, 285, 289. 
I Citadel of Cairo, 128. 
j Cleopatra, baths of, 89, 97. Cleopatra, portrait 

of, at Denderah, 388. At Erment, 45 c 
1 Cleopatra's Needles, Sn. 
Climate of h'gypt, 1. Of Alexandria, 91 
j Cairo, 125. 
! Clothing and mode of life, 6. 
I Coinage of Egypt, 8-10. 
Coins, Cufic, 27. 
I Colossi of Thebes, 407. 
j Colossus on a sledge, 361. 
Colours, or paints of the Egyptians, 458. 
! Columbarium in the Great Oasis, 312. 
Commerce of Alexandria, 92. 
) Consular courts, ju 1 isdictlon of, 91. 
Contra-Apoliinopolis, ancient road from, to 

Emerald mines, 450. 
Contra-Latron, temple at, 453. 
Contract with Dragoman, 320. 
Convent or monastery of Gebel et Tayr, 349. 
Of Mount Sinai, 291. Of Geergeh, 379. The 
oldest in Egypt, at Esneh, 453. 
Convents or monasteries near Antinoe, 360. Near 
Negadeh, 393. Of St. Anthony and St. Paul, 
316. Of the Natron lakes, 261. Of Boosh, 
344. Red and white, 374-376. In Island of 
Tabenna, 384. 

, other, 166, 308, 340, 344, 345, 360, 366, 

393, 4 l8 - 

, number of, in Egypt, 263. 

Coptic convents and churches at old Cairo, 166- 
170. 



498 



INDEX. 



COPTIC. 

Coptic patriarch, 263, 316. 
Coptos, 391. 

to Berenice, road from, 449. 

Copts, the, 332.1 

Coronation ceremony at Thebes, 412. 
Crocodile mummies, 367. 

Crocodiles, 213, 327, 366, 390, 460, 482, 483, 
492. Power of Tentyrites over, 389. Cha- 

r raeteristics of, 390. Sacred, 301, 345, 390. 

Crocodilopolis, 300, 301, 375, 452. 

Crusaders in Egypt, 95, 107, 164, 250, 252. 

Cufic character, 31. Inscription, 132, 133, 171, 
4 6 5- 

Curd dynasty, 34. 

Cash, " Ethiopia," name of, 472, 478. 
Cynopolis, 348. 
Cyperus, 251. 



D. 

Dabod temple, 475. 

Dahabeeah, description and price of, 120. In- 
formation respecting voyage in. 319-326. 

Dakhleh, oasis of, 311. Fruits, character of the 
inhabitants, 312. 

Dakkeh, temple of, 480. 

Dallas, 344. 

Damanhoor stat., nr. Canal of, 109. 
Damietta, 252. 

■ besieged by the Crusaders, "3 4, 35, 95, 

252. 

Dar Aboo Bereek, 266. 
Daroot-Oshmoon, 363. 
Daroot esh Shereef, 365. 
Dashoor, pyramids of, 214. 
Dates in drums at Keneh, 390. 

of Seewah, 267. Of the Little Oasis, 309. 

Of Assooan, 465. Of Ibreem, 465, 474. 
Dayr Bolos, 316. 
Dayr By&d village, 345. 
Dayr el Arbaeen, 295. 
Dayr ei Bahree temple, 418. 
Dayr el Medeeneh temple, 417. 
Dayr Mar-Antonios, 316. 
Debbah, 492. 

Debebat Sheykh Ahmed, 291. 
Delta, the, 112. 

, apex, or S. end of the, no, 162. 

Denderah, temple of, 384-389. 

Dendoor, temple of, 479. 

Derb el Hag, 274. 

Derb el Hamra, 274. 

Derb el Maazee, 274. 

Derb er Russafa, 448. 

Derb et Tarabeen, 274. 

Derb et Towarah, 274. 

Derr or Dayr, capital of Nubia, 483. 

Dervishes, dancing, 152. 

Desert, journeys in the, 271-298, 306-317, 447- 

450. Preparation for, 272-274. 
Desert, the "Long," via Mt. Sinai, Akabah, 

and Petra, 297, or via Mt. Sinai and Nakl, 

to Syria, 299. 

, the " Short," to Syria, 268. 

Dessook, fete, 107. 
Diet, 6. 

Dimay, ruins at, in the Fyoom, 305. 
Diocletian, inscription of, time of, 487. 
Diodorus, 171 et passim. 



EL HAYBIE. 

Diospolis Parva, ruins of, 384. 

Diseases for which climate is beneficial, 4. 

Dishneh, 384. 

Distance from the sea to the 1st Cataract, 462. 
Divinities, principal Egyptian, 146. 
Dog and cat mummies, 348, }66. 
! Dogs, more than one breed in ancient Egypt, 
348. 

in Egypt, 38?. 

Worn-trees, or Theban palms, 365. 
Dongola, New, 491. 

, Old, 492. 

Doosh, temple of, 3T5. 
Doric column, prototype of the, 355, 478. 
Ddseh at Cairo, 154. 
Dragoman, 119, 319, 322, 324, 395. 
Drah Aboo'l Negga, tombs of, 428. 
Draughts, game of, 357, 410. 
Drawing, excellence of, 423, 436. 
Drawings, coloured, illustrative of the agricul- 
tural pursuits of the early Egyptians, 455. 
Druses, sect of, 32, 135. 
Dwarfs, 358. 

Dynasties, Egyptian, and kings, chronological 
table of, 12-25, 338 



Ebras, 366. 

Ed Dayr, Christian village, 361. Temple of, 
452. 

Edfoo temples, 456, 457. Marsh or lake near, 

457- 

Eel (the phagrus) represented, 356. 

Eg Gimsheh, 227. 

Eggs, artificial hatching of, 127. 

Egypt, season for visiting, xiv. Journey from 
England to, xv. General remarks on sanitary 
state of the country, 1. Temperature, 2. The 
seasons, 3. Diseases for which the climate is 
beneficial, 4. Clothing and mode of life, 6. 
Coinage, 8. Weights and measures, 10. 
Reigning family and mode of government, it. 
Chronological table of Egyptian dynasties 
and kings, 12-25. List of Caliphs and Sultans, 
27-42. Shooting and Natural History, 326. 
Geography, products, 331. inhabitants, 332. 
Antiquities, ruins, 333. 

Egyptian boats, description of ancient, 455. 

temples, general description of, 334- 

?36. 

Eileithyias, ruins at, 454. Grottoes at, 455. 
Ekhmeem, 376. 
El Areesh, 270. 

El Azhar, University of, 134, 143. Mosk of, 
134- 

El Beerbeh mounds, 379. 

El Bersheh, 361. 

El Booka stat., 253. 

El Dooknesra, grotto at, 483. 

El Edwa stat., 299. 

El Eghayta, wells of, 448. 

El Ferdane, 243. 

El Gherek, 306. 

El Ghoree, mosk of, 137. Bazaar of, 141. 

El Guisr, 241, 242. 

El Hammam, 305. 

El Hamra, 2or. 

El Hareib, 366. 

El Haybie, ruins at, 346. 



INDEX. 



499 



EL HAYZ. 

El Hayz, oasis of, 3 10. 
El Helleh, 45 3. 
El Howarte, 353. 
El Kab, 454. 
EL Kafr, 342. 
El Kala village, 391. 
El Kamyseh, 266. ' 
El Kasr, 308. 
El Kays, mounds at, 348. 
El Kenan, 454. 
El Khanka, 161. 
El Khtirgeh temple, 313. 
El Khow^bid mounds, 371. 
El Kodla pyramid, 453. 
El Madhawwa, 287. 
El Maharrad, 286. 
El M^razee, 344. 
El Markhah, 284. 
El Masarah, 340. 
El Mudmur, mounds at, 371; 
El Muggreh plain, 275. 
El Muktala, 275. 
El Murkheiyeh, 283. 
El Wady, district of, 220. 
El Wady, village of, in Fyoom, 303. 
El Wasta, 371. 
El Wasta junct. slat., 299. 
Elephantine, island of, 465. 
Embabeh, Term, stat.,104. Battle of the Pyra- 
mids, 104. 

Emerald-mines, 449. Ancient road from Contra 

Apollinopolis to, 449. 
English and Arabic vocabulary, 45-68. 
Epitaphs at Assooan, 464. 
Er Bahah, 289. 

Ergamenes, king of Ethiopia, 480. 
Erment, antiquity of, 398, 451. 
Erment temple, 451. 
Erweis el Erbeirig, 291, 298. 
Esbekeeyah, the, 140. 
Esh Shooma, 228. 
Esh Shurafa town, 392. 

Esneh, road to, from Great Oasis, 315. Temple 

and town of, 452. 
Es Sid, 105. 

Ethiopia, 329, 47 3, 489. See Nubia. 
Etko lake, 102. 
Etzoo, 493. 

Eunostus, port of. at Alexandria, 70, 93. 
Examination, points requiring, 43. 
Excursions from Cairo, 156-215. From Medee- 

neh in the Fyoom, 300. To Behnesa, 347. 

To Abydus, 379. 
Expenses of the journey to Egypt, xv. From 

Cairo to Mount Sinai, 271-2. Of voyage up 

the Nile, 3 29. 



F. 

Faid stat., 223. 

Farafreh, oasis of, ?io. 

Faras or Farras, 486. 

Fdres, 460. 

Farshoot, 383. 

Fatemite dynasty, 30. 

Fera^yg temple and church, 486. 

Feshun, 346. 

Festivals at Cairo, 152. At Tantah, 112. 
Figures drawn in squares, 423, 461. 



GRANITE. 

Flamingoes. 243, 258. 
Fons Trajanus, 317. 
Fooah, ic6. 

Forts. Boman 165, 315. 

Fortification, system of Egyptian, 346, 453, 481, 
489. 

Fossil remains, i6x, 177, 359. 
Fossil wood, 161, 264, 274. 
Fostat, 121, 163. 

Fountains at Cairo, 139. Of the sun, 160. Of 

Moses, 226, 294. 
Fow, 374, 384. 

Frescoes at Thebes, Boman, 438. 
Funeral ceremonies, 353. 

in the Theban tombs, 431, 454. 

Fyoom, the 299. Boute to, 298. 



G. 

Gamille, ruins of a temple at, 476. 
Gassassine, 220. 

Gates of Alexandria, 92. Of Cairo, 127. 

Gaza, 270. ] 

Gazelles, 242, 264, 282, 477, 493. 

Gebel Aboofayda, 366. 

Gebel Aboo Ghabab, 457. 

Gebel Attakah, 225. 

Gebelayn, 452. 

Gebel Barkal, 492. Tablets found at, 151. 

Gebel ed Dokhan, porphyry quarries of, 317. 

Gebel el Ahmar, 161. 

Gebel el Azrek, 492. 

Gebel el Fateereh, 317. 

Gebel er Bossdss, lead-mines of, 228. 

Gebel esh Shems, 486. 

Gebel et M6t, 266. 

Gebel et Tayr, 349. 

Gebel ez Zeit, 227. 

Gebel Gerri, 493. 

Gebel Mokattam, 121, 128, 161, 340. 
Gebel Shekh Embarak, 346. 
Gebel Shekh Hereedee, 373. 
Gebel Tookh, 379. 
Gebel Toona, 363. 

Gebel Zabarah, emerald-mines of, 449. 

Geezeh, 174. Pyramid platform of, 177. 

Gemeleeyah, 251. 

Geneffe stat., 223. Hills, 223. 

Geography of Egypt, 331. 

Geology of Egypt, 316. 

George, St., converted into a Moslem statue, 

34'. 374- 
Gerf Hossayn, 479. 
Gertassee. 476. 
Gezeereh, Palace of, 143. 
Gharb-Amun, ruins at, 266. 
Gbaw&zee, or dancing-girls, 390, 452. 
Girgeh, 379. 

Gisr el Agoos, 349, 364, 367, 368. 

Glass-house, ancient, at Natron lakes, 259. 

Gloves, ancient, 433. 

Gold-mines of the Bishareeyah, 449. 

Goldsaneh, 348. 

Government, mode of, 11. 

Gow el Kebeer, 372. 

Gow el Gharbeeyah, 372. 

Granite, imitation of. 355. 

quarries of Gebel Fateereh, 317. In 

the neighbourhood of Assodan, 464. 



500 



INDEX. 



GRANITE. 

Granite sculptures in relief, 249, 427. 
Great Oasis, the, 312. Roads from Abydus to, 
582. 

Great Pyramid, the, description of, 179. 
Great temple at Medeenet Haboo, 410. At 
Karnak, 439. 



H. 

Hadji Kandeel, 564. 

Hagar er Rekkab, 282. 

Hagar es Salam, 347. 

Hagar Silsileh, 457. 

Hajar el Magareen, 295. 

Hakem, mosk of, 134. 

Ham^tha, dog mummies at, 347/ 

Hamdoo, 494. 

Handak, 492. 

Hannak, Cataract of, 491. 

Haras, at Shoobra, 157. At Kooba, 158. 

Harbayt, 253. 

Hare, desert, 278, 482. 

Haroon, hill of, 295. 

Haroun el Rashid, 28. 

Harra Treb, 494. 

Harris, Mr., 353, 360, 365, 368, 382, 457. ' 

Hassan Sultan, mosk of, 135. 

Hassaneyn, mosk of, 234. 

Hegira, note on, 27. 

Heheeyah stat., 253. 

Heliopolis, 157. Obelisk, 158. 

Helwan village, 341. 

Henneh, 474, 479. 

Heptastadium, the, 82. 

Hereedee, Shekh, 37 3. 

Hermonthis temple, 451. 

Hermopolis Magna, 362. 

Herodotus, 108 et passim. 

Heroopolis, 229. 

Hesy el Khattiiteen, supposed to be the rock 

struck by Moses, 286. 
Hieraconpolis, 453. 
Hierasycaminon, 481 

Hieroglyphics, method by which first deciphered, 

3 A 337- 
Hippopotami, 213, 492. 

Historical sculptures at Karnak, 443. At 
Medeenet Haboo, 41 j. See Battle scenes. 

History and Topography of Alexandria, 75. 
Of Cairo, 121. Of Thebes, 397- 

Horses in Egypt, 158. First seen on sculptures, 
332, 358. 

Hospitals, &c, at Alexandria, 96. At Cairo, 
151. 

Hotels at Alexandria, 72. At Cairo, 115. 
How, Diospolis Parva, 3P4. 
Howara Arabs, 382. 
Howaweesh grottoes, 378. 
Hyksos, the, 14. 151, 255, 257. 
Hyama, the spotted, 199, 278, 396 



I. 

Ibreem, 484. 

Ichneumon, worship of the, 345. 

Illahoon Pyramid, 301. 

Inhabitants of Egypt, 352. 

Introduction, xiv. Season for visiting Egypt, 



KHALEEG. 

xiv. Journey from England to Egypt, xv. 
Things bought in EDgland for the Nile jour- 
ney, xix. 

Irrigation, mode of, in Nubia, 474. 

Isbayda, 363. 

Iseum, the ancient, 248. Temple of, 248. 
Islands of Elephantine, 465. Of Sehayl, 466. 

Of Philse, 469. Of Biggeh, 470. Of Argo, 

491. 

Ismailia, 220, 241. Hotel, 241. Waterworks, 
241. 

Isment, in the Oasis, ruins of, 311. 
Isment el Bahr, 345. 

Israelites, passage of the, 226, 279. Rxrate of 

the, 279. 
Itfoo, 374. 

J. 

Jebel, Risher, 282. 

Jebel ed Dayr, 296. 

Jebel el Markhah, 284. 

Jebel el Moneijah, 288, 296. 

Jeb<4 et Tahooneh, 287. 

Jebel Hammam Pharoon, 283. 

J ebel Katareena, ascent of, 29?. 

Jebel Moosa, ascent of, and Ras Sufsafeh, 294. 

Jebel Nagoos, 296. 

Jebel Serbal, 286. 

Jebel Zebeer, 295. 

Jephsehan, 365. 

Jerusalem, taking of, 33. 

Joseph's Well, 130. 

Journey from England to Egypt, xv. 

Juvenal, banished to Assooau, 863. 



K. 

Kafr Douar Stat., 111. 
Kafr el lyat, 342. 
Kafr-ez-Zyat stat., 112. 
Kafr Mukfoot, 306. 
•Raid Bey, 138, 161. 
Kabibsheh, 477. 
Kalamoon, 311. 
Kalioob junct. stat, 114, 216. 
Kalaoon, mosk of, 136. 
Kalat-el-Kebsh, 133. 
Kantarab, 243. 
Kar£ Meydan, the, 145. 
Karioon, 106. 

Karnak, the Great Temple, 439. Plan of, 440. 

Historical sculptures in the, 443. Other 

buildings and remains, 445. Causes of its 

destruction, 447. 
Karrawee, 106. 
Kasr Ain es Sont, 313. 
Kasr Ain ez Zayan, 315. 
Kasr el Benat, 304. 
Kasr el Kharoon, ruins of, 303. 
Kasr esh Shemmah, and site of Roman fortress 

of Babylon, 165, 168. 
Kasr es Syad, 384. 
Kasr Gashast, 266. 
Kasr el Goeytah, 315. 
Kasr Room, 266. 
Keneh, 390. 

Kendos, or Kensee, tribe, 472, 475. 
Khaleeg, the, or Canal of Cairo, 128, 153. 



INDEX. 



501 



KHAN. 

Khan Yodnes, 270. 
Khan Khaleel, bazaar, 141. 
Ivhartoom, 493. 
Kibotus, the, 79. 

Kings, list of: Pharaohs, 19-23. Ptolemies or 
Lagides, 24-25. Cassars, 26. Caliphs and 
Sultans, 27-42. 

Kings, tombs of the, at Thebes, 420. 

Kobt, or Koft, the ancient Coptos, 391. 

Ko-komeh, 206, 207. 

Kokreb, 493. 

Kolzim, 224. 

Koni-Ahmar, mounds at, 353, 453. 

Kom el Aswed, 201. 

Kom el Hettan, 406. 

Kom Ombo, 460. 

Kom "Weseem, ruins of, 305. 

Koobah, 158. 

Koorneh, temple of, 399. 

Koornet Murraee, tombs of, 455. 

Koortee, 481. 

Koos, 392. 

Koos-kam, 371. 

Korayn dates, 107. 

Korosko, 482. 

Korti, 492. 

Kosseir, 227. Road to, from Thebes or Keneb, 
447- 

Kostamneh, 480. 

L. 

Labyrinth, the, and Lake Mceris, 300. 

Lake Mardotis, 94, 105, ill. Menzaleh, 24?, 

258. Mceris, 301. 
Lakes, the Bitter, 223, 238. 
Latopolis, 452. See Esneh. 
Lead-mines of Gebel er Rossass, 228. 
Lekhmas, 109. 
Lepidotum, 382. 
Lesseps, M. de, 232. 
Leucos Portus, 228. 
Library at Alexandria, 83. 

at Cairo, 144. 

at Convent of St. Catherine, 293. 

Malta, xvi. 

Libyan Hills, the, 362, 384 et passim. 

Limestone quarries, 340, 348, 353, 359, 389. 

Linant-Bey, M., 162, 232, 301. 

Lisht, Pyramids of, 343. 

Little Oasis, the, 308. 

Lowb'geh wine, in the Oasis, 309. 

Luxor, 394, 395, 437- 

Luxor (Thebes) to Assooan, the First Cataract 

and Phila?, 451. 
Lycopolis, 369. See Asyoot. 



M. 

Maabdeh, caverns and crocodile mummy pits 

of, 367. 
Maazee Arabs, 316. 
Macrizi, 86 et passim. 
MagMgha, 346. 

Magharah, turquoise mines at, 284. 
Mahallet Darnaneh, 251. 

el Kebeer stat., 254. 

Rokh stat., 254. 

Maharraker, 481. 



MOOSKEE. 

Mahass, district of, 491. 
Mahattah, 468. 

"MaMttah," or day's journey, length of a, 491. 
Mahmoodeeah Canal, the, 105. 
Mahsamah stat., 220. 
Makkemeh, 92. See Cadi's Court. 
Malateeah, mounds at, 346. 
Malkeh, 482. 

Malta, xv. Hotels, &c, xvi. Sights at, xvi. 

Manfaloot, 367. 

Mankabat, 368. 

Manna of the Desert, 276. 

Mansoorah, 250. 

, to Menzaleh and the lake, 250, 251. 

Terminus stat., 253. 

Mansooreeah, island of, 462. 
Mareotis, lake, 105, 11 1. 

Mariette^ M., 109 et passim. His discovery of 

the Serapeum, or Apis Mausoleum, 207. 
Masarab, 311. Limestone quarries at, 340. 
Massowah, 228. 
Matareeah, 160, 258. 
Mawe, 267. 
Mayan Moosa, 294. 

Maydoom, pyramid of, 343. See False Pyramid. 
Measures and weights, 10. 
Medainot, 393. 

Medeeneh, or Medeenet el Fyodm, stat., 300. 

Excursions from, 302. 
Medeenet Haboo, temples of, 409. 
Medicines, 7. 
Mellawee, 363. 

Memlooks, 105. Massacre of, 128. 

Memnon, the Vocal, 407. 

Memnon, lomb of, 420. 

Memnonium, 401. See Rameseum. 

Memphis, history of, 202. Remains of, 205. 

Colossal statue, 205. 
Mendes, site of, 251. 
Mendesian branch of the Nile, no, 251. 
Menes' Dyke, 202, 342. 
Menoof, 104. 
Mensheeyah, 378. 
Menzaleh, lake, 24J, 258. 

, canal of, 2 50. 

Meroe, 492. 

MetaTiara, 354. 

Metoobis, 104. 

Mex, quaries of, 97. 

Minieh, 352. Cemetery at, 353. 

Miniet-Silseel, 251. 

Mines, emerald, 449. 

, gold, 449. 

, lead, 228. 

, turquoise, 284. 

Mishte, mounds at, 373. 

Mitemna, 492. 

Mit-en-Nasarah, 251. 

M it-Fares, 251. 

Mitrahenny, 202, 342. 

Moaiud, mosk of, 137. 

Mceris, lake, 301. 

Moez Canal, the, 114, 252. 

Mohammed Ali, 11, 128, 156, 452. Mosk of, 129. 

Moileh, valley of, 308. 

Mokattam hills, the, 123, 128, 339. 

Monasteries of the Natron valley, 261. Library 

at, 261. 
Mons Pentedactylus, 449. 
Mooskee, the, 140. 



502 



INDEX. 



MORG-OSE. 

Morgdse, 476. 
Morostah, the, 136. 
Moses, fountain of, 226. 

Mosk, general description of a, 130. Lord 

Houghton's poem on, 131. 
Mosks at Alexandria, 95. At Cairo, 130. At 

Old Cairo, 164. 
Mount Sinai, instructions for journey to, 271. 

See Sinai. 
Mountain, the red, 199. 
Mudmur, 371. 

Mummy pits, ibis, 206, 362. Dog and cat, 348, 

366. Crocodile, 367. Ape, 437. 
Museum, Alexandria, 83. 

of Egyptian antiquities, 144. 

Mycerinus, pyramid of, 191. 
Myos Hormos, ruins of, 227. 



N. 

Nader, 109. 
Napata, 413. 

Natron lakes and valley, the, 109, 260. 
Natron in valley of Nile, 455. 
Nawamees, mosquito houses, 276, 279, 289, 
291. 

Neby Saleh, tomb of, 298. 
Nechesia, 228. 

Necropolis, site of, at Alexandria, 79. 

of Memphis, 206. 

of Abydus, 382. 

of Thebes, 428. 

in the Great Oasis, 314. 

Nefiche stat., 220. 

Negadeh, 393. 

Nerba, 305. See Dimay. 

Neslet ez Zowyeh, 353. 

Nestorius banished to the Oasis, 314. 

Nezleh, 303. 

Nicopolis, site of, 98. 

Nile, preliminary information for voyage up 
the, 318. By steamer, 318. In a dahabeeah 
with a dragoman, 319. In a dahabeeah 
■without a dragoman, 322. List of provisions, 
323. General hints, 324. Backsheesh, 325. 
Shooting and natural history, 326. Wild 
animals, 326. Land birds, 326. Aquatic birds, 
327. Amphibious animals, 327. Fish, 327. 
Geography and products, 328. Trees, fruit, 
&c, 331. Domestic animals, 331. Inha- 
bitants, 332. Antiquities, Ruins, &c, 333. 
Temples, 334. Tombs, 336- History, 337. 
Dynasties, 338. 

Nile, the Blue and the White, junction of, 493. 

Nile journey, the, things necessary for, xix. 

Nile, rise of the, at Cairo, 172. 

Nile, Upper, requisites and season for journey 
to, 490. 

Nile, steamers for the, 120. 

JNilometer, the, 170. 

Nilometers, other, 171, 341, 465. 

Nilus, the god, honours paid 10, at Silsilis, 460.° 

Nishoo, mounds of, 106. 

Nitria, district of, 263. 

Nourri, 492. 

NuBrA, 472. Ancient history and geography 
of, 472. Method of irrigation, 474. Modern 
inhabitants, 473. 

Nugb Buderab, 284. 



PRODUCTS. 

Nugb Hawa, 289. 
Nugb Suwig, 291. 
Nugr el Baggar, 295. 



0. 

Oases of the Blacks, 310. 

Oasis of Ammon, or the See-wah, 266. 

Oasis, the Great, or Wah el Khargeh, 312-314. 

Oasis, the Little, 306-310. 

Oasis of Dakhleh, 311. 

Oback, 493. 

Obelisk at Alexandria, 87. At Assooan, 464. 

At Biggig, 302. At Heliopolis, 158. At 

Karnak, 441. At Luxor, 437. At San 

(Tanis), 256. 
Old Cairo, 163. Coptic convents and churches 

at, 166-170. 
Om Baydah, 266. 
Ommiade dynasty, 27. 
Onion, foundation of, 216. 
Ooched, 494. 
Ophthalmia, 7. 
Ordee, 491. 
Oshmoouayn, 362. 
Osiris, tomb of, 301, 382. 
Otan, 494. 



LP. 

Palaces at Cairo, 143. 
Palm-wine, 309. 

Palms, Theban, 369. Of Assooan, 465. 
Paints of the Egyptians, 458. 
Panium, or temple of Pan, 86. 
Panopolis, 377. 
Passports, 8. 
Pelicans, 243, 258. 

Pelusiac branch of the Nile, 229, 230, 244. 

Pelusium, site of, 244, 269. 

Peninsula of Sinai, 275. 

Peter the Hermit, 32. 

" Petrified Forest," the, 161. 

Pharaohs, the, chronological list of, 19-23. 

"Pharaoh's Hot-bath," 283. 

" Pharaoh's Throne " at Sakkarah, 206. 

Pharos, isle of, 79, 82. 

Philaj, island of, 469. 

to Wddy Halfah, 475. 

Philotera, port of, 227. 

Phtah, temple of, at Memphis, 204. 

Pigeon towers, 373, 393. 

Pilgrims, lake of the, 161. Departure for 

Mecca, 152. 
Pipe-bowls at Asyoot, 368. 
Pliny, 78 et passim. 
Plutarch, 78 et passim. 
Pococke, 95 et passim. 
Pompey's Pillar, 88. 
Population of Egypt, 11. 
Porphyry quarries of Gebel ed Dokhan, 317. 
Port Said, 244. Hotels, steamers, 244. Ports 

and moles, 246. 
Post Office, at Alexandria, 72. At Cairo, 117. 
Presents, 8. 
Priests, tombs of, 428. 
Prim is parva, 484. 
Products of Egypt, 331. 



INDEX. 



503 



PROTEUS. 

Proteus, abode of, 75. Sacred grove of, 204. 

Provisions for Nile voyage, xix, 323, 490. 

Psammetichus, deserters from, 485. 

Pyramid, derivation of the word, 177. 

Pyramids, the, 172. Drive to, 173. History 
and object of pyramidal buildings in Egypt, 
176. The pyramid platform of Geezeh, 177. 
Topographical plan of the pyramids of 
Geezeh, 178. The Great Pyramid, 179. Di- 
mensions of the Great Pyramid, j8i. Plan 
of, 183. The Second Pyramid, 189. The 
Third Pyramid, 191. Other small pyramids, 
193. Tombs, 196. The Causeways, 198. 
The pyramid of Abooroash, 199. The pyra- 
mids of Abooseer, 200. The pyramids of 
Sakkarah, 206. Of Dashoor, 214. Of El 
Kobia, 453. Of Meroe, 492. Crude-brick 
pyramids at Dashoor, 214. At Howarah and 
lllahoon, 301. At Abydus, 382. At Thebes, 
436. The " false " pyramid, 343. 



Q. 

Quails, 161, 175, 214,270, 278. Shooting of, in 
Egypt, 326. 

Quarries, alabaster, 316. Breccia, 448. Gra- 
nite, 317, 464. Gypsum, 316. Porphyry, 
317. Limestone, 340, 348, 353. 359, 3%9- 
Sandstone, 457, 478. 

Quarry, mode of beginning a, 351. 

Quarters, division of Cairo into, 122. 

Queens, tombs of the, 437. 



E. 

Raaineh, 372, 373. 
Ramaneeah, 107. 
Rameses, site of, 220. 

II., 15. Statues of, 205, 401, 485. 

III., 16. Temple of, at Thebes, 410. 

Rameseum, or Memnonium, 401. Sculptures, 

402. Ruins in the vicinity, 406. 
Ramleh, near Alexandria, ico. At Boolak, no. 
Ram sees, 109. 
Raramoon, 362. 
Ras Aboo Zeneeneh, 283. 
Ras el Ech, 244. 
Ras-et-Teen, palace of, 97. 
Ras Mohammed, 227, 276. 
Ras Sufsafeh, 294. 
Red Convent, 376. 

Red Sea, the, 227, 494. Passage of the Israel- 
ites, 226, 279. 
Red Sea, the, Egyptian coast of, 227. 
Refah, 270. 

Reigning family in Egypt, h. 
Rephidim, 286, 287. 
Revenue of Egypt, 11. 
Rhoda, 360. 
Rigga, 343. 

Ritual, the, or Book of the Dead, 145, 337. 
Roda, island of, and Nilometer, 170. 
Rosetta, 103. 

to Atfeh and Cairo, by the Nile, 104. 

Stone, the, 103, j 36, 469. 

Route of the Israelites from Egypt to Mount 
Sinai, 279. 



SHEYKH. 

Routes from A in Moosa to Jebel Moosa,.aud the 

Convent of St. Catherine, 281. 
Rowik, 493. 
Rumeyleh, the, 141. 



s. 

Sabagoora, 479. 
Saeed, the, 328. 

Sa'is, 107. Mounds of, 107. Sepulchres of the 

Sa'ite Kings of Egypt, 108. 
Saitic branch of the Nile, no. 
Sakayt, 450. 

Sakkarah, 201, 206. Pyramids of, 206. Mummy 
pits, 206. Tombs t 249. Tablet of, 151, 206, 
331- 

Saladin, 34, 121, 128, 130. 
Salaheeyah, 269. 
Samhood, 383. 

San, 255. La pierre de, 102. Objects found at, 

in Museum, 151. 
Sandgrouse, 278, 326, 492. 
Sandstone quarries, 457. At Gertassee, 476. 

At Kalabsheh, 478. Region of, 454. 
Sani, 492. 

Sarabit el Khadim, 290. 
Saracenic Wall at Assooan, 464. 
Sarboot el Jemel, 290. 
Scarabaji, 148. 
Schedia, 105. 

Schools at Alexandria, 66. At Cairo, 143.] 

Schwabti, or mummy emblems, 147. 

Season for visiting Egypt, xiv. 

Seasons, the, in Egypt, 3. 

Sebayda, 363. See lsbayda. 

Sebeels, or public fountains, 139. 

Sebennytic branch of the Nile, no. 

Sebennytus, mounds of, 248. 

See-wah, the, 266. See Oasis of Amnion. 

Sehayl, island of, 466. 

Seih Bab'a, 284. 

Seih Sidreh, 284. 

Semaloot, 349. 

Sembellavvein stat,, 253. 

Semenhood, 248. 

Semneh, 488, 491. 

Senhoor, 305. 

Senooris, 306. 

Serapeum, heights of, 239. 

stat., 223. I 

at Alexandria, 84. 

, or Apis Mausoleum, 207. 

Serra, 487. 

Servants, in Egypt, 74, 119. 
Sesostris, 15. 

Sethi I., temple of, at Abydus, 380, 381. 
Shabeka, mounds at, 373. 
Sharara, mounds at, 354. 
Shaym-t-el-Wah, 475. 
Sheykh Aboo Noor, 346. 
Shendy, 492. 
Shenhoor, 393. 
Sherg Selin, 371. 

Sheykh el beled, or village chief, statue of a, 
148. 

Sheykh Fodl, 348. 

Sheykh Hanaydik, 230, 240. 

Sheykh Hassan, 3*48. 

Sheykh Shenedeen, mounds at, 373. 



504 



INDEX. 



SHEYKH. 

Sbejkh Timay, 350. 

Nhibeen el Kanater stat., 216. 

Shobd, 371. 

Sbobuk, 342. 

Sboobra, palace of, 156. 

Shooting, 219, 247, 299, 303, 326, 372. 

Shur, wilderness of, 282. 

Silsilis, quarries at, 457. 

Sinai, Peninsula of, 275. Inhabitants, 275. 
Population, 276. Geographical and Natural 
features, 276. Natural history and climate, 
278. Ruins, 279. Route of the Israelites 
from Egypt to Mount Sinai, 279. Routes 
from Ain Moosa to Jebel Moosa, and the 
Convent of St. Catharine, 281. 

Sinaitic inscriptions, 285, 287, 298. 

Sioout, 369." See Asyoot. 

Sits, mounds at, 345. 

Sledge, Colossus on a, 361. 

Smyth, Mr. Piazzi, theory of, about Great Py- 
ramid, 176, 188. 

Snipe shooting, 106, 161, 219, 264, 327. 

Sont tree, the, 331. See Acanthus. 

SooMee, 353- 

Soohag, 374. 

Sowakim, 228, 494. 

Speos Artemidos, 3? 8. 

Sphinx, the, 193. Tablet relating to, 149, 194. 
Sphinxes, Avenues of, 439, 443, 446. 
Springs, sulphur, 283, 342. 

, warm, in the Little Oasis, 308. 

Stabl Antar, 339, 558, 369. 

Steamers for the Nile. 120. 

Stela;, or inscribed tablets, 209, 211 et passim. 

Strabo, 77 et passim. 

Suez, 223, 494. Hotels, 223. British Consulate, 
224. Steam-packet companies, 224. History, 
224. Quays and Harbours, 225. 

Suez Canal, 225. Financial and political his- 
tory of the present Maritime, 232. 

Suez, gulf of, 224. 

, plain of, 236. 

Suez to Port Said, by the Canal, 235. 

Suff, 343. 

Sugar factories, 305, 347, 352, 360. 

plantation, 353. 

Sukkoot, district of, 491. 
Sulphur springs, 283, 342. 
Sultans, list of, 27-42. 
Syene, 463. See Assooan. 



T. 

Tabenna, isle of, 384. 

Table, chronological, of Egyptian dynasties 

and kings, 12-18. 
Tablet of Abydus, 337, J81. Of Sakkarah, 151, 

206, 381. 
Tafah, 476. See Wady Tafah. 
Taha, 352. 
Tahaneh, 342. 
Tahtah, 373. 
Talkah stat., 254. 
Tanis, 255. 

Tanoof, mounds of, 365. 

Tanseh mound, 345. 

Tantah junct. stat., 112. Fairs, 112. 

Tehneh, 350. 

Tel Basta, 218. See Bubastis. 



TOOSSOOM. 

Tel el Amarna, grottoes of, 364. 
Tel el Haroot stat., 112. 
Tel el Kebeer stat., 220. 
Tel el Odameh mounds, 109. 
Tel el Yahoodeh, the Mound of the Jew. 161, 
216. 

Tel en Nassara, mounds at, 345. 
Tel et Teen, mounds at, 345. 
Tel-et-Tmei, 251. 
Tel Defenneh, 269. 
Tel Phakoos, 253. 
Temperature, 2. 

Temple, description of an Egyptian, 334. 
Tennes, island of, 258. 

Tentyrites, the, tbeir power over the crocodile, 
J 89. 

Teraneh, 109, 259. 

Theatres, &c, at Alexandria, 96. At Cairo, 
.152. 

Thebes, 39 ?. Arrival at Luxor, and general 
Information, 395. Mode of seeing, 396. 
History and topography of, 397. Ruins and 
remains :— Western Bank, 399. Temple of 
Koorneh, 399. The Rameseurn or Memno- 
nium, 401. Other ruins, 406. The Colossi ; 
the Vocal Memnon, 407. Temples of Me- 
deenet H£boo and other ruins, 409. Sculp- 
tures, 411. Small Ptolemaic temple, 416. 
Lake, 417. Dayr el Medeeneh, 417. Dayr el 
Bahree, 418. Tombs of the Kings, 420. 
Tombs of Priests and private individuals, 428. 
Tombs of the Assaseef, 428. Tombs of 
Sheykh Abd el Koorneh, 430. Tombs of 
Koornet Murraee, 435. Tombs of the Queens, 
436. Eastern Bank, Luxor, 437. Karnak, 
4?9. The Great Temple, 439. 

Thebes and Keneh to Kosseir on the Red Sea, 
447- 

Thinis, 381. See Abydus. 
Thomu, 378. 

Thothmes III., 14. Temple of, at Karnak, 442. 

Tih, tomb of, 211. 

Timsah lake, 223, 240. 

Tofnees, 452. 

Toma, mounds of. 301. 

Tomb, Egyptian of Old Empire, description of, 

197, 209. 
Tomb of Alexander, 86. 

Tombs of the Caliphs, 1 38. At Kaitbey, 138. 
At the Pyramids, 196. At Sakkarah, 209. 
Of Tih, 211. Of Phtahhotep, 214. Of Sbeykh 
Hanaydik, 240. Of Neby Saleh, 298. Of 
Asyoot, 369. Of Beni Hassan, 356. 

Tombs of the Kings at Thebes, 420: — Sethi I., 
421. Rameses III , or Bruce's, 424. Rameses 
VI., 426. Menephtab, 426. Rameses IX., 

426. Rameses IV., 427. Rameses I., 427. 
Pthah-se-pthab, 427. Sethi I., or Osirei II., 

427. Amunoph III., 427. 

Tombs of the Priests and private individuals 
at Thebes, 428. Of the Assaseef, 428. Of 
Sheykh Abd-el- Koorneh, 4J0. Of the Queens, 
437- 

Tomeeah, 300, 306. 

Tookh stat., 114. 

Tooloon dynasty, 29. 

Tooloon, mosk of, 132. 

Toona island, 258. 

Toora mounds, 340. Quarries, 340. 

Toossoom, heights of, 239. 



INDEX. 



505 



TOR PORT. 

Tor port, 227. 
— town, 296. 
Tosk, 484. 

Towns, sites of ancient, raised, 218. 
Towns, denominations of, 331. 
Trees of Egypt, 

Trilingual stones, 102, 103, 151, 33b. 
Troici lapidis mons, stones taken from, to 

Pyramids, 340 . 
Tropic, 463, 479. 
Tuot, 451. 

Turkmans, rise of the, 32. 
Turks, 333- 
Turquoise-mines, 284. 
Tzitze, ruins of, 476. 



IT. 

Um, African prefix of, 269. 
Umgoozah, 492. 
Umm Shomer, 296. 



V. 

Valley of the Queens, 437. 
Valley, Western, at Thebes, 427. 
Venus, temple of, at Memphis, 204. 
Virgin's tree, the, 158. 
Vocabulary, English and Arabic, 45-68. 
Vocal Memnon, the, 407. 
Vyse, Colonel Howard, 181, 182, 184, 186, 
190, 192, 200, 207, 214. 



W. 

Wddy Aboo Seileh, 289. 

Aleyat, 286. 

Amarah, 282. 

Bark, 291. 

Berrah, 291. 

Bub'a, 29Q. 

Canal, the, 229. 

ed Dayr, 289, 296, 31 

ed Dehseh, 281. 

el Areesh, 270. 

en Nukkaree, 228. 

esh Sheykh, 288. 

Ethal, 283. 

et Toomil&t, 223. 

Feiran, 285. 

Foakheer, 448. 

Genaiyeh, 284. 

Gendelee, 275. 

Ghurundel, 282. 



ZUBBO. 



Wady Halazdnee, 274. 

Halfah, 487, 490. 

lgne, 284. 

Jaffra, 275. 

Khameeleh, 291. 

j Mukatteb, 285. Inscriptions at, 285. 

1 Natrdon, 260. 

the ! Nisreen, 285. 

— Nogrus, 450. 

I Nugb Buderah, 284. 

I Kahabeh, 296. 

! Pvyan, 308. 

j Sa'al, 298. 

■ Sabooah, 482. 

Sadur, 282. 

Shebeika, 28?. 

j Shellal, 284. 

— — Solaf, 288. 

Suwig, 290. 

Tafa, 4-16. 

j Taiyibeh, 283- 

! ■ Useit, 283. 

j Wardan, 282. 

i Wtfdy Halfah, by Dongola, Meroe, and Berber, 
j to Khartoom, and thence, by Berber, to Sowit- 

kim on the Red Sea, 490. 
J Wan, or Oasis, derivation of word, 308. 
Wah ed Dakhleh, 311. 
Wah el Behnesa, the Little Oasis, jc8. 
j Wah el Khargeh, the Great Oasis, 312. 
J Wah Koorkoo, 476. 
gg t Wall, Saracenic, at Assooan, 464. 
j Wasta junct. stat., 299, 344. 
j Weights and measures in Egypt, 10 
1 Wells of Moses, 226. Of El Eghayta, 448. 
j White Convent, or Monastery, the, 374. 
Wild fowl, 242, 247, 254, 257, 258, 264, 300, 30 3, 

306, 327, 343, 353, 366, 372, 396, 457- 
Wood, fossil, 161, 274, 493. 
I Wolves, 303. 
Wooden cramps in masonry, old, 418. 
Wrestling, ancient, 357. 



Zagazig, junct. stat., 219. 

Zakook at the Natron lakes, 259. 

Zaytoon, 34 j. 

Zifteh stat., 248. 

" Zoan, field of," 256. 

Zodiac of Denderah, 385. At the Rameseuia 

40$. Esndh, 453. 
Zowyeh, 343. 
Zowyet el Myiteen, 35?. 
Zubbo, ruins near, in the Little Oasis, 308. 



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fitrllUfin ) Mr. M. Ristori. Mr. H. Trumpy. 

LEIPZIG Mr. J. E. OehlschlSger's Successor. 

LISBON Mr. E. Bourgard. 

LUCERNE Messrs. F. Knorr & Fils. 

MADRAS Messrs. Binnt & Co. 

MALAGA Mr. George Hodgson. Mr. J. A. Mark. 

MaTTA {Messrs. Josh. Darmanin & Sons, 45, Strada Levante, Mosaic 

Workers. Mr. Fortunato Testa, 92, Strada S*a Lucia. 

MANNHEIM ...... Messrs. Etssen & Clauss. 

MARIENBAD Mr. J. T. Adler, Glass Manufacturer. 

MARSEILLES Messrs. Claude Clerc & Co. 

MENTONE Mr. Palmaro. Mr. Jean Orengo Fils. 

MESSINA Messrs. Cailler, Walker, & Co. 

{Mr. G. B. Buffet, Piazza di S. Sepolcro, No. 1. 
Messrs. Fratelli Brambilla. Messrs. Ulrich & Co. 
MessTs. G. Bono & Co. 
w C Messrs. Wimmer & Co., Printsellers, Brienner Strasse. 

MUJNlUfci ^ Messrs. Bleicher & Andreis. 

m a pt ttq i Messrs. Iggulden & Co. Messrs. W. J. Turner & Co. Mr. G. 

JN A-FUt!^ . . . . , | Scala, Wine Merchant. Messrs. Flli. Questa. 

NEUCHATEL J Messrs. Bouvier Frebes, Wine Merchants. Messrs. Humbert & Co., 

(Suisse) <. Bazaar. 

NEW YORK Messrs. Austin Baldwin & Co. 

i Messrs. A. Lacroix & Co., British Consulate. Messrs. M. & N. 

■k 1 ^ ' * \ Giordan. Mr. H. Ullrich, 7, Quai Massena. Freres Mignon. 

NUREMBERG Mr. A. Pickert, Dealer in Antiquities. Mr. Max Pickert. 

OSTEND Messrs. Bach & Co. 

PALERMO Messrs. Ingham, Whittaker, & Co. 

PARIS Mr. L. Chenue, Packer, Rue Croix des Petits Champs, No. 24. 

PAU Mr. Musgrave Clay. 

pro. (Messrs. Huguet & Van Lint, Sculptors in Alabaster and Marble. 

FlbA (Mr. G. Andreoni, Sculptor in Alabaster. 

_ n . r , C Mr. W. Hofmann, Glass Manufacturer, Blauern Stern. 

PRAGUE \ Mr. A. V. Lebeda, Gun Maker. 

{Messrs. Plowden & Co. Messrs. A. Macbean & Co. Messrs. 
Freeborn, Dantell, & Co. Messrs. Mayday, Hooker, & Co. 
Messrs. Furse Bros. & Co. Messrs. E. Welby, Son, & Co. Messrs. 
Spada, Flamini, & Co. Mr. J. P. Shea. Mr. A. Tombini. Mr. 
Luigi Branchini, at the English College. 

ROTTERDAM Messrs. Preston & Co. Messrs. C. Hemmann & Co. 

SAN REMQ Fratelli Asquasciati. 

c Mr. Julian B.Williams, British Vice-Consulate. Don Juan Akt. 
SEVILLE... [ Baillt . 

SMYRNA Messrs. Hanson & Co. 

ST. PETERSBURG . Messrs. Thomson, Bonar, & Co. Mr. C. Kbuger. 

THOUNE Mr. Jean Kehbli-Sterchi. 

TRIESTE Messrs. Flu. Chiesa. 

TURIN Messrs. Rochas, Pere & Fils. 

{Mr. L. Bovardi, Ponte alle Ballotte. 
Messrs. Freres Schielin. Mr. Antonio Zen. 
Messrs. S. & A. Blumenthal & Co. Mr. Carlo Ponti. 

VEVEY Mr. Jdles Getaz Fils. 

f Mr. H. Ullrich, Glass Manufacturer, am Lugeck, No. 3. 

VIENJSA | Messrs. J. & L. Lobmeybr, Glass Manufacturers, 940, Karnthner 

[Strasse. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



5 



AGENTS. 

CHARLES CARR & CO., 
14, BISHOPSGATE STEEET WITHIN, LONDON, E.O., 
COMMISSION MERCHANTS, 

General Agents for the Reception and Shipment of Goods from 
and to all Parts of the World, 

AND 

WINE MERCHANTS. 

pHAELES CAKE & CO. have the honour to inform 

^ VISITORS TO THE CONTINENT, 

that they receive and pass through the Custom House in London, Liverpool, 
Southampton, &c, 

WORKS of Art, BAGGAGE, and PROPERTY of EVERY DESCRIPTION 

which are attended to on Arrival under their Personal Superintendence, 
with the utmost Care in Examination and Removal, 

AND AT 

very Moderate Charges, 

regulated according to the value of the Packages, and the care and attention 
required. 

Keys of all locked Packages should be sent to C. C. & Co., as everything must be 
examined on arrival, although not liable to duty. 



CHARLES CARR & CO. also undertake the 

FQEWAEDIIG- OF PACKAGES OP EVEEY KIM), 

which can be sent to the care of their Correspondents, to remain, if required, until 
applied for by the owners ; also 

THE EXECUTION of OEDEES for the PUECHASE of GOODS, 

of all kinds, which from their long experience as Commission Merchants, they are 
enabled to buy on the most advantageous terms. 

Residents on the Continent will find this a convenient means of ordering anything 
they may require from London. 

INSURANCES EFFECTED, AND AGENCY BUSINESS OF EVERY 
DESCRIPTION ATTENDED TO. 



Packages Warehoused at Moderate Rates of Rent. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May, 



CM AS. CABH 

At Aix-la- Chapelle 

„ Antwerp 

„ Basle . 

„ Berlin 

„ Bologna 

„ Bordeaux 

n Boulogne 

„ Boston, U. 

„ Brussels 

„ Calais . 

„ Cologne 

„ Constantinopl 

„ Dresden . 

„ Florence . 

„ Frankfort 
\ „ Geneva 
\„ Genoa . . 
Ghent 

„ Bam burg . 

„ Havre . . 

,, Innsbruck 

„ Jnterlackm 

„ Leipzig 

„ I, eg horn 

„ Ha I ay a 

„ Malta . 

„ Marten had 

„ Marseilles 

„ Menione 

„ Milan . 
\„ Munich, 



CO. s principal Correspondents ar« 

Messrs. A. SOUHEUR and CO. 

Mr. LOUIS SCHELL. 

Mr. J. WILD, 12, Steinenthors-trasse. 

Mr. J. A. FISCHER. Agent to the Court. 

Messrs. ANTONIO MAZZETT1 and CO. 

Messrs. ALBRECHT and FJLS. 

Messra. L. BRANLY and CO., 81, Rue Napoleon. 

Messrs. WELLS. FARGO, and CO. 

Messrs. H. Al .LART & P. RE VV ORST, 11, Quai kBa Caans. 

Messrs. L. J. VOGUE and CO. 

Messrs. C. H. VAN ZUTPHEN and CO. 

Mr. Ht. LAMB. 

Mr. R. WEIGANJX Messrs. SCHEFFLER, S1EG, & CO. 
Messrs. HASKARD and SON. 



Messrs. JOLTMAY and CO. Mr. Phe. STB ASS B. 
Messrs. G. M ORG A VI and CO. 
Mr. A. DELIGE. 

Messrs. HOFMEISTER, SCHEFFLER, and S1EG. 
Messrs. CHR. EG LIN and MARlNG. 
Mr. MAX STEINER. 
Messrs. RITSCHARD and BURKI. 
Messrs. GERHARD and HEY. 

Messrs. J. THOMSON HENDERSON &C0. Mr. P. TASSI. 
Mr. GEO. HODGSON. 
Messrs. ROSE and CO. 
Mr. J. T. ADLER. 
Messrs. GIRAUD FRERES. 
Mr. J. ORENGO F1LS. 
Messrs. G. BONO and CO., 8, Via Agnelto. 
Messrs. GUTLEBEN and WED >ERT . 
Messrs. FISCHER and RECHSTEINER. 
„ Nantes ...... Messrs. PARF1TT and PETIT JEAN. 

„ Naples Messrs. CERULLI and CO. Mr. G. CIVALLERI. 

„ N«w York Messrs. AUSTIN, BALDWIN and CO. 

„ Nice . Messrs. M. and N. GIORDAN, Qua! Lunel, 14 (sur la Port.) 

„ Ostend ...... Mr. AUG. FONTAINE. 

„ Paris . Messrs. J. ARTHUR and CO., 10, Rne Castigiione. 

Mons. GUEDON, 20, Rue Pierre Levee. 
„ Pau Mr. BERGEROT. 

„ Prague ...... Mr. J. J. SEIDL, Hibernergasse,, No. 1000. 

„ Rome Mr. J. P. SHEA, 11, Piazza di Spagna. 

Mr. A. TOMBINJ, 23, Piazza S. Luigi de' Frances*. 
„ Rotterdam ..... Mr. J. A. HOUWKNS. 

Messrs. P. A. VAN ES and CO. 
„ Turin Mr. C. A. RATTI. 

„ Venice Messrs. FISCHER and RECHSTEINER. 

„ Vienna Mr. GUST A V ULLRICH. 

Any other houses will also forward goods to C. C. & Co., on receiving instructions to do so. 
Travellers are requested always to give particular directions that their Packages are consigned 
direct to CHAS. CARR & CO., 14, Bishopsgate Street Within. 

PRICE LIST OF 

IMPORTED BY 

CHARLES CARR AND 

AGENTS TO GROWERS. 

Per dozen. 

Clarets— Medoc 15s. to24s. Hock- 

St. Estephe.Margaux, &c.30s. to 36s. 
St. Julien, &c, . . . 42s. 
Other Qualities . . . 48s. to 150s 
Burgundies — Beaune . . 24s. to 30s. 

Volnay . . 36s. to 42s. 
Other Qualities 48s. to 8-1 s. 
Chablis . . 30s. to 54s. 
Hock— Oppenheim .... 2 is. 



WINES 



-Nierstein 
Hochheim 
Other Qualities 



CO., 



Per desen . 
30*. 

. 36s. to 42s. 
. 48s. to 120s. 



42s. to 72s. 
36s. to 60s. 
36s. to 72*. 
84s. to 126& 
24s. 

AND OTHER WINES. 
Clarets, Burgundies, Sherries, &c, by the Hogshead or Half-Hogshead at reduced Prices. 
Detailed Price Lists may be obtained of C. CARR <fe Co., 14, Bishopsgate Street Within. 



Sparkling Hock & Moselle 42s. to 54s. 
Champagne .... 

Sherries— Pale, Gold, &c. 
Port ...... 

Fine Old Vintage Wines 
Marsala 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



7 



AIX LES BAINS. 

GRAND HOTEL DE L'EUROPE. 

Proprietor, J. BERNASCON. 

jpiEST-CLASS House, admirably situated near the Casino, 
the Baths, and the English Church. This Hotel is 
strongly recommended to travellers for the comfort of its 
arrangements. Good Gardens, with a beautiful view of the 
Lake and Mountains. Large and small Apartments for Families 
at moderate prices, and a Chalet in the Garden for Families 
who may prefer being out of the Hotel. Excellent Table- 
d'Hote. 

Carriages for hire, and an Omnibus belonging to the 
Hotel to meet every Train. 



AMPHION (Haute-Savoie). 

BAINS D'AMPHION. 

The only Bath Establishment really situated on the Borders 
of the Lake of Geneva, 

NEAE EVIAN. 



THE Alkaline Waters of Amphion are of the same nature as 
those of Evian (according to the official analysis made of them) ; and 
are recommended to Invalids suffering from all kinds of Diseases where 
Alkaline Waters are required. The ferruginous Waters of Amphion, 
enjoying an ancient celebrity, are also strongly recommended in cases 
requiring the use of tonics. Three fine Hotels connected with the Esta- 
blishment. Baths of all Descriptions. Good attendance. Magnificent 
Park and Garden. Splendid View. Billiard and Conversation Booms. 
Telegraphic Station. Steamboats, &c. 

The Hotels of Amphion are Branches of the Hotel Beau-Site of Cannes 
(Alpes Maritimes), the Proprietor of which is Mr. Geokges Gotjgoltz, 
whose well-merited reputation acquired in that locality is a guarantee of 
their excellence and accommodation, 



8 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May, 



AMSTERDAM. 

AMSTEL HOTEL 

13UILT Six Years ago. Situated near the Khenish Kail way 

Station, the Zoological aud Botanical Gardens, &c. Cheerful view 
of the City and the Amstel River. Patronised by English and American 
Families. First-rate Table and excellent Wines. 

Terms Moderate. 

Telegraph Office and Stables attached to the Hotel. 



ANTWERP, 

HOTEL ST, ANTOINE, 

PLACE VERTE, 

OPPOSITE THE CATHEDRAL. 

fJVHIS Excellent first-class Hotel, which enjoys the 
well-merited favour of Families and Tourists, has been 
repurchased by its old and well-known Proprietor, Mr. Schmitt- 
Spaenhoven ; who, with his Partner, will do everything in 
their power to render the visit of all persons who may honour 
them with their patronage as agreeable and comfortable as 
possible. Baths in the Motel. 



ANTWERP. 

MURRAY'S HANDBOOK FOR NORTH 
GERMANY AND THE RHINE 

CONTAINS 

A FULL DESCRIPTION OF ANTWERP, THE CATHEDRAL, &c. 
Price 12s. 

TO BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



9 



ANTWE R P- 

HOTEL 1)U GRAND LABOUHEUR, 

PLACE DE MEIR, 26. 

THIS old-established and highly-recommended Hotel, which 
has been considerably enlarged, is situated in the finest and 
healthiest square of the city of Antwerp ; its cleanliness and 
the excellency of the Table-d'Hote and Wines, added to the 
attention and civility shown to all visitors, have made it 
deservedly popular. 



HOT AND GOLD BATHS. 

ENGLISH AND FKENCH NEWSPAPEBS. 

ANTWERP. 

TTOTEL DU DANEMARCK. — Second-Class Hotel, very 

J— *- well situated, just opposite the landing-place of the London and Hamburg Steamers. 
Very good and clean Rooms, at moderate Prices, Good attendance. English and French 
Newspapers taken in. Table d'H6te at 1 and 5 o'clock. English, French, and German 
spoken. Restaurant. N.B. — This Hotel has been newly re-fitted up and improved by 
M. EGELIE, the new Proprietor, who endeavours by the most strict attention to deserve the 
patronage of English Travellers. 

ANTWERP. 

Prize Medals in the last Belgian Exhibitions of 1826, 1835, 1841, # 1847. 
Diploma of Excellence in the Exhibition of Amsterdam, 1869. 

J. H. TO BELLINGER k MAX*. SUREMONT, 

LINEN MATtKET, No. 9, MARCHE All LINGE, He. 9, 

Near the Cathedral, Antwerp. 
'THE oldest Manufactory of the Celebrated Antwerp Washing Black Silks, 
so much esteemed all over Europe. Taffetas Gros Grain, Gros Heps, Royal, &c, and 
the splendid Faille Silk for Dresses. Neckerchiefs, &c, &c. 

ANTWERP. 

Second Edition, Revised, with Woodcuts, Post 8vo., 10s. 6d. 

T IYES OF THE EARLY FLEMISH PAINTERS. With 

Notices of their Works. By J. A Crowe and G. B. Cavalcaselle. 



JOHN MUKKAY, ALBEMARLE STREET* 

B 3 



10 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISE!?. 



ANTWERP. 

HOTEL DE HOLMNDE RESTAURANT (stroobakt's), 

Rue <Ie 1'Etuve, 

Close to the London and Hull Steam-boat Wharf. 
THIS HOTEL, being now entirely under a new management, and being 

-* newly fitted up with great comfort, is recommended to English travellers, or families, 
•who will find every convenience. Choice Wines of the best vintages. English Daily and 
Weekly Newspapers. Every attention is paid to travellers by the landlord, Mr. Steoobant, 
who speaks English, and being well acquainted with the Continent, can furnish every infor- 
mation required. Table d'Hote at Hall-past Twelve and Five o'clock. Private Dinners at 
any hour. 



ANTWERP. 

HOTEL DES FLANDRES, 

IN"o. O, Place Yerte. 
Mr. J. J. LAMBERT, Proprietor. 
THIS HOTEL, near the Entrance to the Cathedral, is 

recommended by Visitors from England and America, for comfort and 
moderate charges. The Proprietor speaks English. 

The Post-office and Rubens' Statue are situated in the Place Verte. 

ATHENS- 
HOTEL DES STRANGERS, 

Hear the Royal Palaes. 
In the most delightful situation, opposite the Royal Gardens, near the Palace. The best 
Hotel in Athens. Moderate prices ; good attendance. All languages spoken. 

BADEN-BADEN. 

HOTEL DE HOLLANDE and Dependance. 

k U BEAU SEJOUR. — A. Roessleb. Proprietor. This favourite and first-class 
Hotel, situated near the Kursaal, Promenade, and Theatre, commands one of the most 
charming views in Baden. The Hotel and Dependance consist of One Hundred and Sixty 
Sleeping Apartments, elegant Sitting-rooms, and a Garden for the use of visitors. Extensive 
and airy Dining-room, and a comfortable Public Sitting-room, with Piano and Library. It. is 
conducted under the immediate superintendence of the Proprietor, who endeavours, by the 
most strict attention and exceedingly Moderate Prices, to merit the continued patronage of 
English and American visitors. Engiish and American Newspapers. The Table d'Hote and 
Wines of this Hotel are reputed of the best quality in Baden. Fixed moderate charges for 
everything. Rooms from 2s. and upwards. 

Mr. Roessler will spare no pains to deserve the confidence of English Travellers. Open 
during the winter. English is spoken. 

Seventh Edition, with Illustrations, Post 8vo., 7s. Qd. 

pUBBLES FEOM THE BRUNNEN OF NASSAU. By 
Sir FfUNCis B. Head, Bart. 



JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMAKLE STREET. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



11 



BADEN-BADEN. 
V I C T O It I HOTEL. 

Proprietor, Mr. FRANZ GROSHGLZ. 

'PHIS is one of the finest built and best furnished First-class 
Hotels, situated on the new Promenade, near the Kursaal and Theatre ; it 
commands the most charming views in Baden. It is reputed to be one of the best 
Hotels in Germany. The Table and Wines are excellent with prompt attendance 
and great civility. Prices very moderate. English and other Journals. 



BADEN-BADEN. 

HOTEL 

Proprietor— Mb. J. TH. KAUB. 

F1KST-RATE Hotel for Families and Single Gentlemen, 
close to the Station. Kursaal and Promenade. Table d'Hote. Private 
Dinner to order. English spoken by all the attendants. The utmost attention 
and civility. Reading-room. The Hotel is superintended by the new Proprietor, 
who has been 10 years in England, during which time he has travelled with 
Charles Dickens, Esq., the Duke of Sutherland, and other distinguished English 
families. — Mr. KAUB exports Wines to England. 



BADEN-BADEN. 

AMERICAN HOTEL AND PENSION. 

Proprietors — H. & E. BILHAEZ. 
OITUATED on the New Promenade near the Kursaal, and 
^ opposite the Parks of the Duchess of Hamilton. First-rate Hotel, 
with splendid Apartments of all descriptions. Excellent accommodation, 
and all that can be desired for Families and Single Gentlemen. 

Excellent Wines, and Table d'Hote in the town at One and Five o'clock. 
Arrangements made by the week, &c. 

Terms very moderate. 



THE TRAVELLER'S COMPANION. 

Fifth Edition, with Woodcuts, Small 8vo., 7s. 6d. 

THE AET OF TRAVEL; or, Hints on the Shifts and 
Contrivances available in Wild Countries. By Francis Galton, 
F R.G.S., Author of " The Explorer in South Africa." 

" Mr. Galton publishes this little volume for the use of tourists who travel far and ' rough 
it.' It would also put some useful ideas into the heuds of men who stay at home." — 
y. xaminer. 

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 



12 MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. May, 

BAGNERES-DE-BsGORRE (Haute Pyrenees.) 

HOTEL DE PARIS. 



LARGE FIEST-CLASS FAMILY HOTEL 

"With over 100 Large and Small 

SALOONS AND CHAMBERS. 

RESTAURANT. 

LARGE GARDEN 

FACING THE 

PROMENADE I>E CAUSTONS, 

Well known to English Families. 



FULL SOUTH. 
MOUNTAIN GUIDES. 

B. NOGUES, Proprietor. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



13 



BALE. 

H O T 3S Hi S O H RIEDER, 

OPPOSITE the German Railway Station for Baden-Baden, Frankfort, etc., also 
to Schaffhausen (Hhinefall), Zurich, and any other Swiss Town. Large Rooms with 
Saloons. Special Saloons for Ladies. Elnglish and French Newspapers. Post and Telegraph 
Offices. Very mod erate charges. Omnibus at the Station. 

BARCELONA. 
GRAND HOTEL DES QUATKE NATIONS, 

IN THE EAMBLA. 
Kept by Messrs. FOKTIS & CO. 



r PH±S is a first-rate Establishment, advantageously situated close to 

•* the Post-office and the Theatre, with a southern aspect, and newly decorated. Table- 
d'faote; private service; large and small apartments; many fire-places; baths; reading- 
rooms ; Spanish and foreign newspapers. Carriages of every description. Omnibus at the 
Railway Stations. Interpreters. Moderate terms. 



BERLIN. 
HOTEL D'ANG-LETEREE, 

2, PLACE AH DEE BAUACABEMXE, 2. 

SITUATED IN THE FINEST AND MOST ELEGANT PART OF THE TOWN, 

Near to the Royal Palaces, Museums, and Theatres. 

Single travellers and large families can be accommodated with entire suites of Apartments, 
consisting of splendid Saloons, airy Bedrooms, &c, all furnished and carpeted in the best 
English style, First-rate Table-d'H6te, Baths, Equipages, Guides. Times and Galignani's 
Messenger taken in. Residence of Her British Majesty's Messengers. 

K. SIEBELIST, Proprietor. 



BERNE (Switzerland). 

MUSICAL BOXES, 

WOOD CARVINGS, SCULPTURES, die, 4c, 

OF 

J. H. HELLEE 

AT BERNE. 



No such Selection anywhere else, and, above all, 
Large Music-performing Articles. 

ORCHESTRIONS. ELECTRIC PIANOS. 

Concert every evening during the Season. 



14 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May 



BIARRITZ. 

GRAND HOTEL, 

OR 

MAISON GARDERES. 

13 1- tin ell of" tlie HOTEL DE FRANCE. 

SPLENDID HOUSE, 
SITUATED IN THE FINEST POSITION. IS RECOMMENDED FOR 
ITS GREAT COMFORT. 
Charges extremely Moderate for Winter. 
English Spoken. 



CASINO DE BIARRITZ. 

THIS immense Establishment, built on the Shores of the 
Ocean, near the Plage, and in a splendid position, has just been entirely 
restored by its new Proprietors, MM. GARDERES and CO. 

It contains, 1st, a Hotel consisting of a hundred Apartments, furnished 
with every modern comfort, and all of them having a view of the Sea. 

2nd. A large Establishment of Baths, hot, sea, and fresh water ; to which 
are attached a Hydropathic Chamber, and very complete Douche Baths. Also 
Stoves for Russian Baths. 

3rd. A CASINO, consisting of— 

A Magnificent Terrace — A Covered Promenade 
— A Ball Room — A Conversation Room — A 
Private Boudoir for Ladies — A Reading Room 
and Library — A Billiard Room — Two Gaming 
Rooms as at Baden — Magnificent Dining Rooms, 
Restaurant, and Cafe, 

Which together present an ensemble unique in the world from its splendid 
position, and the magnificent panorama which is displayed before us. 

A. Theatre open all tlie Year. 

4th. The Casino is arranged for the Summer and Winter Season. During 
Summer, which commences the 1st July and finishes the 31st October, Rooms 
and Board are provided at all Prices. The Saloons are open to the Public for 
1 fr. during the day, and 1 fr. at night ; or a Subscription of 30 fr. a month. 

During Winter, which commences the 1st November and finishes the 
1st July, there is a PENSION ANGLAISE, at 6 fr. 50 c. a day, including 
Lodging, Food, Service, and the entree to the Saloons of the Casino. 

The Heating is done by Steam Pipes. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



IS 



BOLOGNA. 

HOTEL BRUN OR SUISSE, 

Me. W. WELLEK, Peopeietoe. 

fjpHE high reputation which this Hotel enjoys among the 
travelling public, and more especially English and American 
Families, is the strongest assurance of its superior arrangement 
and comfort. 

Rooms from francs upwards. 

Table d'H6te, 4* francs. 

Reading Room, Smoking Room. 

Billiard Room and elegant Dining Room. 

Private Carriages to be obtained from the Hotel. 



BONN. 

THE GOLDEN STAR HOTEL 

fllHIS first-rate and unrivalled Hotel, patronized by the 
English Royal Family, Nobility, and Gentry, is the 
nearest Hotel to the Railway Station, and to the Landing- 
places of the Rhine Steamers. 

The Proprietor, Mr. J. SCHMITZ, begs leave to recommend 
his Hotel to Tourists. 

The Apartments are comfortably furnished and carpeted in 
the best style, and the charges are moderate. 

Arrangements for the Winter may be made, on the most 
moderate terms. 



16 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May, 



BRUSSELS. 

HOTEL I)E BELLE YUE. 

Proprietor, Mr. EDWARD D RE MEL. 

fpRIS magnificent Hotel, in offering to the Visitor every 
kind of comfort and accommodation, has the great advantage of 
being situated adjoining 

THE PALACE OF THE KING, 

and facing 

THE PLACE ROYALE AND THE PARK. 

It contains numerous large and small Apartments, as well as single 
Booms. 

Table-cC 'Hote, richly served. Choice Wines. 
SMOKING ROOM. 
BEADING ROOM, with the best Belgian, English, French, 
German, and American Daily Papers and Periodicals. 

Terraces, with Splendid View overlooking the Park. 

ARRANGEMENTS MADE FOR THE WINTER. 



Mr. Dremel, the new Proprietor of this Hotel, hopes to justify the 
confidence placed in him, by a carefully arranged system of prompt and 
civil attendance, combined with moderate charges. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



17 




BRUSSELS. C ! ' h 4&& BRUSSELS. 



SUFFELL'S 
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN BANK AND EXGHANGE 

OFFICE, 

81, MONTAGE'S BE LA COUR, 

(Two doors from the Hotel de V Europe,) 

Changes Circular and Bank Notes, whether addressed to him or not, 
Letters of Credit, &c. Cheques cashed at sight, on the London and 
County Bank, Coutts, Drummond, Scott, London and Westminster, 
Union Bank of London, and all other Banks in town or country. 
Cashes Letters of Credit on Messrs. Brown, Shipley & Co., New York. 

BRUSSELS HOUSE AGENCY. 



ESTABLISHED 36 YEARS. 



Apartments and Houses. Agency and General 
Information. 

Families can in full confidence apply to Mr. SUFFELL, 81, Montagne de 
LA COUR, who is English, and established here 36 years. Mr. S. accepts no fees 
whatever for such services, but only solicits, in return, the patronage of his fellow- 
countrymen in all that relates to Money-changing and Banking Business in 
general. Lists of Prices of Apartments, Houses, Living, Education, &c, on 
application. 

Write post free, and please enclose stamps for reply. 

SUFFELL'S WINE STORES. 



FINE OLD PALE AND GOLDEN SHERRY. PALE BRANDY. 

ENGLISH SODA WATER. 
BASS'S PALE ALE. GUINNESS'S STOUT. BOOTH'S OLD GIN. 
HAVANNAH CIGARS, from the London Docks. 



81, MONTAGNE DE LA COUR. 

Agent for the Calais and Ostend Royal Mail Packet Service ; Great Luxembourg, 
The Rhine and Moselle Company; Cunard, Inman, and the National, for 
New York. 



18 



MUREAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



Maj, 



BRUSSELS. 

/^.RAND HOTEL DE SAXE, 77 and 79, RUE NEUVE. Admirably situated 
near the Roulevards, Theatres, and two minutes' walk from the North Railway 
Stations. This Establishment, which has been considerably enlarged, possesses now a most 
splendid Dining-room, and offers to Families and Single Travellers spacious, comfortable, 
and airy Apartments. Tariffs in every Room.— Fixed Prices: — Plain Breakfast lfr. 25c. 
Two chops or steak, or ham and eggs, lfr. 50c. Table d'Hote at five o'clock, 3fr. 50c. Pri- 
vate Dinners from 5fr. Bed-rooms, including light, 4fr. 25c. ; 3fr. 7 5c; 6fr. for the first 
night, and for the following night 3fr. 50c. ; 3fr. ; 5fr. ; and 4fr. Sitting-rooms from 3fr. to 
12fr. Attendance lfr. per night. London "Times" and "Illustrated London News" 
taken in. Travellers having only a few hours to spend in Brussels, between the departure 
of the trains, can have refreshments or dinners at any hour. The Waterloo Coach leaves 
the Hotel at 9.30 o'clock every morning. Private Carriages for Waterloo 28fr., every 
expense included. 

KERVAND, Proprietor. 



BRUSSELS. 

HOTEL DE L'UNIVERS, 

RUE NEUVE. 



fjpHXS first-class Hotel, situated in the centre of the Town, 
opposite the new passage, near the Theatres, the Prome- 
nade, and the beautiful Place des Martyrs, has just been 
entirely refitted by the new Proprietor, Mr. Frederic 
Schoeffter, well known for his long connection as Manager 
of the Hotel St. Antoine, Antwerp. 

The Hotel de 1' Univers may now be considered as one of 
the bebt Hotels in Brussels. 



BRUGES. 

HOTEL DE FLANDRE. 

THIRST CLASS HOUSE. Table d'Hote at 1 and s 5 o'clock. 
Beautiful Garden. Hot and Cold Baths. 
Arrangements can be made at any time during the year by 
the week or month. 

PENSION during Winter, commencing at £6 per Month. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



19 



CANNES. 



GRAND HOTEL BE GENEVE. 

~P»IKST-CLASS HOUSE, situated outside the town, in a 
shaded position. Large Garden. Sea View. Special 
arrangements made for lengthened sojourn. Service a la 
Carte. 

OMNIBUS TO THE STATION. 

ED. SCHMID, Peopeietor. 



CARLSBAD. 

ANGERS HOTEL. 

THIS large and first-class Establishment affords special 
comfort for English travellers, who will find it a most desirable residence. 
It is near the Springs, and in the most beautiful part of the town. Charges 
strictly moderate. 

N.B. — Tlie Proprietor and his wife speak English. Deservedly recommended. 



CHAMBER Y. 

HOTEL 33E FBANCE, 

Mr. CHIRON, Proprietor. 

ANEW Establishment, situated upon the Quay Nesin, in 
an open, airy situation, close to the Railway Station. Large and small. 
Apartments, scrupulously clean. 

TABLE D'KOTE AT 11 AND 6 O'CLOCK. 



20 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May, 



CHAUMOIT (near Neuchatel, Switzerland). 

HOTEL AND PENSION DE CHAUMONT, 

C. KITZMANN, Propeietoe. 
'PHIS Hotel, exceedingly well situated for an extensive view 

of the magnificent Panorama of the Alps and the surrounding scenery, contains 
large and small Apartments, Saloons, Dining-rooms, Billiard and Reading-rooms. 
Private Suites of Rooms for Families. Bath-rooms. New milk and whey supplied 
on the premises. Leading country and foreign Newspapers. Telegraph Station 
and Post-office here. Moderate charges. 

Omnibus journalier depart de Neuchatel a 9 h. du matin. 



CHRISTIANS. (Norway.) 

HOTEL SCAN Dl N AVI E. 

'PHIS beautifully situated Hotel is well known by the 
English Nobility for its Cleanliness, Good Attendance, and Moderate 

Prices. 

CHE,. AUG. SMITH, Proprietor. 



CLARENS-1VBONTREUX. 

HOTEL ET PENSION DES CRETES. 

Opposite the Railway Station in the middle of the Promenades. 

Magnificent View of the Lake and surrounding Alps. 

Terms moderate. Pension from 5 francs a day. 

LOUIS EOTH, Propeietoe. 



COBLE NTZ. 

THE ANCHOR HOTEL. 

Mr. W. PRANG, Proprietor. 
THIS well-known and highly recommended establishment, 

which combines superior comfort and first-class accommodation, with careful 
attendance and moderate charges, is situated just opposite the landing-place of the 
Steamers, and commands a magnificent view of the Rhine and the Castle of Ehren- 
breitenstein. It is conducted in a manner to be found well worthy of the patronage 
it enjoys of English and American families and travellers. Excellent Cooking. 
Choice Wines. Foreign Papers. Cold and Warm Baths, and elegant Carriages in 
the Hotel. Omnibus at the Station. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



21 



COLOGNE ON THE RHINE. 

J CHAM MARIA FARINA, 
GEGENDBER DEM JULICH'S PLATZ 

(Opposite the Julich's Place), 

PURVEYOR TO H. M. QUEEN VICTORIA; 
TO H. R. H. THE PRINCE OF WALES ; 
TO H. M. THE KINO OF PRUSSIA; THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA; 
THE EMPEROR OF FRANCE; 
THE KING OF DENMARK, ETC. ETC., 

OF THE 

ONLY GENUINE EAU DE COLOGNE, 

Which obtained the only Prize Medal awarded, to Eau de Cologne at the Paris Exhibition 

0/1867. 



THE frequency of mistakes, which are sometimes accidental, but for the most 
part the result of deception practised by interested individuals, induces me to request 
the attention of English travellers to the following statement : — 

The favourable reputation which my Eau de Cologne has acquired, since its invention by 
my ancestor in the year 1709, has induced many people to imitate it ; and in order to be able 
to sell their spurious article more easily, and under pretext that it was genuine, they pro- 
cured themselves a firm of Farina, by entering into partnership with persons of my name, 
which is a very common one in Italy. 

Persons who wish to purchase the genuine and original Eau de Cologne ought to be parti- 
cular to see that the labels and the bottles have not only my name, Johann Maria Farina, 
but also the additional words, gegeniiber dem Julich's Platz (that is, opposite the Julich's 
Place), without addition of any number. 

Travellers visiting Cologne, and intending to buy my genuine article, are cautioned against 
being led astray by cabmen, guides, co mm issioners, and other parties, who offer their services 
to them. I therefore beg to state that my manufacture and shop are in the same house, 
situated apposite the Julich's Place, and nowhere else. It happens too, frequently, that the 
said persons conduct the uninstructed strangers to shops of one of the fictitious firms, where 
notwithstanding assertion to the contrary, they are remunerated with nearly the half part of 
the price paid by the purchaser, who, of course, must pay indirectly this remuneration by a 
high price and a bad article. 

Another kind of imposition is practised in almost every hotel in Cologne, where waiters, 
commissioners, &c, offer to strangers Eau de Cologne, pretending that it is the genuine one, 
and that I delivered it to them for the purpose of selling it for my account. 

The only certain way to get in Cologne my genuine article is to buy it personally at my 
house, opposite the Julich's Place, forming the corner of the two streets, Unter Goldschmidt 
and Oben Marspforten, No. 23, and having in the front six balconies, of which the three 
bear my name and firm, Johann Maria Farina, Gegeniiber dem Julich's Platz. 

The excellence of my manufacture has been put beyond all doubt by the fact that the 
Jurors of the Great Exhibitions in London, 1851 and 1862, awarded to me the Prize Medal ; 
that I obtained honourable mention at the Great Exhibition in Paris, 1855 ; and received 
the only Prize Medal awarded to Eau de Cologne at the Paris Exhibition of 1867, and in 
Oporto 1865. 

Cologne, January, 1869. JOHANN MARIA FARINA, 

GEGENUBER DEM JULICH'S PLATZ. 
%* My Agency in London is at Messrs. J. & R. M'Cracken, 38, Queen 
Street, Cannon Street, E.C, 



22 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May, 



CONSTANCE. 
HOTEL DU BROCHET (HECHT HOTEL). 

First-class Establisement, situated opposite the Harbour and the Lake. 
Excellent Pension. Table d'Hote at 1 and 5 o'clock, Spacious house, 
very clean, quiet, and well furnished. The Proprietor has the soie right 
of fishing in the Ehine. Boats and all appliances for Fishing. Prices 
very moderate. French and English Papers. 



CONSTANTINOPLE. 

HOTEL D'ANGLETERRE. 

JAMES MISSIRIE, Proprietor. 

THIS long-established, and well-known Hotel, situated in 
the GRAND RUE DE PERA, commanding a magnificent view of 
the UNRIVALLED BOSPHORUS, is replete with every comfort and 
convenience for the Accommodation of Families and Tourists. 

A Select Table D'Hote. 

In consequence of the largely increasing number of Visitors to the 
OTTOMAN CAPITAL, from the facility with which it can now be 
reached from all parts of Europe, and Passengers who select this agreeable 
Route to and from INDIA and the EAST, it is requested that Families 
desirous of securing Rooms telegraph or write in anticipation. Every 
attention will be paid to instructions thus transmitted. 

CAREFULLY SELECTED INTERPRETERS FOE ALL 
LANGUAGES. 

The Attendants and Boats of the Hotel await the arrival of the Steamers, 

CONSTANTINOPLE. 

GRAND HOTEL DE L'EUROPE. 

At CONSTANTINOPLE, No. 12, Rue Deevish (near La Grande Rne de Pera) ; 

And also, from and after 1st May, 1873, 
At BOUJUKDERE, on the Bospborus, Summer Residence of the Corps Diplo- 
matique and of fashionable Society (Stone Buildings). 

BEAUTIFUL Situation, with Panoramic Views of the 
Asiatic and European Shores. Frequent and regular daily communications 
with the Capital, by Steamers and by Land. Forty spacious and elegantly furnished 
Apartments. Table d'Hote and Dinners a la Carte. French and Italian Cooks. 
Service and attendance under the personal supervision of the Proprietress, Mme. 
Alberti. — Foreign Newspapers, Interpreters, and special attention to receipt and 
despatch of letters. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



23 



DIEPPE. 

HOTEL EOYAL, 

PACING THE BEACH, 

Close to the Bathing Establishment and the Parade. 

(this hotel is open all the year.) 

TT IS ONE OF THE MOST PLEASANTLY SITUATED HOTELS 
A IN DIEPPE, commanding a beautiful and extensive View of the 
Sea. 

Families and Gentlemen visiting Dieppe will find at this Establish- 
ment elegant Large and Small Apartments, and the best of accommo- 
dation, at very reasonable prices. Large Reading-room, with French 
and English Newspapers. 

The Refreshments, &c, are of the best quality. 

In fact, this Hotel fully bears out and deserves the favourable opinion 
expressed of it in Murray's and other Guide Books. 

Table d'Hote and Private Dinners. 



DIJON. 

HOTEL DU JURA. 

Mr. DAVID, Proprietor. 

THIS Hotel, which has been considerably enlarged, is a 
first-class house, and the nearest to the Bailway Station. 
Contains five Salons, sixty Bed-rooms en suite for Families, 
Drawing-room, Smoking-room, Table-d'hote ; Private Service. 
Carriages for Drives; Omnibus to all the trains. French, 
English, and German Papers. English and German spoken. 
Bureau de Change in the Hotel, where English Bank Notes 
can be exchanged. A first-rate cellar of the finest Burgundy 
Wines. 

There is a Church of England Service in the Hotel. 
Visitors taken en pension at reduced Prices from the 18th 
November to - 15th May. 



24 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May, 



DRESDEN. 

HOTEL BELLEVUE, DRESDEN. 

Kept by Mr. EMIL KAYSER. 

npHIS fine large Establishment, situated on the banks of the Elbe, between the 
two beautiful bridges, facing the Theatre, Museum, and Catholic Cathedral, 
adjoining the Briihl's Terrace, and opposite the Royal Palace and Green Vaults, 
contains One Hundred Front Rooms. These apartments combine elegance and 
comfort, and most of them fronting either the Theatre Square, or public walks 
and gardens of the Hotel, and command fine yiews of the River, Bridges, and 
distant Mountains, The Gardens of the Hotel afford its guests an agreeable and 
private Promenade. Table d'Hote at one and five o'clock. Private Dinners at any 
hour. To families or single persons desirous of taking apartments for the winter, 
very advantageous arrangements will be offered, and every effort made to render 
their residence in the Hotel pleasant and comfortable. Carriages, Baths, Riding. 
Billiard and Smoking Rooms. Ladies' Parlour. 



DRESDEN. 

VICTORIA HOTEL. 

^HIS fine large Est \blishment, situated 011 the public 

Promenade of the English and American quarter, in the immediate vicinity 
of all the curiosities, contains One Hundred Rooms. Table d'Hote at One and 
Five o'clock. 

The Garden of the Hotel affords its guests an agreeable Promenade. 

CARRIAGES. 

READING ROOM WITH ENGLISH AND AMERICAN PAPERS. 

To Families or Single Persons desirous of taking Apart- 
ments for the Winter, advantageous arrangements will be 
offered. 

Proprietor and Manager of the Hotel, 

CAUL WEISS. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



25 



DRESDEN. 

HOTEL GOLDNER ENGEL. 

THIS first-class Hotel, kept by Jos. Henbjon, is situated 
in the centre of the Curiosities, close to the Royal Palace 
and Museums. 

Splendid hot and cold Baths are to be had in the Hotel. 
English and French Newspapers. 

A reduction of price in the Winter to families who remain 
for some period. 

E G YPT. 

ALEXANDRIA AND CAIRO. 

$g Special g^pahttmeni to ^jjjp* 933' % of With*, 
mo J.f. % ^Sfr 3$efttfe0f %gpl 

DAVID KOBERTSON & CO., 

English. Booksellers, Stationers, Photograph Vendors, 
and General Commission Agents, 

10, Grand Square, Alexandria, and The Ezbekieh, Cairo. 

A Register of English and American Travellers is kept at the above 
Establishment. A very extensive Stock of Photographs of Egypt and Syria 
kept on hand ; and Visitors will receive any assistance or information they 
may require. 

English and Indian Newspapers by every Mail. 

TAUCHNITZ EDITIONS. 
Passages secured. Baggage collected and forwarded. Letters received and posted 
to all countries. 

DAVID ROBERTSON AND CO., 

ALEXANDRIA AND CAIRO. 

EGYPT AND INDIA. 

With Map, Post 8vo., 15s. 
TJANDBOOK FOR EGYPT, THE COURSE of the NILE, 

through Egypt and Nubia, Alexandria, Cairo, the Pyramids and 
Thebes, the Suez Canal, the Peninsula of Sinai, the Oases, the Fyoom, &c. 

II. 

ITANDBOOK FOR INDIA, — Bombay and Madras. With 
AA Map. 2 vols. Post 8vo. 12s. each. 

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMAKLE STREET. 



2 A 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May, 



EGYPT. 

W. H. EALPH & CO., 

Wine, Spirit, and Provision Merchants, 
and Forwarding Agents, 

8a, GEORGE STREET, MINORIES, E.C., LONDON. 

AND 

EZBEKIAH GARDENS, CAIRO. 

Parties proceeding to Upper Egypt and Syria will obtain every 
information respecting the Country. 



First-class Provisions supplied at moderate prices. 
THE EAST. 

With Maps, 2 vols., Post 8vo., 24s. 
TTANDBOOK for the HOLY LAND, SYRIA, PALESTINE, 

Sinai, Edom and the Syrian Deserts. 

IjANDBOOK for TURKEY in' ASIA, CONSTANTINOPLE, 

the Bosphoras, Dardanelles, Brousa, Plain of Troy, Crete, Cyprus, 
Smyrna, Ephesus, the Seven Churches, Coasts of the Black Sea, Armenia, 
Mesopotamia, &c. Maps and Plans, Post 8vo. 15s. 

ill. 

] HANDBOOK FOR GREECE, THE IONIAN ISLANDS, 

* ■ Continental Greece, Athens, the Peloponnesus, the Islands of the 
iEgsean Sea, Albania, Thessaly, and Macedonia. Maps. Post 8vo. 15s. 

JOHN MUKKAY, ALBEMARLE STEEET. 
ENGELBERG (u§ar Lucerne, Switzerland). 

HOTEL AND PENSION DU TITLIS. 

CATTANT, Proprietor. 
THIS New Hotel is fitted out with every comfort ; contain- 

ing Eighty Beds, Ladies' Sitting-room, Reading, Billiard, and Smoking Rooms. English, 
French, and German Newspapers. English Service every Sunday. The best starting-place 
for ascending Mont Titlis (18 miles) ; good Guides ; tariff, 10 frs., the same as at Engstlen 
(See Berlepsch). Very nice Excursions on the Glaciers of Ure-Rothstoclc, Schlossberg, and 

Gr 



HOTEL and PEISfttl DE L'ASCrE, belonging to the same 
Proprietor. Excellent Hotel ; clean and well-furnished Rooms at moderate prices. Warm 
and Cold Baths. 



1373. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



27 



ENGLAND. 



ABERDEEN (SCOTLAND). 

POLISHED GRANITE MONUMENTS, 

FROM £5. 

Letter Cutting Accurate and Beautiful. 
Best Quality Granite and Marble Work of all kinds. 
Iron Railings and Tomb Furnishings fitted 
complete. 

Plans, Prices, and Carriage-free Terms to all parts 
of the World, from 



LEGGE, SCULPTOR. 



n 



B I R M I NGHAM. 





THE 

GREAT WESTERN HOTEL 

(SNOW- HILL STATION), 






BIRMINGHAM. 

• " One of the most elegant, comfortable, and 
economical Hotels in the three kingdoms." — 
The Field, July 31, 1869. 





BRISTOL. 

ROYAL HOTEL, COLLEGE GREEN. 

FIRST-CLASS. Central, and pleasantly situated. Very 
spacious Coffee, Dining, Reading, Smoking, and Billiard Rooms. Private 
Apartments en suite. One Hundred and Twenty Bed-rooms. Steam Lift and 
Laundry. Hot and Cold Baths. Telegraph Office and Post-office in the Hotel. 
Fixed Charges. All Omnibuses pass the door. Night Porter kept. 

W. SW ANSON, Manager. 

g 2 



28 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May, 



ENGLAND. 



KILLARNEY (IRELAND). 

THE RAILWAY HOTEL. 

P. CURRY, 

Late Travellers' Club, London, and Eildare Street Club, Lublin. 
THE CONTINENTAL LANGUAGES SPOKEN BY THE MANAGER. 

I^JBLTS magnificent Establishment, admitted to be one of 
the finest in Europe, possesses everything requisite to 
promote the comfort and convenience of Tourists. It contains 
one hundred Bed-rooms, a noble Coffee-room, a Drawing-room 
for ladies and families, and several elegant and handsomely- 
furnished Sitting-rooms, Billiard and fcmoking-rooms, Baths, 
&c, &c, and is surrounded by an extensive and well-kept 
Flower Garden. The charges will be found moderate. 

The porters of the Hotel await the arrival of each train for 
the removal of Luggage, &c. 

Table d'Hote at half-past 6 o'clock. All attendance charged. 
A Room is established for the convenience of Commercial 
gentlemen. 

LANCASTER- 

(HALF-WAY BETWEEN LONDON AND SCOTLAND.) 

Parties holding Tourist Tickets to and from the Lake District or Scotland 
may break their journey at Lancaster both going and returning. 

KING'S ARMS AND ROYAL HOTEL, 

And general Posting Establishment for Families, Commercial Gentlemen 
and Tourists. 

The House is teeming with a large Collection of Ancient Works of Art, 
including Gobelin Tapestry (inferior to none in the United Kingdom), 
elaborately carved Oak Bedsteads, Tables, Chairs, Cabinets, Portraits, 
Chinn, etc., which have elicited the admiration of all visitors, including 
H.K.H. the Prince of Wales, their Imperial Highnesses the Emperor and 
Empress of Brazil and suite, and many other Royal Personages, and the 
late Mr. Charles Dickens, who stated that in all his travels he had never 
met with such a remarkable house and interesting collection. 

(See " The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices," in Household Words, by 
the late Mr. Charles Dickens.) 

Visitors will find this old-established House equally as economic as 
minor establishments, with the certainty of comfort and attention. 

An Omnibus from the Hotel meets the trains. 

JOSEPH SLY, Proprietor. 



1873. MURRAY'S HANDBOOK* ADVERTISER. 



29 



ENGLAND. 

LYNTON (NORTH DEVON). 

THE V A LLE Y O F II O CKS HOTEL. 

I^HLS favourite and beautifully situate Hotel, which has lately had 
- extensive alterations, additions, and improvements, combines with moderate charges all 
necessary means for the accommodation and comfort of Families and Tourists. The splendid 
Table d'Hote and Coffee Room, Reading Rooms, Ladies' Drawing Room, and several Private 
Sitting Rooms, range in a long front overlooking the sea, and looking into the extensive 
private grounds of the Hotel. Here the visitor commands uninterrupted views of the 
Bristol Channel, the Tors, and the Valleys of the East and West Lynns, and the coast of South 
Wales, &c. The Hotel is also most conveniently situate as a centre for visiting all the 
places of interest in the district. Post Horses and Carriages. Coaches during the Season to 
llfracombe, Barnstaple, and the West Somerset Railway. 

JOHN CROOK, Proprietor. 



PENZANCE (CORNWALL). 

MOUNT'S BAY HOUSE, 

ESPLANADE, PENZANCE, CORNWALL, 

Has been erected and fitted up expressly as a 
SEASIDE 

FAMILY HOTEL &^PEEI0R LODGING-HOUSE. 

NO expense or labour has been spared by the Proprietor. 
The house is furnished in the most modern styie, is well supplied with Hot 
and Cold Baths, and replete with every accommodation suitable for Tourists to 
West Cornwall. 

All the Drawing Rooms command an uninterrupted and unsurpassed view of that 
* Beauteous gem set in the silver sea,* 
St. Michael's Mount, and the whole of the magnificent Bay. 

Invalids will find in Mount's Bay House the comforts of a home, while the 
beauty and salubrity of the situation, and its nearness to the charming walks on 
the sea-shore, render it a healthy and delightful residence. 
Suites of apartments for families of distinction. 
Choice Wines and Ales. Post Horses and Carriages. Charges moderate. 
E. LAVLN, Proprietor. 



PLYMOUTH, &c 

With Map. Post 8vo. 12s. 

HANDBOOK FOft DEVON AND CORNWALL— 

EXETER, ILFRACOMBE, LYNTON, SIDMOUTH, DAWLISH, TEIGNMOUTH, 
PLYMOUTH, DEVONPORT, TORQUAY, LAUNCESTON, PENZANCE, 
FALMOUTH, THE LIZARD, LAND'S END, &c. 



JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 




THIS Hotel contains upwards of one hundred bedrooms, 
drawing-rooms, bed and dressing-rooms, and closets, en suite, a ladies' coffee- 
room, a gentlemen's coffee-room, Table d'hote, reading and billiard-rooms, &c., &c. 

The building is surrounded by its own ornamental grounds, flower gardens, 
lawns, and terraces, and commands unequalled views of the whole range of the 
Malvern Hills on one side, with the expansive and charming valley sceneiy ot 
Worcestershire, bounded by the Bi edon and Cotswold Hills on the other. 

Of Great Malvern — the salubrity of the air and the purity of the water, its 
invigorating effects in summer and winter, and the beauties of the place — it is 
superfluous to speak. As a winter residence, also, the dryness and high tempera- 
ture of Malvern is shewn by conclusive and trustworthy testimony, and is 
confirmed by comparative talles of winters in other localities. 

To meet the wishes of numerous Visitors to the Hotel, the Proprietors have 
decided to take Ladies and Gentlemen as Boarders during the season, on the terms 
stated in the tariff, which will be forwarded on application. 

The new Stables belonging to the Company are now open, and comprise first- 
class accommodation for horses and carriages. Carriages, saddle-horses, and Ays 
may be had at the Hotel. 

A covered way conducts the visitor from the Railway Station to the Hotel. 
Porters attend every train, to convey Passengers' luggage to the Hotel. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



31 



ENGLAND. 



PENZANCE. 

SEA-SI DE FAMILY HOTEL. 

QUEEN'S HOTEL. 

(On the Esplanade.} 

Patronised by Her Majesty the Queen of Holland. 




THIS magnificent Hotel has recently been greatly enlarged, entirely 
re-arranged, and handsomely furnished, havirjg a frontage of over 170 
feet, all the rooms of which overlook the sea. It is the only Hotel that 
commands a full and uninterrupted view of Mount's Bay. Apartments 
en suite. Penzance stands unrivalled for the variety and quiet beauty of 
its scenery, whilst the mildness of its climate is admirably adapted to 
invalids. Ladies' Coffee Boom. Billiard Boom. Hot and Cold Baths. 

Table d'Hote at 7 o'clock. 
An Omnibus meets every Train. Posting in all its Branches. Yachts, &c. 
HENRY BLACKWELL, Proprietor . 

SOUTH WEST ENGLAND. 

With Map. Post 8vo. 10s. 

TTANDBOOK FOR SURREY AND HANTS — Kingston, 

Croydon, Reigate, Guildford, Dorking, Boxhill, Winchester, Southampton, 
Kew Forest, Portsmouth, and the Isle of Wight. 

■HANDBOOK FOR WILTS, DORSET, AND SOMERSET. 

— Salisbury, Chippenham, Weymouth, Sherborne, Wells, Bath, Bristol, 
Taunton, &c. Map. Post 8vo. 10s. 

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 



32 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May, 



FLORENCE. 

HOTEL PORTA. HOSSA. 

Mr. BASSETTI, Proprietor, who speaks English. 

THE best and largest of the Hotels in the centre of the City, with first-rate Restaurant. 
Highly recommended to Bachelors and Families who wish to unite economy with good 
treatment. Table-d'Hote at fr. 3. 50. Good Rooms from 2 fr. Reading-room with Piano. 
Omnibus at all Trains. Mrs. BASSETTI is an Englishwoman. 



FLORENCE. 

MESSRS. COSTA & CONTI, 

ARTISTS, 
No. 8, VIA ROMAN A, 

Opposite the Museum of Natural History (Specola), and near the Pitti Gallery. 

Messrs. Costa and Conti keep the largest collection in Florence of original 
Ancient and Modern Pictures, as well as Copies of all the most celebrated Masters. 

N.B. — English spoken. 

Correspondents in England, Messrs. J. and R. M'CRACKEN, 38, Queen Street, 
Cannon Street, E.C., London. 

FLORENCE- 

GRAND HOTEL DE LAVILLE, 

LUNG' ARNO NTIOVO AND PIAZZA MANIN. 

(Southern Aspect.) 

Patronised by their Majesties the Kings of Prussia and Denmark. 
120 lofty and airy Bed-rooms; Sitting-rooms; Reading-room, with a good 
choice of European Papers. Splendid Dining-room and Table d'Hote. 
Smoking Saloon. Baths in the Hotel. Fixed and moderate prices. 
Omnibus at every train. All languages spoken. 

D. LODOMEZ, Proprietor. 

FLORENCE. 

P. ROMANELLI, 

Sculptor, Pupil of, and Successor to, the late Professor Bartolini, has opened a Gallery, 

Lung' Arno Guiceiardini, No. 7. 

The intelligent amateur will find there a Collection of Statues, both originals and copies, 
artistically executed. 

Principal Works— The Son of William Tell; the Young Franklin; the Young 
Washington ; the Young Whittington ; the Young Napoleon ; the Young Moses ; Garibaldi. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



33 



FLORENCE. 

Messrs. Anthony Sasso & Son, Artists, 

4, VIA DI BOKGO OGNISSANTI, 

Distinguished with Medals at the Italian Exhibition of 1861, keep the most beautiful and 
rich Private Gallery in the City of Ancient and Modern Original Pictures, copies of the most 
celebrated pictures in the Public Galleries, water-colour paintings, and beautiful ancient 
carved cabinets, &c. » 

ENGLISH SPOKEN. 

Agents and Correspondents in England and America:— 
Messrs. J. & R. McCRACKEN, 38, Queen Street, Cannon Street, London, E.C. 
Messrs. DUNCAN, SH1RMAN & CO., and Messrs. AUSTIN, BALDWIN & CO., New York. 

FLORENCE. 

BRIZZI AND NICCOLAPS 
Musical E si ; il > lishmeiit. 

PIANOFORTES, oFTEffi^ BEST MAKERS, 

FOR SALE AND ON HIRE. 

GENERAL DEPOT FOR WIND-INSTRUMENTS. 
Italian and Foreign Music. 

Musical Lending Library. 
PIAZZA MADONNA, I BRANCH HOUSE (Music Dep6t) 

PALAZZO ALDOBRANDINI. I 12, VIA CERRETANI. 



FLORENCE. 

TELEMACO DI G. BLANCHINI, 

MANUFACTURER OF TABLES AND LADIES' ORNAMENTS 
OF FLORENTINE MOSIAC, 
LUNG' AENO NTJOVO, 1, AND BORG' OGNISSANTI, 2, 

TNVITES the English Nobility and Gentry to visit his Establishment, where 
may always be seen numerous specimens of this celebrated and beautiful 
Manufacture, in every description of Rare and Precious Stones. Orders for Tables 
and other Ornaments executed to any Design. 

T. Bianchini's Correspondents in England are Messrs. J* & R. M'Cracken. 
38, Queen Street, Cannon Street, E.C., London. 

FRANKFORT O. M. 

MR. C. A. LOHR, 

PROPRIETOR OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR HOTEL, 

Begs to recommend his House to English Travellers. 

THIS large and well-situated Establishment is conducted under the immediate 
superintendence of the Proprietor, and newly furnished with every comfort, 
and a new splendid Dining-room. 

The " Roman Emperor" is often honoured by Royal Families and other high 
personages. The following have lately honoured this Hotel — 

H.M. THE KING AND QUEEN OF WURTEMBERG. 

H.M. THE QUEEN OF HOLLAND. 
H.I.H. THE ARCHDUKE OF AUSTRIA. &c. &c. &c. 
Table-d'h6te at 1, lfl. 30kr. Breakfast, 42kr. 

6, 2fl. Tea, IZkr. 

Bed Rooms, from lfl. to 311. 

C 3 



m MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. May, 

FRANKFORT. O. M- 

■ ■ 

FRIEDRICH BOHLEE, 

ZEIL, No. 54, 



NEXT DOOR TO THE POST OFFICE. 

PRIZE MEDAL. LONDON. 1862. 




MA^TUFACTOEY OIF 1 



CARVED STAGHORN AND IVORY ORNAMENTS, 

CARVED WOOD WORK (Vieuxchene) Furniture & Fancy Objects, 
(Hocks, Stamps, ^ron^ns, €tym f JfattTg. Articles of jeforg Jjmrinibn. 

SPECIALITIES OF GERMAN ARTICLES. 

Vienna Bronzes, Marquetry, Leather and Meerschaum Goods, Travelling 
Articles, Toilette Requisites, etc., etc. 
SUPERIOR COPIES OF THE ARIADNE BY DANNICKER. 

Genuine Eau de Cologne of Jean Marie Farina, opposite the Julichsplatz, 

FIXED PRICES. 

The Agents in London are Messrs. J. and R. McCracken, 38, Queen Street, 
Cannon Street West 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



35 



FRANKFORT. 



P. A. TACCHI'S SUCCESSOR, 

BOHEMIAH FAHCT GLASS AND C1YSTAL 
WAlEH©I!JSIgo 

P, A. TACCHI'S SUCCESSOR, Manufacturer of Bohemian 
Glass, begs to acquaint the Public that he has always an extensive 
Assortment in the Newest and most Elegant Designs of 

ORNAMENTAL CUT, ENGRAVED, GILT, & PAINTED GLASS., 

BOTH WHITE AND COLOURED, 

In Dessert Services, Chandeliers, Candelabras, Articles for the Table 
and Toilet, and every possible variety of objects in this beautiful 
branch of manufacture. He solicits, and will endeavour to merit, a 
continuance of the favours of the Public, which he has enjoyed in 
so high a degree during a considerable number of years. 

P. A. Tacchi's Successor has a Branch Establishment during the 
Summer Season at 

WIESBADEN, in the Old Colonnade, No. 1, 

OPPOSITE THE THEATRE, 

Where will always be found an extensive Selection of the newest 
Articles from his Frankfort Establishment. 

Visitors to Frankfort should not fail to pay a visit to the Show 
Rooms of Mr. P. A. Tacchi's Successor. 



His Correspondent in England, to whom he undertakes to forward 
Purchases made of him, is Mr. LOUIS HENLE, 3, Budge 
Row, Cannon Street, London, E.G. 



36 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May, 



. FREIBURG in Bresgau, Duchy of Baden. 



HOTEL SOMMER, Zahringer Hof. 

Newly built, opposite the Station ; finest view of the Black Forest and the Vosges ; 
most comfortable and best house there. Baths in the Hotel. 
Proprietor, Mr. G. H. SOMMER. 



GENOA. 
ROYAL INTERNATIONAL PHARMACY. 

CARLO BRUZZA, Piazza Nuova, General Depository for Italy of the 
specially accredited Medicines of the World. English, French, and Italian Articles, 
Mineral Waters, Perfumeries, Pomades, Essences, &c. 



GENOA. 

HORACE AUGUSTE MOSSA, 

JEWELLEB, 

AND 

MANUFACTURER OF GOLD AND SILVER FILAGREE WORK, 

Which obtained PRIZE MEDAL at the Universal Exhibition 
of London in 1851. 

His Establishments are situated in the Grande Albergo d'ltalia, 
in Via del Campo, near the Porta di Vacca ; he also keeps a Depository 
in the Grande Albergo di Genova. He undertakes the execution of 
all Commissions with exactitude, and guarantees his Works to be 
of pure Gold and Silver, and Silver doubly gilt. Travellers are 
invited to visit his Establishments without obligation to purchase. 

Correspondents in England— Messrs. J. & R. McCRACKEN, 
38, Queen Street, Cannon Street, E.C., London. 



COMPANION TO THE HANDBOOKS. 

Post 8vo., 6s. 

'HE CICERONE ; or, Art Guide to Painting in Italy. For 

the use of Travellers. By Dr. Jacob Burckhardt. 

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



37 



& wnmm & co:s 

ITALIAN MAIL ST EAME R S. 

Regular Monthly Departures for the 
INDIAN LINE 

(Via SUEZ CA.NA.1m.) 

From Genoa to Bombay on the 24th I From Bombay to Genoa on the 1st 

and from Naples on the 27th and from Aden on the 8th-. 

of each Month. 



MEDITERRANEAN LINES. 

ALEXANDRIA (Egypt) to ITALY. 

Alexandria to Genoa every 7, 17, 27 at 2 p.m. I Genoa to Alexandria every 5, 15, 25 at 7 p m. 

(Calling at Messina, Naples, & Leghorn.; | (Calling at Leghorn. Naples, & Messina.) 
From Naples to Genoa every 2, 12, 22 at 2 p.m. I From Naples to Alexandria 8, 18, 28 at 2 p.m. 
Arrival at Genoa 4, 14, 24. | Arrival at Alexandria 3, 13, 23. 

GENOA to TUNIS. 

From Genoa every Thursday . . . . at 9 p.m. I From Tunis every Wednesday . . . . at noon. 

„ Leghorn every Friday .. . . at 11 „ „ Cagliari every Thursday. . .. at 6 p.m. 

„ Cagliari every Sunday .... at 8 „ „ Leghorn every Saturday .... at 1 1 „ 
Arrival at Tunis every Monday . . at noon. | Arrival at Genoa every Sunday . . at 6 a.m. 

GENOA to CAGLIARI. 



From Genoa every Monday & Thurs. at 6 p.m. 

„ Leghorn every Tues. & Friday at 1 1 „ 
Arr. at Cagliari every Thurs. & Sun. murn. 



From Cagliari every Mon. & Thurs. at 6 p.m. 

„ Leghorn every Wed. & Sat. . . at 11 „ 
Arr. at Genoa every Thurs. & Sun. . . at 6 A.M . 



NAPLES to CAGLIARI. 

From Naples every Saturday . . . . at 2 p.m. I From Cagliari every Thursday . . . . at 2 p.m. 
Arr. at Cagliari eveiy Sunday .... at 7 „ | Arr. at Naples every Friday . . . . eveniug. 

GENOA to PORTOTORRES. 

From Genoa every Wednesday . . .. at 9 p.m. I From Portotorres every Sunday .. at noon. 

„ Leghorn every Thun-day. . . . at 3 ,, „ Leghorn every Monday . . .. atllA.M 

Arr. at Portotorres every Friday . . at noon. | Arr. at Genoa every Tuesday . . . . morning. 

GENOA, BASTIA, MADALENA & PORTOTORRES 



From Genoa to Leghorn every Sat. at 9 p. 

„ Leghorn to Bastia every Sun. at 8 a.m. 

„ Bastia to Madalena every Sun. at 6 p.m. 

„ Madalena to Portot. every Mon. at 6 a.m. 
Arr. at Portotorres every Mon at 6 p.m. 



From Portot. to Madal. every Wed. at 8 a.m. 
„ Madalina to Bastia every Wed. at 5 p.m. 
„ Bastia to Leghorn every Thurs. at 6 a.m. 
„ Leghorn to Genoa every Thurs. at 11 p.m. 
Arr. at Genoa every Friday morning 



CIVITAVECCHIA to MADALENA & PORTOTORRES- 

From Civitav. to Madal. every Wed. at 3 p.m. i From Portot. to Madal. every Friday at 10 a.m. 

„ Madal. to Portot. every Thurs. at 7 a.m. „ Madal. to Civitav. every Fri. at » p.m. 
Arr. at Portotorres every Thursday at 3 p.m. | Arr. at Civitavecchia every Sat. . . at 11 a.m. 

LEGHORN to the ISLAND OF ELBE. 

(Sun. at 10 a.m. I (Mon. at 8 a.m. 

From Legh. to Portof. every \ Wed. at 8 „ From Portof. to Legh. every \ Fri. . . at 8 a .m. 
Arr. at Portof. every Sun. & Wed. at 4 p.m. | Arr. at Leghorn every Mon. & Fri. evening. 

PIOMBINO to PORTOFERRAIO- 

From Piombino every day at 3 p.m. | From Portoferraio every day . . . . at 8 a.m. 

For Freight, Passage, and Particulars, apply at Bombay, to VOLKART BROTHERS: at 
Alexandria, to BARKER & CO. ; at Marseilles, to CH. LAFORET & CO. ; at London, to 
A. LAMING & CO., 8., Leadenhall Street, and in other ports to the Company's Agencies. 

K. HUBATTINO &. CO. (CSNOAj. 



38 MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. May, 

GRENOBLE. 

HOTEL MONNET, 

M. TRILL AT, Proprietor 

(Son-in-Law and Successor to M. Monnet). 

THIS Hotel is* situated in the PLACE GRENETTE, 14 ; it offers excellent ac- 
commodation, and will be found deserving the patronage of English Families and 
Single Gentlemen. Post Horses and Coaches for Aix-les-Bains, Allevard, Ariage la Motte- 
les-Bains, la Salette, &c. 

Omnibuses belonging to tlte Hotel at the Station. 



HEIDELBERG. 

HOTEL DE L'EUROPE. 

'JTHIS new, magnificent, first-rate Establishment, sur- 
rounded by private and public gardens, with a view of 
the Castle, and in the very best situation in Heidelberg, 
enjoys an European reputation. 

READING ROOM, 

With English and American Papers. 

Reduced prices for protracted stay, and for 
the Winter Season. 

ELffiJFELI-GUJER, Proprietor. 

No Omnibus required, being but 400 ft. from the Station. 
GERMANY. 

With 50 Woodcuts. 12mo. 3s. 6d. 

A HISTORY OF GERMANY, 

FROM THE INVASION OF THE KINGDOM BY THE ROMANS 
UNDER MARIUS DOWN TO 1867. 
On the Plan of Mrs. Markham's Histories. 



JOHN MUEEAY, ALBEMAKLE STREET. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



39 



HEIDELBERG. 



HOTEL M RUSSIE. 

jgEAUTIFULLY situated on the Promenade, with a fine 
view of the old castle. Eeading Room, with Times and 
Galignani. A very nice Garden, and all sorts of Baths attached 
to the House. Close to the English Church. Five minutes 
from the Swimming Baths. Pension, six and seven francs 
a day. 

Hotel Omnibus at the Station. 
Proprietor, WILH. WETTSTEIN. 



HEIDELBERG. 

MULLER'S HOTEL VICTORIA. 

T?IRST CLASS. One of the best in Heidelberg. Splendidly 
situated near the Station and the Promenade. Large and Small 
Apartments most comfortably furnished and entirely carpeted. Fine 
Kitchen and choice Wines. 

AUG. MULLER, Proprietor. 



HEIDELBERG. 

TJOTEL ADLEE, in the Grand Place, opposite and nearest the Castle. 

Deservedly recommended for its excellent situation, comfort, and 
moderate charges. 

Mr. LEHR, Proprietor. 



40 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May, 



HOMBURG. 

HOMBOLTRG. — ROYAL VICTORIA HOTEL. — First-rate for Families and Single 
Gentlemen, close to the Springs and the Kursaal ; it is one of the best situated Hotels 
in the town. A splendid Dining-room, and two suites of airy and quiet apartments (with 
balconies), overlooking the fine Taunus Mountains, have been newly added to the Hotel. It 
has been patronised by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and several other Royal 
personages. The Proprietor, who has been ior years in first-class hotels in London, offers 
visitors the advantages of good and comfortable accommodation. All the attendants speak 
English. Best French and English cooking. Excellent Wines. Moderate charges. Good 
fishing, hare and partridge shooting free. GUSTAVE WEIGAND, Proprietor. 



HOMBURG. 

HOTEL DES QUATRE SAISONS.— Mr. SCHLOTTERBECK, Proprietor.— 
This Hotel is of the first class, and enjoys a well-merited reputation. It is situated 
near the Springs and the Cursaal. Excellent Table d'Hote and Wines ; the Proprietor is a 
large dealer in Wines; and endeavours to make the stay of his patrons as comfortable and 
pleasant as possible, 



INNSBRUCK. 

HOTEL GOLDEN SUN. — M. Horandtner, Proprietor.— 

This first-class Hotel, situated in the finest part of the town, and only four minutes' 
walk from the Railway Station, enjoys a high reputation for being honoured with the 
patronage of travellers of all nations. The greatest care is. given to the attendance. Large 
and small well-furnished Apartments for Families and Single Gentlemen. English speken. 



INNSBRUCK. 

HOTEL DE L'FUROPE, kept by Mr. SCH FINER. — A new and well-furnished 
Hotel, conveniently situated, ju>t facing the splendid valley of the Inn, opposite the 
Railway Station. Excellent Table d'Hote and private dinners. Arrangements made at 
very reasjnable prices. Well-furnished Apartments. English Newspapers taken in. 
Splendid situation, commanding a fine view of the mountains. English spoken. 



INTERLACKEN. 

J. GROSSMANN, 

SCULPTOR IN WOOD, AND MANUFACTURER OF SWISS 
WOOD MODELS AND ORNAMENTS, 
Carved and Inlaid Furniture manufactured to any Design, 

AT INTERLACKEN, 

TJIS WAREHOUSE is situated between the Belvedere Hotel and Schweizerhof, 
where he keeps the largest and best assortment of the above objects to be 
found" in Switzerland. He undertakes to forward Goods to England and elsewhere. 

Correspondents in England, Messrs. J. & R. McCracken, 38, Queen Street, 
Cannon Street, E.G., London.. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



41 



INTERLAKEN. 

GRAND HOTEL DES ALPES. 

OPPOSITE THE JUNGFRAU GLACIER. 

250 Beds. 

EEDUCED PEICES (PENSION) are made for prolonged stay 
in the early and later part of the season. 

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS. 

Open from the lUh of MAY. 

T. F. KNECHTENHOFEK, Proprietor. 



INTERLAKEN. 

HOTEL DE BELLE VUE, 

Kept by Mr. HERMANN RIMPS. 
"C'XCELLENT Second-class Hotel, very well situated, containing a 

branch " Pension Felsenogg," with a fine Garden attached. It has been recently enlarged 
and newly furnished, and contains 80 Beds. Boarders taken in, per day 5£ francs during the 
months of May, June, September, October ; and 6£ francs per day during the months of July 
and August. English, French, and German Newspapers. Omnibuses, Private Carriages, 
and Saddle Horses. English spoken. The moderate charges of the Hotel Belle Vue are to 
be particularly noticed. 



ITALY. 

\ NGLO-AMERICAN BANKERS. — Messrs. Maquay, Hooker & Co., 
Florence — Via Tornabuoni, No. 5. Messrs. Maquay, Hookek & Co., Rome — Piazza 
di Spagna, No. 20. Messrs. Maquay, Hookek & Co., Leghorn — Via Burra, No. 7. With 
Branches at Pisa, Siena, and Baths of Lucca. 

Agents and direct Correspondents of all the principal Bankers in Europe and the United 
States. Reading-rooms. Goods stored and lorwarded for clients, &c, &c. , 



42 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May, 



JERUSALEM. 

n HOTEL DAMASCUS. 

HOENSTEIN begs to inform Visitors to the "Holy 

City" that his Hotel has undergone a thorough renovation, and is now- 
replete with everything tending to make them comfortable during a long or short 
stay. It is finely situated near the Damascus Gate, all the Consulates, Mosque of 
Omar, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and all the other interesting places recorded 
in Sacred History. A splendid view of the Mount of Olives, Mosque of Omar, and 
a large portion of the City. 

The Bedrooms are large, airy, and clean. The Wines are of the best quality, and 
moderate in price. Table d'Hote, 12 and 6*30 o'clock. 

A. H. speaks English and other European languages, and wife a Scotchwoman. 

No Pool or Stagnant Water in the vicinity. 



LIEGE. 

HOTEL D' ANGrLETERRE, 

PLACE DU THEATRE ROYAL A LIEGE. 
Mr. CLUCK, Proprietor. 

THIS large and magnificent Hotel, much frequented by English families 
of distinction, also by Tourists and Travellers, is situated in the finest part of the town, 
at a short distance from the Railway Stations and from the Steamboats, contiguous to the 
Boulevards, and also very near places of public amusement. It is celebrated for its Cleanli- 
ness, good attendance, and reasonable prices. Excellent large and small well furnished 
apartments, suitable for Families or Single Travellers. Fixed prices. Superior Cooking, and 
Table d'HSte very good. English, French, and German spoken. 



LO N DON. 



TPHE best Remedy for Acidity or 
the Stomach, Heartburn, Headache, 
Gout, and Indigestion ; and the best mild 
aperient for delicate constitutions, es- 
pecially adapted for Ladies, Children, 
and Infants. 

DINNEFORD & CO., 172, New Bond Street ; and of all Chemists throughout the world. 



ESSENTIALS FOR TRAVELLING. 

Thresher's India Tweed Suits. Thresher's Kashmir Flannel Shirts. 

Thresher's Kashmir Woollen Socks. Thresher's Coloured Flannel Shirts. 
Thresher's Travelling Bags. 
Sold only by THRESHER AND GLENNY, 
NEXT DOOR TO SOMERSET HOUSE, STRAND. 




1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



43' 



LONDON. 

THE CONTINENT. 



COURIERS AND TRAVELLING SERVANTS OF 
DIFFERENT NATIONS. 



Society of Couriers and Travelling 
Servants. 

Established 16 Years. 
Patronised by the Royal Family, Nobility, and G-entry. 
12, BUEY STREET, ST. JAMES'S. 

THIS Society is composed of Members of different Nations, 
all of well-established reputation, great experience, efficiency, 
and respectability. 

Couriers suitable for any country can be obtained. 

Italians, Germans, Swiss, French, and Men of other 
Nations, compose this Society; some of whom, besides the 
usually required languages, speak Spanish, Russian, Swedish, 
Turkish, and Arabic, — in fact, every Continental and European 
language. 

Travellers for any part can immediately meet with 
Couriers and Travelling Servants on application to the 
Secretary. 



COURIERS AND TRAVELLING SERVANTS OF DIFFERENT NATIONS, 
12, BURY STREET, ST. JAMES'S. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



LONDON. 

PASSPORT AGENCY OFFICE, 

W. J. ADAMS, 59, FLEET STREET, LONDON, E.C. 

Regulations gratis for obtaining Foreign Office Passports. 

pOUNTRY or LONDON Residents, V a 

V7 by forwarding a Banker's Application, or 
Certificate of Identity, can have a PASSPORT 
and VISAS obtained. By this arrangement, a 
personal attendance is unnecessary. 

Cost of Passport, 2s. ; Visas, Various. 

Passports carefully Mounted and Cased, and 
Names Uttered thereon in Gold. 

Passport Cases from Is. 6d. to 5s. 6d. each. 

THE LATEST EDITIONS OF MURRAY'S HANDBOOKS. 
BRADSHAW'S BRITISH and CONTINENTAL GUIDES and HANDBOOKS 

to France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and Portugal, Normandy, Brittany, 

Tyrol, Paris, Turkey, Syria, and Palestine (2 vols). 
Tourist's Handbook to Great Britain, &c, in four parts. 
Baedeker's Handbooks, Ball's Alpine Guides, Pack's Pyrenees. 
BRADSHAW'S Complete Phrase Books, French, Italian, Spanish, and German. Is. each. 
B kadsha w's Overland and Through Route Guide to India, China, and Australia, 5s. 
Bradshaw's Handbooks to Bombay, Madras, and Bengal, 10s. each. 

Kellar's, Lettthold's, and Ziegler's Maps of Switzerland. Matr's Map of the Tyrol, 
Knapsacks, Rugs, Waterproof Coats, Door-fasteners, Handbags, Portmanteaus, Straps, Soap, 

Compasses, Drinking Cups, Courier Bags, Glycerine, &c. 
Harper & Appleton's Handbook to Europe and the East. 
Black's Guides to England, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland. 
O'Shea's Spain and Portugal. 
Phrase Books and Dictionaries. 

Experienced Couriers engaged upon application. 




THE LONDON and WESTMINSTER BANK issues Cir- 
cular Notes of £10, £25, and £50 each, for the use of Travellei-s. payable 
in the principal Towns on the Continent of Europe, also in Asia, Africa, and 
North and South America. No expense whatever is incurred, and when cashed no 
charge is made for commission. Letters of Credit are also granted on the same 
places. They may be obtained at the City Office in Lothbury, or at any of the 
Branches, viz.: 

Westminster Branch . . 1, St James's Square. 
Bloomsbury „ . . 214, High Holbom. 
South wark „ . . 6, High Street, Borough. 
Eastern „ . . 130, High Street, Whitechapel. 

Marylebone „ . . 4. Stratford Place, Oxford Street 
Temple Bar . . 217, Strand. 

Lambeth „ . . 89 & 9 1, Westminster Bridge Road. 

May, 1873. W. S. HIGLEY, General Manager. 



THE CONTINENT, &c. 

16mo. 3s. 6d. 

JJANDBOOK OF TRAVEL TALK, for the use of Travellers, 



in English — French — German — and Italian. 



JOHN MUKKAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 



1873. MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER, 45 



LON DON. 

CHUBB S LOCKS AND SAFES. 

PRIZE MEDALS AWARDED at the following Exhibitions:— 
LONDON 1851, PARIS 1855, LONDON 1862, DUBLIN 1865, PARIS 1867. 

CHUBB & SON, 

BT APPOINTMENTS, 

MAKERS TO THE QUEEN, AND TO H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES. 



pHUBB'S PATENT DETECTOR LOCKS, the most secure from 

\J picklocks and false keys, are strong, simple, and durable, and made of all sizes and for 
every purpose to which a Lock can be applied. 

Trunks, Portmanteaus, Travelling Bags, Dressing Cases, Writing Desks, <fcc, fitted with 
only the usual common and utterly insecure Locks, can have the place of these supplied, by 
Chubb's Patent without alteration or injury. 

Tbavellebs' Lock-Pbotectobs and Pobtable Scutcheon Locks for securing Doors that 
may be found fastened only by common Locks. 

CHUBB <fc SON have always in stock a variety of Writing and Despatch Boxes in 
Morocco or Russia Leather and Japanned Tin ; tbe latter being particularly recommended 
for lightness, room, durability, and freedom from damage by insects or hot climates. 

Best Black Enamelled Leather Travelling Bags of various sizes, all with 
Chubb's Patent Locks. Cash, Deed, and Paper Boxes of all dimensions. 



nHTJBB'S PATENT SAFES are con- 

\J structed in the very best manner, of the strongest 
wrought iron, fitted with Chubb's Patent Dbill-pbe- 
ventivk and their Genpowdek-pboof Steel-plated 
Locks, are the most secure from fire and burglary, and 
form the most complete safeguard for Books, Papers, Deeds, 
Jewels, Plate, and other valuable property. 

CHTJBB & SON have also strong wrought-iron Safes, 
without fire-resisting lining, but equally secure in all other 
respects, intended for holding plate where protection from 
fire is not an object, and affording much more room inside 
than the Patent Safes. They are recommended specially 
CflUDO s J ewel Safes, in place of the ordinary wooden cases for plate, which may 
For Ladies' Dressing Rooms, so easily be broken open. 



Attention is requested to the following letter, which appeared in the " TIMES " 
of 11th May, 1870 :— 

"JEWEL ROBBERIES. 

- To the Editor of the Times. 

" Srs, — Allow me for the sake of the reputation of myself and my fellow craftsmen, to 
say that, having carefully noted the Jewel Robberies in Dwelling-houses for the last cO years, 
1 have never known any Robbery to have been effected where the Jewels were in a safe, 
and tbe Key inaccessible. It is true that many ladies are careless either in leaving their 
Key about or in trusting it to a servant, but if Safe-makers will make the Key so small 
that a Lady may wear it without inconvenience, it may always be carried on the person. 

" In a recent Robbery, upon which you commented in a leading article a few weeks since, 
the Jewels were all left outside, on the top of the Safe. 

" 1 am, Sir, your obedient Servant, 

" 57, St. Paul's Churchyard, May 10th, 1870." " JOHN CHUBB." 



Complete Illustrated Priced Lists of Chubb's Locks, Boxes, Safes, and other Manufactures, 
gratis and post-free. 

CHTJBB and SON, Makers to the Bank of England, 57, St. Paul's Church- 
yard, London, E.C.; 28, Lord Street, Liverpool; 68, Cross Street, Man- 
chester ; and Horseley Fields, Wolverhampton. 




46 MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May, 



LON DON. 

By Appointment to H. R. H. The Prince of Wales. 




ALIENS PORTMANTEAUS 



37, WEST STRAND, LONDON, W.C. 

New Illustrated Catalogues of Registered and Patented Articles 

Post Free. 




ALLEN 5 
PATENT 
BAG 



ALLEN'S PATENT ALLEN'S PATENT ALLEN'S PATENT 

BAG. DESPATCH-BOX DESK, Quadruple Portmanteau. 




ALLEN'S 
SOLID LEATHER 
DRESSING-CASE. 





ALLEN'S EXPANDING 
PORTMANTEAU* 




ALLEN'S 10 GUINEA 
SILVER DRESSING BAG, 




ALLEN'S NEW 
DRESSING BAG. 



ALLEN'S SOLID 

MAHOGANY 
DRESSING-CASE. 



LADY'S 
WARDROBE 
PORTMANTEAU. 



Allen's Barrack Furniture Catalogue, for 
Officers joining, Post Free. 
PRIZE MEDAL AWARDED 

FOR GENERAL EXCELLENCE. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



47 



LONDON, 



TO CONTINENTAL TRAVELLERS. 



DORRELL & SON'S 
PASSPORT AGENCY, 
15, CHARING CROSS, S.W. 

Every Information given respecting Travelling on the Continent. 
French and Italian spoken, and Correspondence carried on in either Language. 



British Subjects visit- 
ing the Continent will 
save trouble and expense 
by obtaining their Pass- 
ports through the above 
Agency. No personal 
attendance is required, 
and country residents 
may have their Pass- 
ports forwarded through 
the post. A 'Passport 
Prospectus,' containing 
every particular in de- 




tail, by post, on applica- 
tion. 

Passports Mounted, 
and enclosed in Cases, 
with the name of the 
I bearer impressed in gold 
on the outside; thus af- 
fording security against 
injury or loss, and pre- 
venting delay in the 
frequent examination of 
j the Passport when tra- 
^ veiling. 



Fee, Obtaining Passport, Is. 6d. ; Visas, Is. each. Cases, Is. 6d. to 5s. each. 

THE LATEST EDITJcl^r^^F^MURRAY'S HANDBOOKS. 

English and Foreign Stationery, Dialogue Books, Couriers' Bags, Pocket- 
books and Purses of every description, Travelling Inkstands, 

and a variety of other Articles useful for Travellers. 

FOREIGN BOOKS AT F OREIGN PRICES. 

Travellers may save expense and trouble by purchasing Foreign Books in 
England at the same Prices at which they are published in Germany or France. 

WILLIAMS & NORGATE 

have published the following CATALOGUES of their Stock :— 



1. CLASSICAL 

2, 



CATALOGUE. 

CATA- 



THEOLOGICAL 
LOGTJE. 

3. FRENCH CATALOGUE. 

4. GERMAN CATALOGUE. 

5. EUROPEAN LINGUISTIC 

CATALOGUE. 

6. ORIENTAL CATALOGUE. 

7. ITALIAN CATALOGUE. 

8. SPANISH CATALOGUE. 

9. ART-CATALOGUE. Art,Archi- 

tecture, Painting, Illustrated Books. 



10. NATURAL HISTORY 
CATALOGUE. Zoology, Bo- 
tany, Geology, Chemistry, Mathe- 
matics, &c. 

11. MEDICAL CATALOGUE. 
Medicine, Surgery, and the Depen- 
dent Sciences. 

12. SCHOOL CATALOGUE. Ele- 
mentary Books, Maps, &c. 

13. FOREIGN BOOK CIRCU- 
LARS. New Books, and New 
Purchases. 

14. SCIENTIFIC-BOOK CIRCU- 
LARS. New Books and Recent 
Purchases. 



ANY CATALOGUE SENT POST-FREE FOR ONE STAMP. 

WILLIAMS & NORGATE, Importers of Foreign Books, 

14, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London, and 
20, South Frederick Street, Edinburgh. 



48 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



LONDON. 

NATIONAL PROVINCIAL BANK of ENGLAND. 



ESTABLISHED IN THE YEAB 1833. 



Head Office— BISHOPSGATE STREET, corner of THREADNEEDLE STREET. 
St. James' Branch— 14, WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL. 
St. Marylebone „ 28, BAKER STREET. 
Islington „ 173, UPPER STREET. 



Capital. 

SUBSCRIBED CAPITAL £2,550,000 

PAID-UP CAPITAL 1,305,000 

RESERVE FUND 501,655 8 5 

No. of SHAREHOLDERS 2,974. 



Bixzttaxg. 



Right Hon. Lord Ernest Augustus Charles 
Brudenell Bruce, M.P., 7, St. George's 
Place, Hyde Park Corner, S.W. 

John Oliver Hanson, Esq., 4, Dorset 
Square, N.W. 

John Kingston, Esq., 6, Crosby Square, 
E.C. 

Henry Paull, Esq., 33, Devonshire Place» 

Portland Place, W. 
John Stewart, Esq., 26, Throgmorton St., 

E.C. 

Sir James Sirbald David Scott, Bart.. 
18, Cornwall Gardens, W. 



Richard Blaney Wade, 13, Seymour 

Street, Portman Square, W. 
Hon. Eliot Thomas Yorke, 15, Park 

Street, Grosvenor Square, W. 
Duncan Macdonald, Esq., Weybank Lodge, 

Guildford, Surrey, and Belgrave Mansions, 

Grosvenor Gardens, S.W. 
George Hanbubt Field, Esq., 67, Eccleston 

Square, S.W. 
Alex. Robertson, Esq., 20, Grafton Street, 

Berkeley Square, W% and the College, 

Elgin, N.B. 
R. Wigram, Esq., Whitehall Yard. 



The National Provincial Bank of England, having numerous branches in England and 
Wales, as well as agents and correspondents at home and abroad, affords great facilities to 
parties transacting Banking business with it in London. Customers keeping accounts with 
the Bank in town may have moneys paid to their credit at its various branches, and remitted 
free of charge. 

Current accounts conducted at the Head Office and Metropolitan Branches on the usual 
terms of London Banks. 

Deposits at interest received in London of sums of 10Z. and upwards, for whicn receipts are 
granted, called " Deposit Receipts ;" and interest allowed according to the value of money 
from time to time as advertised by the Bank in the newspapers. 

The Agency of Country and Foreign Banks, whether Joint Stock or Private, is undertaken. 

Purchases and Sales effected in all British and Foreign Stocks ; and Dividends, Annuities, 
&c, received for customers. 

Circular Notes and Letters of Credit are issued for the use of Travellers on the Continent 
and elsewhere. 

At the Country Branches, Deposits are received and all other Banking business is con- 
ducted on the usual terms. 

The Officers of the Bank are bound to secrecy as regards the transactions of its customers. 

Copies of the last Annual Report of the Bank, Lists of Shareholders, Branches, Agents, 
and Correspondents, may be had on application at the Head Office, and at any of the Bank's 
Branches. 

By order of the Directors, 

E. ATKINSON, > Joint 

WM. HOLT, i General Manage? s. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



49 



LO N DON. 

Select Library, 



BOOKS FOR ALL READERS, 



FIRST-CLASS SUBSCRIPTION 

FOR A CONSTANT SUCCESSION OF THE NEWEST BOOKS, 

One Guinea per* Annum, 

COMMENCING AT ANT DATE. 
BOOK SOCIETIES SUPPLIED ON LIBERAL TERMS. 



CHEAP BOOKS.— NOTICE. 

TWENTY THOUSAND VOLUMES OF 

BOOKS IN ORNAMENTAL BINDING FOR PRESENTS. 

CONSISTING CHIEFLY OF 

WORKS OF THE BEST AUTHORS, 

AND MORE THAN TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND VOLUMES 
of Surplus Copies of other Popular Books of the Past Season, 
ARE NOW ON SALE AT GREATLY REDUCED PRICES. 
Catalogues postage free on Application. 



MUDIE'S SELECT LIBRARY, New Oxford Street, London. 
CITY OFFICE— 2, King Street, Cheapside. 

Stanford's Foreign Office Passport Agency, 

6 & 7, CHAEING CROSS, LONDON, S.W. 

Passports (which are good for life) 
mounted on Muslin or Silk, in Roan, 
Morocco, or Russia Case, with the 
name of the Owner lettered on the 
outside, thus preventing injury or 
loss, as well as lessening the delay in 
examination abroad. 

For further particulars, including 
the Forms of Application, Cost of 
Passport, Visas, &c, see Stanford's 
Passport Circular, which will 
be forwarded per post on receipt of 
One Stamp. 

Gratis on application, or free per post for One Stamp, 

STANFORD'S TOURIST'S CATALOGUE, 

Containing Title, Price, &c, of the Best Guide Books, Maps, Conversation Books, Diction- 
aries, &c., published in the United Kingdom, the Continent, and America, and kept con- 
stantly in stock by Edward Stanford, 

< London: EDWARD STANFORD, 6 & 7, Charing Cross, S.W., 
Agent for the Sale of the Ordnance Maps, Geological Survey Maps, and Admiralty Charts. 




50 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May, 



LON DON. 

Important to the Travelling Public. 
PARCELS TO A ND FROM THE CONTINENT. 

THE CONTINENTAL 

DAILY PARCELS EXPRESS, 

Known on the Continent as "L'Agence Continentale," 
(ESTABLISHED 1849), 

SOLE Agency for England of the Belgian Government 
RAILWAY, THE IMPERIAL GERMAN POST, and Correspondent of the 
Northern of France Railway, conveys by Mail Steam Packets, Twice Daily 
(Sunday excepted), via, Dover, Ostend, and Calais, and rapidly by Rail and Post to 
destination, Sample Parcels and Packages of all kinds, between England and every 
part of the Continent. The Through Rates which are very moderate, and include 
all charges, except Duties and Entries, are to be had gratis on application. 

Parcels should he hooked as follows : — 
HOMEWARD.— From the Continent. 
In all Germany. At any Post-office of the Imperial German Post, or of the 
Countries in connection therewith, viz., Austria, Switzerland, Russia, 
Denmark, &c. The Address, and especially the Waybill (Frachtbrief ) 
should bear the words " Service de l'Agence Continentale via 
Ostende." 

Belgium. At any of the State Railway Stations, at the Office of the Agent in 
Brussels, A. Croot, 90 bis, Montagne de la Cour ; or they can be 
sent direct to Mr. De Ridder, 54, Rue St. Joseph, Ostend. 

Holland, In the principal towns, Van Gend and Loos. 

France. Paris, G. Pritchard, 4, Rue Rossini. To whose care also, parcels 
for conveyance to England can be despatched from towns beyond 
Paris, with advice by Post. Also at 23 Rue Dunkerque, opposite the 
Gard du Nord, P. Bigeault. 
Note. — No parcels or luggage sent from the Continent to England should be 

addressed Poste Restante, or to be left at any Hotel or Railway Station, as they 

are seldom takea in. They can be addressed Bureau Restant, Agence Continentale, 

Dover. 

OUTWARD.— To the Continent. 
In London. At Chief Office, 53, Gracechurch Street, City (D. N. Bridge, 

Manager, to whom all communications should be addressed), or at the 

Spread Eagle Universal Office, 34, Regent Circus. 
In Country Towns. At the Agency in Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Hull, 

Leeds, Glasgow, Dublin, Bradford, Nottingham, Southampton, Dover, 

•and Folkestone. 

In other Towns, where no Agent may be appointed, parcels should 
be sent under cover by Railway, to D. N. Bridge, at above address, 
with advice of contents and value by Post. 
N.B. — Persons wishing to send or to obtain goods of any kind from Belguim, 
uan do so through this Express, " Contre Remboursement," i.e., Payment of the 
Amount of Invoice on delivery of the Parcel. Insurance rates moderate. 
London: Chief Office, 53, Gracechurch Street. 
May, 1873. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



51 



LON DON- 



APPEAL. 
rpHE COMMITTEE of the CHURCH of ENGLAND 

EDUCATION SOCIETY earnestly appeal for increased funds to enable them 
to continue the Society's operations. 

Many of our Schools for the Poor are either absolutely dependent upon the 
Society's grants, or would be crippled in their work without such aid. The Society 
also assists Pupil Teachers who would otherwise be unable to complete their 
course of training. The Society also supplies Subscribers and Schools with all 
kinds of Books and Stationery at wholesale prices. 

The Society's means are far from adequate to the exigencies of the present crisis, 
which urgently demand every possible effort to secure for an increasing population 
a sound Protestant Education, and to counteract the pernicious influence of 
Secular School Boards. 

F. MAUDE, R.N., Chairman. 
REGINALD GUNNERY, Hon. Cler. Sec. 

11, Adam Street, AdelpM, London, W.C. 



" A most delicious and valuable article."— Standard. 

CDV'Q CARACAS COCOA 

g ! H ! Prepared with Caracas and other choice growths of Cocoa 

" It is the very finest Cocoa ever offered to the public."— court Circular 



FRY'S 



Extract of Cocoa 

The Pure Cocoa Nib deprived of the superfluous oil. 

Of great value to invalids and others obliged to avoid rich 
articles of diet. 



FRY'S 



Cocoa Paste and Milk 

Prepared with Pure Condensed Milk, 

Only requires to be mixed with boiling water to produce 
a delicious cup of Cocoa. 



Travellers will find any of these articles of great value. 



J. S. FRY & SONS, BRISTOL & LONDON. 

D 2 



52 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May, 



LONDON. 

A VOICE FROM HAMPSHIRE. 



14, North Cross-street, Gosport, October 16th, 1872. 

Dear Sirs,— About five or six years ago I was very ill, suffering from boils, of the painful 
and dangerous kind called carbuncular boils, and no medicine which I took gave me relief, 
till a friend of mine advised me to try Parr's Life Pills ; but I would not do so for some 
time, as I had no faith that they could do me good, but my friend becoming more urgent, I, 
to satisfy bim, tried these Pills, and soon found so much benefit that I determined to per- 
severe, and thankful I am that I did so, for the result is a perfect cure. I have never been 
troubled since, and an occasional dose keeps me in capital good health.— I am, Gentlemen, 
vours respectfully and gratefully, J. Carswell. 

Messrs. T. Roberts and Co., 8, Crane-court, Fleet-street, E.C. 

Parr's Life Pills may be had of all the principal druggists and medicine vendors throughout 
the world. In Boxes, Is. l*d., 2s. 9ci., and in Family Packets, lis. each. 



By Royal 




Command. 



JOSEPH GILLOTT'S 

CELEBRATED 

STEEL PENS. 



SOLD BY ALL DEALERS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. 



Every Packet bears the facsimile 
of his Signature, 




TOUKISTS! TOURISTS! TOURISTS! 



The Miniature Photographic Apparatus. 

NO KNOWLEDGE OF PHOTOGBAPET BEQUISITE. 
Sole Manufacturers: 
MURRAY & HEATH, Opticians, &c, to Her Majesty, 

69, JERMYN STREET, LONDON, S.W. 
Description and Prices forwarded on receipt of stamped envelope. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



53 



LON DON. 

GARY'S IMPROVED POCKET TOURIST'S TELESCOPE. 

(See 'Murray's Handbook') 
Manufactures of all descriptions of Mathematical, Surveying, and Optical Instruments, for 
the use of Naval and Military Officers, &c. Also the new Binocular Reconnoitring Field 
Glass, in Aluminium of exceeding lightness and durability, so highly spoken of by officers 
and other gentlemen : from 5l. 5s. ; ordinary metal from li. 10s. Carys improved Achro- 
matic Microscope, with two sets of choice lenses, capable of defining the severe test 
objects; from 21. 15s. Travelling Spectacles of all kinds. 

Mathematical and Optical Instrument Maker by special appointment to the War Office, 
Admiralty, Trinity House, Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Royal Geographical Society, 
Christ's Hospital, Trinity House, King's College, &c. ; and Optician to the Royal London 
Ophthalmic Hospital. 

GOULD & PORTER, Successors to CARY, 131, STRAND, LONDON. 
Established upwards of a Century. 



PURE AERATED WATERS. 

ELLIS'S 

RUTHIN WATERS, 

Soda, Potass, Seltzer, Lemonade, 
Lithia, and for GOUT, Lithia 
and Potass. 

CORKS BRANDED " R- ELLIS & SON", RUTHIN," and every label bears their trade 
mark. Sold everywhere, and Wholesale by R. Ellis & Son, Ruthin, North Wales, 
London. Agents: W. Best & Sons, Henrietta St., Cavendish Square. 

MR. TENNANT, GEOLOGIST, 149, STRAND, LONDON, 
W.C., gives practical Instruction in Mineralogy and Geology. He can also supply 
Elementary Collections of Minerals, Rocks, and Fossils, on the following terms : — 

100 Small Specimens, in cabinet, with three trays £2 2 

*200 Specimens, larger, in cabinet, with five trays 5 5 

300 Specimens, larger, in cabinet, with nine drawers . . - . 10 10 
400 Specimens, larger, in cabinet, with thirteen drawers .... 21 
More extensive collections, to illustrate Geology, at 50 to 100 Guineas each, with every 
requisite to assist those commencing the study of this interesting science, a knowledge of 
which affords so much pleasure to the traveller in all parts of the world. 

* A collection for Five Guineas which will illustrate the recent works on Geology by 
Ansted, Buckland, Jukes, Lyell, Murchison, Page, Phillips, and contains 200 Specimens, in 
a cabinet, with 5 trays, comprising the following, viz. :— 

Minerals which are either the components of Rocks, or occasionally imbedded in them :— 
Quartz, Agate, Chalcedony, Jasper, Garnet, Zeolite, Hornblende, Augite, Asbestus, Felspar, 
Mica, Talc, Tourmaline, Zircon, Topaz, Spinel, Calcareous Spar, Fluor, Selenite, Baryta, 
Strontia, Salt, Cryolite, Sulphur, Plumbago, Bitumen, Jet, &c. 

Native Metals or Metalliferous Minerals: these are found in masses, in beds, or in 
veins, and occasionally in the beds of rivers. Specimens of the following are contained in 
the Cabinet : — Iron, Manganese, Lead, Tin, Zinc, Copper, Antimony, Silver, Gold, Platina, &c. 
Rocks: — Granite,Gneiss,Mica-slate,Porphyry,Serpentine,Sandstones,Limestones,Lavas, &c. 
Paleozoic Fossils, from the Llandeilo, Wenlock, Ludlow, Devonian, and CarboniferousRocks, 
Secondary Fossils, from the Trias, Lias, Oolite, Wealden, and Cretaceous Groups. 
Tertiary Fossils, from the Woolwich, Barton, and Bracklesham Beds, London Clay.Crag, &c. 
In the more expensive Collections some of the Specimens are rare, and all more select. 
ELEMENTARY LECTURES ON MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY, 
adapted to young persons, are given by J. TENNANT, F.R.G.S., at his residence, 149, 
STRAND,W.C.,and Private Instruction to Travellers, Engineers, Emigrants, Landed Pro- 
prietors, and others, illustrated by an extensive collection of Specimens, Diagrams, Models, &c. 

All the recent works relating to Mineralogy, Geology, Conchology, and Chemistry ; also 
Geological Maps, Models, Diagrams, Hammers, Blowpipes, Magnifying Glasses, Platina Spoons, 
Electrometer and Magnetic Needle, Glass-top Boxes, Microscopic Objects, Acid Bottles, &c, 
can be supplied to the Student in these interesting and important branches of Science. 




54 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May, 



LONDON. 



THE FURNISHING OF BED-ROOMS. 



HEAL & SON have 16 separate Rooms, each completely furnished with 
a different Suite of Furniture, irrespective of their general Stock displayed 
in Six Galleries and Two Large Ground-floor Wareroonis, the whole 
forming the most complete stock of Bed-room Furniture in the Kingdom. 

Japanned Deal Goods may be seen in complete suites of five or six 
different colours, some of them light and ornamental, and others of a 
plainer description. Suites of Stained Deal Gothic Furniture, Polished 
Deal, Oak, and Walnut, are set apart in separate rooms, so that customers 
are able to see the effect as it would appear in their own rooms. A 
Suite of very superior Gothic Oak Furniture is generally kept in stock, 
and from time to time new and select Furniture in various woods is 
added. 

Bed Furnitures are fitted to the Bedsteads in large numbers, so that a 
complete assortment can be seen, and the effect of any particular pattern 
ascertained as it would appear on the Bedstead. 

A very large stock of Bedding (HEAL & SON'S original trade) is 
placed on the BEDSTEADS. 

The Stock of Mahogany Goods for the better Bed-rooms, and Japanned 
Goods for plain and Servants' use, is very greatly increased. The entire 
Stock is arranged in sixteen rooms, six galleries, each 120 feet long, and 
large ground-floors, the whole forming as complete an assortment of Bed- 
room Furniture as they think can be desired. 

Every attention is paid to the manufacture of the Cabinet work, and 
they have large "Workshops on the premises for this purpose, that the 
manufacture may be under their own immediate care. 

Their Bedding trade receives their constant and personal attention, 
every article being made on the premises. 

They particularly call attention to their Patent Spring Mattrass, the 
Sommier Elastique Portatif. It is portable, durable, and elastic, and lower 
in price than the old Spring Mattrass. 



HEAL AND SON'S 

ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE OF 

BEDSTEADS, BEDDING, & BED-ROOM FURNITURE, 

SENT FREE BY POST. 

198, 197, 198, TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



55 



. LUCERNE. 

SCHWEIZERHOF. LDZERNERHOF. 

First-class Hotels. 



HAUSER BROTHERS, Propkietors. 



BEST SITUATION ON THE QUAY. 

With splendid View of the Celebrated Panorama of the 
LAKE AND MOUNTAINS. 



LUCERNE. 

GRAND HOTEL NATIONAL. 



SEGrESSER BROTHERS & CO., Proprietors. 



rpHIS most elegant and comfortable Establishment is one 
* of the largest in Europe. It is beautifully situated on 
the border of the Lake, with a splendid view of the Alps. 
Visitors are certain of meeting with every possible comfort. 

Drawing-Room, Reading-Room, Billiard, Music 
Saloon, and Pianos. Bath, Sec. 

LIFT AT THE CONTINUAL DISPOSITION OF VISITORS. 



MODERATE PRICES. 



56 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May, 



LUCERNE. 

Englischer Hof— Hotel d'Angleterre. 



Proprietor — JEAN EEBEE. 




THIS First-rate Establishment, very well recommended by 

A the best class of Travellers, is situated close to the Steamers' Landing-place, 
and vis-a-vis the Railway Stations, on the loveliest position of the Lake, with 
superb views of the Rigi, Pilatus, Alps, and Glaciers ; contains several Saloons, 
62 comfortable Rooms, Smoking and Reading Rooms, where are French and 
English newspapers. 



LUCERNE. 

HOTEL BEAU EIVAGE. 

Proprietor— Mr. ED. STRUB. 



"PIEST-CLASS HOTEL. Magnificent and unique position 

on the borders of the Lake. Beautiful ornamental grounds. Boats for ex- 
cursions on the Lake. Public Drawing-room. Smoking-room. Apartments for 
Families. Warm Baths, and bathing in the Lake. Newspapers of different countries. 
Cuisine excellent. Good attendance. Moderate prices. Arrangements made for 
a long stay. In Spring and Autumn price of board and lodging 7 francs per day. 



LUCERNE. 

SWAN HOTEL. 

THIS Hotel, in the very best situation, enjoys a high 
character. "Mr. ILEFELI, the Proprietor, has made in the later years a great many 
improvements, and does his utmost to offer to his Visitors a comfortable home. An 
elegant new Ladies' Drawing-room, besides- a Reading-room and Smoking-room. Cold, 
Warm, and Shower Baths. 



LUCHON (BAGNERES DE), PYRENEES. 

Grand Hotel Bonne-Maison et de Londres, 

Mr. YIDAL, Jun., Proprietor. 

SITUATED opposite the Thermal Establishment or Bath-rooms. This favourite 
and first-rate Hotel affords extensive accommodation of the best description 
for a large number of visitors. It is delightfully situated, and will be found 
most comfortable for Families or Gentlemen. The house has been entirely 
re-decorated throughout 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



57 



LUXEMBOURG. 

HOTEL DE LUXEMBOURG. — Proprietor, J. P. Hastert. 
This First-class Hotel recommends itself to Families and Single Gentlemen by the 
cleanliness of its well-furnished airy apartments, all of them commanding a very beautiful 
view. Excellent Table d'Hote. Moderate Prices. Omnibus to and from every Train. 
Travellers are recommended not to permit themselves to be misled by porters at the Station. 



LUXEMBOURG. 

HOTEL DE COLOGNE. 

Proprietor, Mr. WUETH FENDIUS. 

THIS Hotel is of the first class, and is situated in the 
centre of the town. The ACCOMMODATION is both COMMODIOUS and com- 
fortable, and the prices on the most moderate scale. 

Excellent Cuisine and fine Wines. Private Carriages belonging to the Hotel. 
An Omnibus of the Hotel at the Station for the arrival of all Trains. 

English spoken. A beautiful large Garden belonging to the Hotel. 



MACON. 

Stopping Place between Switzerland and Italy. 

HOTEL DES CHAMPS ELYSEES. — Btjchalet, Proprietor. 
— Close to the Railway Station. Omnibus to all the Trains. Fikst-rate House. 
Apartments for Families, Salons, Smoking Eoom. Table d'Hote and Service a la Carte. 

This Hotel is recommended for its comfort and cleanliness. Wines and Cuisine 
renowned. 



MARIENBAD. 

HOTEL KLINGER. 

Proprietor, J. D. HALBMAYE. 

FIRST and LARGEST HOTEL in this Watering Place. 
Preferred on account of its charming situation at the corner of the Pro- 
menade and Park, and has a beautiful view. Newly and elegantly furnished with 
every comfort and in noble style, containing, with the dependance, 230 Kooms, 
Saloons, &c. 

Carriages in the Hotel. Omnibus to the Hallway Station. 

MOAB. 

With Map and 40 Illustrations, Crown 8vo., 15s. 

THE LAND OF MOAB. Travels and Discoveries on 

the East Side of the Dead Sea and the Jordan. By H. B. Tristram, 
F.R.S., Honorary Canon of Durham. 



JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 

D 3 



58 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May, 



MARSEILLES. 

€^ jl. i> hotei:^, 

NOAILLES, 

24, BTJE NOAILLES (Cannebiere prolongee). 
First-class House, built in imitation of the Grand Hotel, Paris. 

THIS splendid Establishment, the LAEGEST, MOST 
IMPORTANT, AND MOST EECENT OP THE HOTELS OP 
MARSEILLES, is the only one in the Rue Noailles which possesses a 
large Garden in its centre surrounded by twelve Dining-rooms of the 
Restaurant. Table-d'Hote all the Year with very excellent Wine. 
Reading Room, Conversation Room, Piano. Smoking Room, and 15 
Bath Rooms always ready. French and Foreign Political and Illustrated 
Papers. The splendour and comfort of this Establishment, combined with 
the attentive care of the employees, make this magnificent Hotel one of 
the most important and celebrated in Europe. 

MODERATE PRICES. 
STAFF AND INTERPRETERS SPEAKING ALL LANGUAGES. 

Omnibuses of the Hotel to meet every Train. Private Carriages. Omnibuses 
and Carriages enter the Hotel. 

MAYSNCE. 
"H o t e L J%*$!$ E TE BJRE . 

HEHEY SPECHT, Wine Merchant and Grower. 

THIS first-rate and excellent Hotel (combining every English comfort), situated 
- in trout of the Bridge, is the nearest Hotel to the Steamboats and close to the 
Xiaiiway Stations. From its Balconies and Rooms are Picturesque Views of the 
lihiue and Mountains. Galignani, Times, and Illustrated News taken in. The 
Table-d'Hote is renowned for its excellence, and for its Genuine Rhenish Wines 
and Sparkling Hock, which Mr. Specht exports to Kneland at Wholesale Prices, 

MAYENCE. 

HOTEL DE HOLLANDE. 

FEED. BUDINGEN, Proprietor. 

THIS first-class well-known Hotel, much frequented by English Families and 
Tourists, has been greatly enlarged and improved, and contains now 140 
Rooms and Saloons. Cold, Warm, and Shower Baths. English comfort. This 
Hotel is situated on the River, opposite to the Landing-place of the Rhine 
Steamers, and near the Railway Station, and affords from its Balconies and Windows 
splendid views of the Rhine and Taunus Mountains. This Hotel is reputed for its 
excellent cooking, exquisite Wines, cleanliness and good attendance. English 
Newspapers. 

Choice Rhine and Moselle Wines, wholesale and for exportation, 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



59 



MENTONE. 

HOTEL WESTMINSTER. 

THIRST-CLASS ESTABLISHMENT, newly built and fur- 
nished with taste and according to all the latest improve- 
ments. In a Southern aspect overlooking the sea and a beautiful 
Garden giving access to the public. "Promenade du Midi." 
Large Public Saloon. Billiard and Smoking Rooms. English 
and several Foreign languages spoken. English and American 
Luncheon Saloon. Omnibus at all Trains. 

METZ. 

ME. H. B. HAMILTON, 

GUIDE TO GRAVELOTTE AND OTHER 
BATTLE FIELDS AROUND METZ. 

ADDEESS : 

Grand Hotel de l'Europe, Metz. 
METZ. 

GRAND HOTEL DE L'EUROPE. 

ME. MONIES, PROPRIETOR. 

THIS first-rate Hotel, much frequented by Families and Gentlemen, situated in the finest 
part of the town, near the Railway Station and Promenade, is replete with every comfort ; 
the apartments are tastefully and elegantly furnished. It is celebrated for its cleanliness, 
good attendance, and reasonable prices. Saloons, "Reading, and Refreshment Rooms ; Table 
d'HSte at 1 and 5 o'clock ; Breakfasts and Dinners at all hours. Advantageous arrange- 
ments made with Families during the Winter Season. In front of the Hotel there is a fine 
extensive garden and large court-yard. Baths and carriages in the Hotel. Omnibuses and 
carriages belonging to the Hotel convey passengers to and trom the Railway Station. 
English, French, Italian, and German spoken. Moderate prices. 

The Bead Waiter, the First Housemaid, and the Page, are English Servants. Guide to 
Gravelotte, Mr. Hamilton. 

IV! i LAN. 

Hotel Cavour, Place Cavour, 

Just opposite the Public Gardens. 

KEPT BY J. SUARDI AND CO. 

THIS first-rate Hotel is fitted up with every modern appliance, and situated in the finest, 
part of Milan. It commands a fine view of the Promenade near to the Station, the Grand 
Theatre, the National Museum, and the Protestant Church. Excellent Table-d'hote. Charges 
very moderate. Baths on each floor. A Smoking and a Reading Room supplied with foreign 
aewepapers. 

Omnibus of the Hotel at the arrival of all trains. 



60 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



MILAN. 

HOTEL M LA fiMNDE BRETAGM. 

HTO this Hotel has been added new Dining, Reading, Drawing, and Smoking room: 
and the whole house entirely refurnished by the new proprietor, J. LYNAM 
Large and small Apartments for Families or Single Gentlemen. Hot and cold Bath; 
The house is situated in the centre of the town, near the Cathedral, Theatres, and a] 
other places of interest. Good Table d'Hote. English Times taken in. Severs 
languages spoken. The house is only two stories high. Five minutes' walk fror. 
the English Church. Brougham and Omnibus of the Hotel at the Station to meet al 
trains. 



MONTREUX. 

LANGBEIFS HOTEL AID PENSION. 

BEAU SEGOUR AU LAC. 

First-Class Family Hotel, with all English comforts. 
Restaurant. Table d'Hote. Baths. 

Good Fishing. 



MONTREUX. 

HOTEL DES ALPES. 

( Within ten minutes of Chillon.} 

A. CHESSEX, Proprietor. 

Tj^IBST- CLASS Establishment, surrounded with immense 
Gardens. Pension Charges for a long stay. Goats' -milk 
cures in the Spring. Telegraph Office. Steamboat Pier in 
front of the Hotel. Three pretty Chalets for large Families 
have lately been added to the Establishment. 



MONUMENTS WITHOUT MEMORIALS. 

With 230 Illustrations, Medium 8vo. 3 24s. 

RUDE STONE MONUMENTS in all COUNTKIES ; 
their Age and Uses. By James Fekgusson, F.R.S,, Author of the 
" History of Architecture," &c. &c. 

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STKEET. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



61 



MOSCOW. 



HOTEL BILL 0. 

GREAT LUBIANKA STREET. 



Peopeietoe, Me. EDWAED BILLO. 



ALEEADY advantageously known for these past 20 Years, 
and of late considerably Enlarged, and newly Furnished with all the 
requirements of modern times, this FIRST-CLASS FAMILY HOTEL, 
entirely Private, has merited, under the careful attention of the Proprietor, 
for its comfort, cleanliness, and order, the unquestionable patronage of the 
most distinguished Travellers. 

This Hotel is situated in the highest and healthiest part, the very centre 
of Moscow, with the front to the sunside, and most convenient for visitors 
on pleasure or business, being near the Imperial Theatre and Opera House, 
the Kreml, and the Boulevards, and also close to the City, the Exchange, 
the Post and Telegraph Offices, and the business places in general. 

Single Rooms and Apartments, excellent Table d'Hote Dinner at 5| p.m., 
separate dinners, choice wines. Prices moderate. 

Ladies' Room, Reading and Smoking Room. English Newspapers, viz. : 
' The Times,' • The Graphic,' and ' Punch ;' French and German News- 
papers. Every sort of information about the town, its environs, trade, and 
the inland communications. 

Own Letter-box. Interpreters and Guides. Bank Notes and Bills of 
Circular Letters changed. 

Cold, Warm, Shower Baths, Sponge Tubs. Equipages and Droshkies 
at the door. 

No personal trouble whatever with the Passports, which are strictly 
required by the police office. Own Carriage and attendance at the Peters- 
burg Railway Station to receive the Travellers and their Luggage. It is 
advisable to secure Rooms beforehand, especially during the time of the 
Nishny Fair (in August), and during the Carnival time (in January and 
February). 

CAUTION.— Travellers are cautioned not to confound the HOTEL 
BILLO with other establishments of nearly unisonous names, and 
to take care not to allow themselves to be led away by the Cabmen 
or Iswoschtschiks and other interested persons, especially at 
St. Petersburg, but to insist on being conducted to the HOTEL 
BILLO, Great Lubianka ; in Russian, Gostinnitza BiUo, Bolshaia 
Lubiarika. 



62 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



MUNICH, 



WIMMER & CO., 

GALLERY OF PINE ARTS. 

3, BRIENNER STREET, 

invite the Nobility and Gentry to visit their Gallery OF Fine Arts, containing 
an Extensive Collection of 

MODERN PAINTINGS 

by the best Munich Artists, 

PAINTINGS ON PORCELAIN AND ON GLASS. 

also a large Assortment of 

PHOTOGRAPHS, 

including the complete Collections of the various Public Galleries. 

Correspondents in England, Messrs. J. & R. M'Cracken, 38, Queen Street, 
Cannon Street, E.C., London. 

Correspondents in the United States, Messrs. Keller & LiNGG, 97, Reade 
Street, New York. 

MUNICH. 

HOTEL ENGLISCHER HOF. 

FIRST-RATE FAMILY HOTEL, 

Well situated and close to the Telegraph and Post-office, English 
Church, Palace, and Royal Theatres. 

New and elegantly Furnished with every modern Comfort. 

HOT AND COLD BATHS. 

Carriages and Omnibuses. 



Fixed Moderate Prices. 



Proprietor, F. E. SITZLER. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



63 



SVfUNiCH. 

HOTEL I) IT RUIN. 

l^ELL situated near the Kail way Station; entirely re-furnished by 
H the new Proprietor, Mr. C. HAYMANN ; with all the comfort 
and luxury of modern times. 100 Kooms and Saloons ; well-furnished 
Apartments for Families and Single Gentlemen. Beautiful Dining 
Koom, decorated in the Renaissance style. Large Refreshing Room. 
Billiard Room. Table d'Hote at 1 and 5 o'clock. " Dinners a la Carte " 
at any hour. English, French, and Foreign Newspapers. Carriages in 
the Hotel. Omnibus to meet every Train. 



NAPLES. 

BRITISH LIBRARY & READING ROOMS, 

{Established in 1837 by Mrs. Dorant), 
26 7, RIVIERA DI CHIAJA. 

MURRAY'S GUIDES FOR SALE AT THE LONDON PRICES. 
BAEDEKER'S AND OTHER GUIDES. 
TAUCHN1TZ EDITIONS. 

The READING ROOMS are supplied with the leading English, American, 
German, French, and Italian Journals. 

ANNEXED 

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN BANK, 

GEORGE CTVALLERI. 



BANK BILLS, CIRCULAR NOTES, AND LETTERS OF CREDIT 

cashed on London and Paris. 

WORKS OF ART AND LUGGAGE 

warehoused, and forwarded to all parts of the world. 



Correspondents ( Messrs. CH ARL ES CARR & Co., 14, Bishopsgate St. Within, 
in London \ Messrs. OLIVIER & CO., 37, Finsbury Square. 



NEUCHATEL. 

HOTEL DE BELLE VUE. 

ESTABLISHED and managed by the Proprietor, Mr. Albert 
Elskes — This very comfortable tirst-class Hotel, delightfully situated on the 
banks of the Lake, is the only one in the town commanding; an entire view of the 
Alps from Mont Blanc to the summit of the Appenzell. It is so constructed as to 
afford the greatest tranquillity, which, combined with careful attendance, renders 
the Hotel a most desirable residence for Families. 

Reduced Prices for Protracted Stay. 



Pension from the 15th of October till the 15th of May. 



64 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May, 



NICE. 

HOTEL DE LA GRANDE BRETAGNE. 

JAEDIN PUBLIC, 

(Limited Company.) 

FULL SOUTH. 

J. L AVI T, Manager. 
FIRST-CLASS and WELL-KNOWN HOTEL. 

Central Position, splendid View of the Sea, and Public 

Garden. 

Charges very moderate, and affixed in each Koorn. 
TABLE D'HOTE. (One of the Best at Nice.) 

Omnibus of the Hotel at the arrival of all Trains. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



65 



NICE. 

GRAND HOTEL PARADIS. 



(FULL SOUTH. Situated in the most healthy 
position.) 



Highly spoken of for its great Comfort and 
excellent Cooking. 

REGULAR FIXED CHARGES. 

VERY PUNCTUAL AND CIVIL ATTENDANCE. 

LARGE HANDSOME DINING HALL 



Ladies' Coffee Room. Reading Rooms. Smoking Room. 
Baths-Room on each floor. 

Private Dining-rooms attached to the Grand Apartments. 

Omnibus at the arrival of all Trains. 
OPEN ALL THE YEAR. 

*** This Hotel is frequented by the English Nobility and Gentry. 



For further particulars address the Manager, 

Mr. G. RIESTERER. 



66 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May, 



NORWAY. 



APKACTICAL OEAMMAE, with Exercises in the Lan 
guage, for TRAVELLERS AND SPORTSMEN in NORWAY. 
By JOHN Y. SARGENT, M.A., Magdalen College, Oxford. 

RlVINGTONS. 



NUREMBERG. 

RED HORSE HOTEL 

(Rothes Ross), 

Proprietor : M. P. GALIMBERTI. Manager: M. BAUER. 

THIS excellent old-established Hotel, situated in one of the best quarters of the 
town, is well adapted for Tourists and Families making a visit to Nuremberg of 
some duration, and who will find every conceivable comfort and convenience. 
Table-d'Hote at 1 p.m., and Private Dinners at all hours. The Establishment 
will be found well worthy of the renown and patronage it has enjoyed from English 
travellers of the highest rank during many years. 

NUREMBERG. 

HOTE L I)E B A VIE RE 

(BAYERISCHEK, HOP). 

THIS old-established, first-class, and best situated Hotel, in the 
centre of the town, close to the river, contains suites of apartments and 
single rooms, 100 Bed-rooms and Sitting-rooms, all elegantly furnished in the 
new style. It is patronised by the most distinguished families, and has all the 
accommodation of an Hotel of the first rank. English Divine Service during the 
season. Foreign newspapers. Carriages in the Hotel. Omnibus to and from each 
train. Moderate and fixed prices. 

PALERMO- 

HOTEL iCSTE'NTBAL, 

KEPT by L. GRANDI, Proprietor, Corse Vittorio Emanuele, No. 355, near 
the Post and Telegraph Offices, and the Principal Theatre. Beautiful situation over- 
looking the Sea. Large and small Apartments for Families and Single Travellers, all very clean 
and at moderate charges. Table d'H6te. " Restaurant." Boarders taken at 8 and 9 francs 
per day. English spoken. 

PALLANZA (Italy). 

GRAND HOTEL PALLANZA, 

( Opposite the Borromean Islands,) 
M. G-. SEYSCHAB, Proprietor. 

A First-class Hotel with every desirable comfort, a great choice of Bed and Sitting-rooms, 
all well iurnished; large Conversation-room, Reading and Music-room. English Church 
Service daily in the Hotel. Magnificent position with view upon the three branches of the 
Lake Maggiore and the Chain of Mountains of the Simplon. Large beautiful Garden with 
Baths in the Lake. The Hotel has an exceptional situation for visitors for the two Seasons. 
Pension in Winter at very moderate prices. In Winter the Hotel is heated. The Central 
Office of the Swiss JJiligences is in the Hotel. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



67 



HOTEL DE La'gRANDE-BRETAGNE, 

14, Rue Caumartin — OLIVIER, Proprietor. 




VUE INTERIEURE. 



THIS FIRST-CLASS HOTEL, situated in the centre of the finest part of Paris, near the 
Boulevards and new Opera House. Conversation, Reading, and Smoking Booms. Two 
large Court-yards with Garden. Rooms on the ground, first and second floors, from 3 to 
5 frs. Apartments for Families. Celebrated Cuisine and Cellar. Dinners at 4 Irs. and 
a la carte. Advantageous arrangements for a protracted stay. 



ST. PETERSBURG. 

HOTEL D'ANGLETERRE, 

ST. ISAAC'S square; 

{Gostinitza Angleterre, Issakofski Sab or) 

H. SOHMITZ, Proprietor. 
THIS new and well-conducted Hotel, situated in the centre 

X of the City, facing the St. Isaac's Church, near the Post-office, the Royal 
Palaces and Public Buildings, affords large suites of well-furnished Apartments 
for Families, and comfortable and airy Bedrooms for Single Gentlemen. A large 
Dining-room where Dinners are served from Three till Seven o' Clock, from 
one rouble and above. A well-furnished Reading-room. The ' Times/ and 
other English, French, and German Newspapers. 

HOT AND COLD BATHS, TUBS, AND SITTING BATHS. 
Guides and Servants speaking English. 

Omnibuses at the Stations, and Steamboats near Landing-places from Stockholm 
and England. 

THE QUEEN'S MESSENGERS FREQUENT THIS HOTEL. 
N.B. — Misses Benson's Hotel no longer exists. 



68 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May 



PISA. 

GIUSEPPE ANDREONI, 
Sculptor in Alabaster and Marble and Objects 
of Fine Art, 

NO. 872, VIA SANTA MARIA, 

WHERE 

A GKEAT ASSORTMENT OF FINE ARTS, SCULPTURE, &c, 
CAN BE SEEN. 
Correspondents in England, Messrs. J. & R. M'Cracken, 38, Queen Street, 
Cannon Street, E.C., London. 



PRAGUE. 

GOLDEN ANGEL HOTEL, 

(ZUM GOLDENEN ENGEL,) 
ZELTNER STREET, OLD TOWN, 

Mr. F. STICKEL, Proprietor. 

This Hotel is situated at no great distance from the Terminus of the Railway to Dresden 
and Vienna, the Post and Telegraph Office, the Custom House, the Theatre, and other public 
buildings, and is in the centre of the Old Town. Warm and Cold Baths. English and 
French Newspapers taken in. 



PRAGUE. 

WILLIAM HOFMANN, 

BOHEMIAN GLASS MANUFACTURER 

TO HIS MAJESTY THE EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA, 

HOTEL BLUE STAR, 

Recommends his great assortment of Glass Ware, from his own Manufactories in 
Bohemia. The choicest Articles in every Colour, Shape, and Description, are sold, 
at the same moderate prices, at his Establishments. 

Correspondents in London, Messrs. J. and R. M'CRACKEN, 38, Queen Street 
Cannon Street, E.C. 

Goods forwarded direct to England, America, &c. 



With Portraits, Crown 8vo., 12s. 
MEMOIRS OF THE EARLY ITALIAN PAINTERS, and 

x " of the Progress of Painting in Italy, from Cirnabue to Bassano. By 
Mrs. Jameson. 



JOHN MURKAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



69 



ROME. 



J, P. SHEA, 

ENGLISH HOUSE-AGENT, 

FORWAKDING AGENT 
TO H.R.H. THE PEINOE OF WALES, 

11, PIAZZA DI SPAGNA. 

At this Office persons applying for 

Large or Small Furnished Apartments 

invariably obtain correct and unbiassed information on all matters connected with 

Lodging-Houses, Boarding-Houses, 

and 

Household Management, 

while 

Low and Fixed Charges 

for practical services offer safe and satisfactory assistance to Proprietor and Tenant, 
as testified by the increasing confidence of English and American Travellers 
since the opening of the establishment in 1852. 

Plans and Lists of Apartments sent by Post 

to persons who wish to secure accommodation, or avoid inconvenience at the 
approach of Carnival or the Holy Week. 

AS CUSTOM-HOUSE AGENT, 

Mr. Shea clears and warehouses 

Baggage and other effects 

for travellers who, to avoid the expense of quick transit, send their things by sea or 
luggage-train, directed to his care. 
He also superintends the 

Packing of Works of Art and other Property 

intrusted to his care, and the forwarding of the same to England, &c. ; and being 
Agent for Messrs. Burns and Mclvers' Italian line of steamers, can offer 
facilities on the freight of packages between Italy and England. 



CORRESPONDENTS- 
london Messrs. J. & R. M'CRACKEN, 38, Queen Street, Cannon Street, E.G. 

Messrs. CHAS. CARE & CO,, 14, Bishopsgate Street Within. 

BOULOGNE s. M Messrs. L. BRaNLY & CO. 

PARIS Mr. C. GUIS DON, 20, Rue Pierre-Levee. 

MARSEILLES Messrs. GIRAUD FRERES, 44, Rue Sainte. 

FLORENCE Messrs. HASKARD & SON. 

NEW YORK Messrs. AUSTIN, BALDWIN, & CO., 12, Broadway. 

BOSTON Messrs. WELLS, FARGO, & CO. 



70 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May, 



ROME. 

L. A. GALLANDT, 

7 and 8, PIAZZA DI SPAGNA, 

ROME, 

MANUFACTURER of MOSAICS. 

f nxbtwx to $L$L % $mg of fiate. 

ES TABLISH ED 1 8 50. 

Foreigners are respectfully solicited to visit this Establish- 
ment, where they will find a 

RICH and VAEIED ASSORTMENT of TABLES, PICTURES, 
ORNAMENTS SET IN GOLD, &c, &o. 

PBIZE MEDALS .-—London, 1862. Paris, 1855. 



RHEINFALL NEUHAUSEN, SCHAFFHAUSEN. 




HOTEL SCHWEIZEREOF. Proprietor, Mr. WEGENSTEIN. 
THE HOTEL SCHWEIZEKHOE, known to English visitors as 

-1 one of the best Hotels in Switzerland, has been greatly enlarged since last year, and is 
now a splendid first-rate establishment. 

The SCHWEIZEKHOF is situate opposite the celebrated Falls of the Rhine, and sur- 
rounded by a fine park and garden. The position is unsurpassed, the eye ranging a distance 
of above 180 miles— a panoramic view including the whole range of the Swiss Alps and the 
Mont Blanc. Healthy climate. Church Service. Preserved Trout Fishing. Prices moderate. 
Pension. Hotel Omnibuses at Neuhausen and Schaffhausen. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



71 



ROTTERDAM. 
HOTEL 33E L'EUROPE. 

THIS HOTEL has been newly established this .year, is situated in the 
centre of the town, just opposite the Exchange, Post-office, Telegraph-office, the- new 
Railway Station, and close to all the Landing-places of the different steamers. The rooms 
are well and comfortahly furnished, so that Travellers and Families will find every comiort, 
combined with the most civil attendance and moderate charges. Table d'Hote at half-past 4, 
and Dinners a la Carte at any time. English, French, and German Newspapers are kept, 
and all these languages are spoken in the Hotel. Carriages are on the premises, and attend all 
Trains and Boats. The Proprietor, Mr. C. BAKKEK, will spare no pains to merit the 
patronage he receives. 



ROTTERDAM. 
H. A. KRAMERS, importer ot FcmsiG-xr books. 

Mr. Murray's 1 Handbooks for Travellers,' Bradshaw's Monthly Railway Guides, Bae- 
deker's ' Reischandbiicher,' and Hendschel's' Telegraph,' always in Stock. English, French, 
and German Books imported Weekly, and a great variety of New Books kept in Store. 

47, GELDERSCHE KADE. 



SEVILLE (SPAIN). 

JJOTEL DE LONDKES.— This highly recommended Hotel 

is situated on the Plaza Nueva, the most central and beautiful part of this 
delightful city. Travellers will rind here every accommodation for Families and 
Single Gentlemen. Splendid Dining-room, fine Sitting-rooms, clean Bed-rooms, and 
excellent attendance. French and English Newspapers. Baths, Carriages, &c. 
English, French, and Italian spoken. 



SPA. 

HOTEL D' YORK.— This Hotel is one of the oldest in Spa, particularly frequented 
by English Travellers, and the best in the locality. It is exceedingly well situated in 
the healthiest and pleasantest part of the town, close to the Casino, the Promenades, and the 
Boulevard de3 Anglais. The apartments are comfortable, airy, and command the finest and 
most varied views of the mountains. The Omnibus of the Hotel runs regularly to and from 
the Railway Station, awaiting every Train. English, French, and American papers. Table 
d'H6te at 5 o'clock. — LARIMER, Proprietor. 



STOCKHOLM. 
C. E. FRITZE, Bookseller. 

GlIfAVE ADOLFS TOKG (Square), 

(NEXT HOUSE TO THE RYDBERG HOTEL). 

Scandinavian, English, French, and German Books. 
TRAVELLING MAPS AND HANDBOOKS. 
Views of Stockholm, and Swedish and Norwegian Peasant 
Costumes, in Photograph and Lithograph. 

" BRADSHAW'S RAILWAY GUIDE" and "HENDSCHEL'S TELEGRAPH." 

C. E. FRITZE, Bookseller, Gustaf, Adolfs Torg, Stockholm. 



72 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May, 



T H U N . 

JEAN KEHRLI- STERCHI, 

AND 

M AFCTP AC TUEEE OP SWISS MODELS AND OEUAMEMTS, 

Establishment vis-a-vis the Hotel Belle Vue and at the side of the New Grand 
Hotel de Thun, in the Bazar des Etrangers, 

For 26 years at the Woodwork Establishment at the Giessbach Falls, 
eldest son of the founder of said establishment, 

INVITES the attention of English tourists to his Establishment at the Bellevue 
Hotel, Thun, where a choice assortment of Swiss Wood Carvings may always 
be seen. 

Correspondents in England, Messrs. J. & R. M'Cracken, 38, Queen Street, 
Cannon Street, London. 

; — : — i ! i ■ ! j 

TREVES, ON THE MOSELLE. 

HOTEL DE TREVES. 

A FIEST- CLASS HOTEL for Families and Gentlemen: 

highly recommended. It is situated in the middle of the Town, and offers 
to large families and tourists every comfort and convenience. 

Omnibus and Carriages at the Railway Station and Steamer. 

Moselle Wine of the Best Quality. 
ENGLISH AND FRENCH PAPERS. 



TURIN. 

GRAND HOTEL DE TURIN. 

Opposite the Arrival Platform of the Porta Nuova Station. 
Branch Establishment of the Bebnerhof at Berne and Kraft's Hotel de Nice at Nice. 

THIS newly-erected first-class Hotel, in a central position, is entirely 
kept according to the Swiss principles, and combines the greatest comfort with moderate 
charges. Heated during the Winter season. Table d'H6te at half-past 5 and 8 o'clock. 

REDUCED PRICES FOR A PROTRACTED STAT. 



Kept by CONSTANT KEAFT. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



73 



TURIN. 



GRAND HOTEL DE I/EUROPE, 

PLACE CHATEAU, 

Opposite the Kings Palace. 



FIRST-CLASS FAMILY HOTEL. 



OLD REPUTATION. 



VENICE. 



CARLO PONT I, 

OPTICIAN AND PHOTOGRAPHER, 

Who gained the Prize Medal at the Interaational Exhibition of 1862, and whose 
House is acknowledged to be the first of the kind in the City, is the Inventor of 
the Optical Instrument known under the name 

MEGALETHOSCOPE, 

(first called Alethoscope), the most perfect instrument for magnifying photographs 
and showing them with the effects of night and day. His 

ISOPERISCOPIC SPECTACLES 

gained Medals at the Exhibitions of Paris and Padua, and were pronounced by the 
scientific bodies to be superior in principle to all others, as well as being more 
moderate in price. 

His Photographic Establishment is in the Piazza San Marco, No. 52, near the Cafe 
Florian; and his Optical Establishment at Riva dei Schiavoni, No. 4180, near the 
Albergo Reale. 

Correspondents in London, Messrs. J. and R. M'CltACKEN, 38, Queen Street, 
Cannon Street, E.C 



74 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May, 



VENICE. 



GRAND HOTEL VICTORIA. 

(Formerly REGINA D'INGHILTERRA.) 
ROBERT ETZENSBERGER, Manager. 

ipHE largest and finest Hotel in Venice, most conveniently 

situated near the Piazza S. Marco and the principal Theatres. 180 Bed- 
rooms, Private Sitting-rooms, Reading-room, with Piano, Billiard-room, and 
Smoking-room. Baths of every description, great comfort and cleanliness. Service 
on the Swiss system. Charges more moderate than in any other first-class Hotel. 

Arrangements for Pension. 



English spoken by all the Servants. 



VIENNA. 

Stock-Company for Hotels and Bathing Establishments 
at Vienna. 

THE HOTEL BKITANNIA, Vienna, Stadt, Schillerplatz 4, OPENED 
on May 1st, 1873. The Hotel Britannia (First-Class Hotel) is situate with the grand 
front towards the Schillerplatz, with the side fronts towards the Elisabeth and the Nibelun- 
genstrasse, next to the Opernring, in the centre and in the most fashionable part of Vienna. 
It contains 200 Rooms, furnished with every luxury and comfort; Dining, Music, and 
Reading Rooms ; Baths, Elevator, &c. 

CARL JUNG, Manager, 
Purveyor to the Court of Prussia, formerly Leaseholder of the Cursaal at Wiesbaden. 
N.B, — Rooms from four florins a day and upwards. 

VIENNA. 

Stock-Company for Hotels and Bathing Establishments 
at Vienna. 

THE HOTEL DONAU, II. Nordbahnstrasse No. 26, Vienna, OPENED 
on April 27th, 1873. The H6tel Donau (First-Class Hotel) is situate on the Praterstern, 
opposite the Nordbahn, and only a few steps from the Nordwestbahn Terminus, in the 
immediate vicinity of the Exposition Grounds, Telegraph and Tramway Station. 400 elegant 
Rooms, furnished with all comfort and modern improvements. 

CAKL TEAUT, Manager, 
Purveyor to the Court of Prussia, formerly Restaurant in the Cursaal at Wiesbaden. 
Remark. — All the rumours of exorbitant Prices at the Vienna Hotels are incorrect ; there 
are Rooms at the Hotel Donau from 2 florins 50 kr. a day and upwards, at the disposal of 
Guests. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



75 



V E V AY (Switzerland). 

HOTEL MOOSER, at Chemenin, near Yevey, kept by Mr. 
J. NUSSBAUMER. Newly-built First-class Hotel, only ten minutes' walk 
from Vevey. Beautifully situated in the middle of a large park. Comfortable 
Apartments for Families and Single Gentlemen. Baths. Billiard-room. 
Pension the whole year. Moderate Charges. 

VICHY. 

View of the Grand Hotel des Ambassadeurs at Vichy-les-Bains. 




pEAND HOTEL DES AMBASSADEUES, Situated on 

the Park. — This magnificent Hotel is now one of the first in the town. It is managed 
in the same style as the largest and best hotels on the Continent. By its exceptional situa- 
tion, the house presents three fronts, from which the most beautiful views are to be had ; and 
from its balconies is heard the excellent Band of the Casino. The Hotel contains 200 Rooms, 
20 Saloons, a Saloon for Banquets, capable of holding 500 persons, and a large and fine Dining- 
room, 200 covers, a Smoking-room, and 2 Billiard Tables. Large and small Apartments for 
Families. English and Spanish spoken. Interpreter. The Omnibus of the Hotel awaits 
all the Trains at the Station. 

VICHY. 

GRAND HOTEL DU PARC, 

Proprietor, Mr. GEEMOT, 
Opposite the Baths and the Park. 

A S in Paris and London, Vichy has its Grand Hotel. The 

Grand Hotel du Pare of Vichy, for comfort, elegance, and convenience, is 
equal to any of the large Hotels of Paris or London. 

SUITES OF APARTMENTS FOR FAMILIES. 

s 2 



76 



, MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



May, 



VIENNA. 



The most extensive Warehouse for Bohemian White and Coloured 
Crystal Glass. 

J. & L. LOBMEYR, 

GLASS MANUFACTURERS, 

No. 13, KARNTHNERSTRASSE. 

All kinds of Bohemian White and Coloured Crystal Glass ; Table, Dessert, and 
other Services ; Vases, Candelabras,Chandeliers, Looking-glasses; Articles of* Luxury, 
in Crystal Glass, mounted in Bronze, and in Carved Wood. They obtained the 
Prize Medal at the International Exhibitions of 1862 and 1867. 

The prices are fixed at very moderate and reasonable charges. — The English 
language is spoken. 

Their Correspondents in England, Messrs. J. and R. M'Cracken, No. 38, 
Queen Street, Cannon Street, E.C., London, will transmit all orders with the 
greatest care and attention. 



VIENNA. 



AUGUST KLEIN, 

By Appointment Purveyor to the Prince op Wales and to the Imperial 
Courts of Austria and France. 

THE LARGEST MANUFACTORY OF VIENNA 

LEATHER AND BRONZE GOODS. 

Mr. Klein wishes to call attention to his articles, which are not to be 
equalled in novelty and variety. 

MANUFACTORY. 

VIENNA. — Neubau, Andreasgasse, No. 6. 

DEPOTS. 
VIENNA.— Stadt Graben, 20. 
PARIS. — 6 & 8, Boulevard des Capucines. . 
LONDON. — 75, Wimpole Street, W. 
Wholesale. 

N.B. — Free admission is granted to all Persons wishing to visit the Manufactory. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



77 



VIENNA. 

Bohemian Grlass and Bronze Warehouse. 

HEINRICH ULLRICH, 

LATE WILLIAM HOFMANN, 
GLASS AND BRONZE MANUFACTURER, 

No. 3, LUGECK, 

Recommends his great assortment of Glass and Bronze Ware in the choicest articles, in 
every colour, shape, and description, specially adapted to the English and American taste, 
from his own manufactories in Bohemia and Vienna (for the Bronze). 
The prices are fixed at very moderate and reasonable charges. 

He received at the last Paris Exhibition the Silver Medal lor excellent execution and very 
cheap prices. 

HEINRICH ULLRICH has a branch Establishment during the Summer Season at 

BADEN-BADEN, 

No. 4, SOPHIEN STREET, near the ENGLISH HOTEL, 

where will always be found an extensive selection of the newest articles from his Vienna 
warehouse. 

The English language is spoken and every information given with pleasure to travellers. 
He sells only real Bohemian Glass, and not Hungarian Glass, which in many 
places Is sold in substitution. 

Agents in Paris and New York. 
Agents in London, Messrs. J. and R. M'CRACKEN, 38, Queen Street, Cannon Street, E.C. 



VIENNA. 

HOTEL 

" ARCHDUKE CHARLES.'' 

Kept by M. JOSEF ZIMMEKMAN.N, 
The new Proprietor. 



rjpHIS First-class Hotel, situated in the best part of Vienna, 
has been greatly improved in modern comfort, recherche 
cuisine and excellent service at moderate charges. The 
Landlord will spare no trouble to maintain its ancient repu- 
tation, and to give satisfaction to the travelling Gentry and 
Nobility. 



78 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



WIESBADEN. 

BLACK BEAR HOTEL AND BATHS. 

OTTO FKEYTAG, Proprietor. 
Scrupulous Cleanliness, Attentive Service, and Moderate Charges. 

Central situation — close to the Mineral Springs, the Theatre, the Conversation 
House and the Promenades. Contains 140 Rooms and Saloons, elegantly furnished, 
spacious Dining-rooms, Ladies' Parlour, Smoking-room, and 60 neatly fitted-up 
Bathing Cabinets. Table d'Hote at 1 and 5 o'clock. Exquisite Wines. English, 
French, and German Papers. 

VISITOBS BOARDED. 



WIESBADEN. 

FOUR SEASONS HOTEL & BATHS. 

PBOPBIETOB, DB. ZAIS. 



'THIS First-Class Establishment, equal to any on the 

Khine, is in the best and most delightful situation in the Great Square, 
opposite the Kursaal, the Theatre, the Promenades ; close to the Boiling 
Spring and the new English Chapel. 

This Hotel is the largest in the place, containing a great choice of 

SPLEKDK) AM) COMFORTABLE APARTMENTS 

for Families and Single Travellers ; exquisite Cuisine and first-class Wines, 
combined with attentive service and moderate charges. 

TABLE D'HOTE at 1 and 5 p.m., and PEIYATE DIOTEES. 



The Bathing Establishment is the best in the Place. 



WORKS ON ART. 

With Illustrations, 3 vols., Svo., 63s. 
A HXSTOKY OF PAINTING IN ITALY, from the 2nd to 
the 14th Century. By J. A. Crowe and G. B. Cavalcaselle. 
Also, by the same Authors, 
A HISTOEY OF PAINTING IN NORTH ITALY, 
Venice, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Ferrara, Milan, Friuli, Breschia, 
from the 14th to 16th Century. With Illustrations, 2 vols., 8vo., 42s. 

" Our authors give great attention to ancient processes of painting, and thus we get from 
this book many hints on the nature of examples, such as no other kind of information would 
afford. It would be difficult to overrate the importance of this branch of study; it enables 
a critic to speak in a far more conclusive manner as to the nature, and even the origin of a 
picture than it would be safe to do on the authority of records alone. This book is a welcome 
contribution to the library of art." — Athenceum. 



JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 



1873. 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. 



79 



WILDBAD. 

H6tel Klumpp, formerly Hotel de TOurs, 

Mr. W. KLUMPP, Proprietor. 

rIS First-class Hotel, containing 36 Salons and 170 Bed-rooms, a separate 
Breakfast, a very extensive and elegant Dining-room, new Reading and 
Conversation as well as Smoking Salons, with an artificial Garden over the river, 
is situated opposite the Bath and Conversation House, and in the immediate 
vicinity of the Promenade. 

It is celebrated for its elegant and comfortable apartments, good cuisine and 
cellar, and deserves its wide-spread reputation as an excellent hotel. Table-d'hote 
at One and Five o'clock. Breakfasts and Suppers a la carte. New Billiard Table. 

EXCHANGE OFFICE. 

Correspondent of the principal Banking-houses of London for the payment of 
Circular Notes and Letters of Credit. 

Omnibus of the Hotel to and from each Train. Elegant private carriages, 
when required. 



ZURICH. 

HOTEL DE L'EPEE AU LAC. 

Most beautifully situated in the midst of the town, with a magnificent view over the Alps, 
Liake, and Glaciers. Entirely new and completely restored. 

Proprietor: Ch. FLORAT. 

Principal Features. — Excellent beds, greatest cleanliness, best kitchen, attentive service, 
moderate prices. German, English, French, Italian and American newspapers. These 
languages are spoken in the Hotel. 

Dinner at every hour. Omnibus at the Station. 



ZURICH. 

HOTEL ET PENSION BELLEVUE 
AU LAC- 

Proprietors: EHMELL & POHL. 

'pHIS splendid and admirably conducted establishment, situ- 
ated on the shore of the Lake, commands, by its unsurpassed position, the best view of 
the Lake, Alps, and Glaciers, and offers, by its superior internal arrangements, the comforts 
of Private Apartments and Public Parlours, with careful, civil, and quiet attendants— all 
desirable attractions to travellers as a place of residence or of temporary sojourn. 

Pension at reduced prices, and arrangements made for Families from October to July. 

Notice.— 125 Apartments facing the Lake. 



80 



MURRAY'S HANDBOOK ADVERTISER. May, 1873. 



ESTABLISHED 188 



THE ORIGINAL GUIDE & TRAVELLERS' DEPOT 

AND 

LEE & CARTER, 

440, WEST STRAND, LOND01 

(Nearly opposite the Charing Cross Hotel). 




KNAPSACKS 

STIFF OR LIMP. 



PORTMANTEAUX 

OF ALL PATTERNS. 



BAGS 



OF ALL KINDS. 



Intending Tourists are respectfully invited to visit this Establishment 
before making purchases for their journey. 

AN EXTENSIVE STOCK OF TRAVELLERS' REQUISITES TO SELECT FROM; 



Guide Books (in pocket bindings). 
Maps and Plans of all Parts. 
Foreign Dictionaries. 
Dialogues and Grammars. 
Polyglott Washing Books. 
Journals and Diaries. 
Pocket Books and Note Cases. 
Purses, Sov. and Nap. Cases. 
Money Belts and Bags. 
Writing Cases and Blotters. 
Ink Stands and Light Boxes. 
Foreign Stationery. 
Travelling Chess Boards, &c. 
Knives, Scissors, & Corkscrews. 
Barometers & Thermometers. 
Field Glasses & Compasses. 
Eye Preservers and Spectacles. 
Railway Rugs and Straps. 



Hat Cases and Bonnet Boxes 
Luggage Straps and Labels. 
Travelling Lamps. 
Camp Candlesticks. 
Flasks and Drinking Cups. 
Sandwich Cases. 
Luncheon Baskets. 
Dressing Cases & Housewives 
Soap and Brush Boxes. 
Sponge and Sponge Bags. 
Baths and Air Cushions. 
Waterproofs & Foot Warme r 
Camp Stools and Leg Rests. 
Portable Closet Seats. 
Etnas for boiling water. 
Combs, Brushes, and Mirrors. 
Glycerine and Insect Powdejj 
Door Fasteners, &c, &c, &c. 



London : Printed by William Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street and Charing - oss 



